Things are going pretty well - the first couple of days were tougher, but I haven’t needed narcotics since Sunday. I have zero pain with weight bearing, which makes it hard to limit to the 30% weight bearing I’m supposed to be doing - I have to really concentrate to not put too much weight on that leg. Still have quite a bit of general “surgery” tenderness and it definitely hurts to engage those hip muscles as I move around, which I’d expect. Sleeping has been my biggest challenge - I have a 0 degree external rotation restriction for two weeks, so at night I have to be either in the CPM machine or in evil foam boots that velcro together so my leg can’t flop outwards. I suspect it will be a while before I get a full night’s sleep!
Ew those restrictions sound miserable, glad I didn’t have anything like that. I slept on my side with a pillow between my knees iirc. Today is the 5 year anniversary of my second labral repair. My surgeon insisted on crutches for a month which I never quite completed but lasted a couple of weeks anyway. Hope you continue to improve. I am 6 days out from major spine surgery and was feeling really good today so went a little crazy and walked for 2 hours. Am paying for that now!
@Risuena that sounds like no fun! My surgeon didn’t have me do the CPM machine or give me any external rotation restriction while sleeping, so I just slept with my left leg up on a pillow, or with a pillow between my legs laying on my non-operative side. How are you doing now? Almost done with that restriction!!
I had my 6 week post-op appointment last week, and my surgeon said my rehab was ahead of almost all of his labral reconstruction patients, and even ahead of a lot of his labral repair patients. I am still working on scar tissue and my psoas gets a little bit tight/sore on occasion, but I’m officially off crutches and overwhelmingly I’ve had no pain to speak of and feel fairly normal.
My surgeon said not to ride for 6 months because he’s concerned about the consequences if I fall off… so I got on a horse and walked around after 3 days of being on crutches and just figured I won’t fall off. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that even sitting on a pretty wide mare, I didn’t feel any pain and actually felt that the movement of the walk was helpful in loosening up the muscles around the hip. Trotting didn’t hurt, per se, but didn’t feel quite as effortless so I’m going to hold off on that for now. But just being on a horse’s back felt so great!
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@FEI_JR2004 it sounds like you’re doing amazing! Keeping my fingers crossed that I do as well as you!
I’m doing well, especially since I was able to ditch the foam boots from hell and am sleeping through the night again. I’ve never been a back sleeper and man it felt good to roll over and sleep on my side again! I’m at about 2 1/2 weeks now, stitches are out, and I got to do a little time on the stationary bike at PT. It was at zero resistance, and I expected to just get on and pedal away, but it was humbling. Even with minimal pain I was pedaling in slow motion, sigh! But overall I think I’m doing as well as I can expect, and every day is a little better. The near-constant ache pre-surgery is gone, and it’s already more comfortable to sit than before surgery, so I’m cautiously optimistic!
I hope you continue to do well - happy to hear that your ride went well though I’m hearing my Dr.'s voice telling me that I will feel good enough to do things ahead of schedule, but don’t! 
But I’m happy to hear that getting back on wasn’t painful!
If it makes you guys feel better, I could only put 10% weight on my leg. I wasn’t stuck in the machine overnight but I had to use it for so many hours a day. After two weeks I could put weight on it and ditch the crutches.
I found riding aggravated my hip unfortunately. I had to buy a saddle with a narrow twist and wait about 6 months to ride.
I was browsing through the forums and saw ‘hip pain’ and was curious. I have a full anterior labrum tear on my right hip and never actually connected it to 21 years of riding my horse that needed an extra-wide tree. I’m a long-distance runner and figured it was marathon training but twisting my legs in for years to look nice in a show ring is probably the more likely culprit!
For what it’s worth, with a full tear I run 40-50 miles a week and ride my old guy 2-3 times a week. Surgery isn’t inevitable in all cases, or at least it can be managed for a while. Good luck everyone, sorry to hear there are so many of us with this.
Wow, this thread has slipped off the first page?!
How’s everyone doing?
I have more PRP scheduled at the end of the week and am doing the right (non surgical) hip and the lumbar facets. My biologics guy is now using regenexx, so hopefully it won’t be TOO terrible? @tollertwins you had regenexx, right? How bad is the flare? :-/ This guy doesn’t just dump all the product in the joint capsule, he peppers the labrum itself. Great results, but holy hell that hurt last time.
I’ve heard that Boston Children’s has a team that’s using SHOCKWAVE for hip pain. I’m intrigued! They do records reviews weekly and I plan on sending my stuff up there to see what they say. (They see adults, not just kids.)
I also picked up a theragun at the black Friday sales and it’s pretty stellar. Highly recommend for those gawd awful muscle spasms and tight IT band issues
”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹
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I had a Theragun before surgery, and I have convinced at least 3-5 other people to buy them. I’m about 3.5 months post-op right now and it’s been all smooth sailing (and I really think that’s in large part due to the Theragun). My surgeon is happy with where my strength is at, and we’re building in more jumping and impact stuff. My surgeon did tell me not to ride until 6 months post-op, but I’m ignoring his advice and started riding again when I was cleared to run (because I don’t think the impact is any worse than running). I still haven’t done a very long ride, I don’t sit the trot more than what is needed to ride a good transition, and I try not to put myself in riskier situations (like riding when my horse is a fire breathing dragon), but I’m able to ride comfortably and still pretty effectively.
The only issue I’ve had is with tightness on the front of my hip due to the scar tissue around my incisions. I went to a chiro last week who does the Active Release Technique and the Graston Technique (but didn’t have her do any chiropractic adjustments), and literally walked out with a substantially better ROM for hip extension, and have kept that new ROM in the 5 days since my appointment. She thinks it’ll be fully resolved within 4 visits. @Simkie that might be something for you to look into if you’re having muscle spasms and tight IT band issues!
I had a sadist…er, I mean physical therapist :lol: :lol: do graston awhile ago. It was okay but I just don’t think I can sign up for that again. You’re a better person than I am to go back! My issues relate to instability in the reconstructed hip, so it’s unlikely it’ll ever be “better”…just maintenance.
Very glad to hear you’re doing so well!
Regenexx today. Hip was fine, ho hum, just another hip injection, but holy hell the back stuff hurt. Thankfully this doctor is doing injections in a surgery center now, so they were able to push a little more pain med. So far the flare is achy but not terrible.
Whoa, this is interesting!
A lot of my chronic pain is sort of tucked behind the iliac crest–@x-halt-salute didn’t you say you’ve got kinda the same thing? (Or am I thinking of someone else…?) I wonder if this nerve entrapment might be in play!
I’ve read through several pages but not the entire thread and am interested if anyone thinks my hip issues are anything like yours.
My left hip hurts when I mount and it feel like there is less and less strength to push up and swing my leg over. While l am mounted it feels great. Its ideal if my right leg hits the ground first when I dismount. It hurts a bit when i walk and I do have a bit of a limp. It hurts to lie on it and to sleep with my legs bent but lying on my stomach and having them straight feels pretty good. My husband had hip surgery years ago and I know about the pillow between the legs trick and that does nothing for it. Running is a no go. Not riding does nothing for it.
I figured it was from years and years of mounting and torquing my hip. Does this sound familiar to anyone. Do you think it is a muscle or joint issue? Would a cortico-steroid injection help? May be just mounting from the right for the rest of my life.
Thanks in advance.
@dbtoo that doesn’t really sound like my experience. Get yourself to an orthopedist for some imaging–they’ll be able to tell you what’s up :yes: 
Hm. That doesn’t sound like my experience either. But what I’ve learned from this thread is that there are tons of different things that can cause hip pain, and even those with the same ultimate source of pain (e.g. labrum tear) do not present with exactly the same pain/symptoms.
It sounds like you’re in enough pain that it’s worth getting an orthopedist to move forward with imaging, as Simkie suggested. I’d add that they can probably tell you what’s up with imaging (but surprises on the scope are not unheard of). They should be able to at least narrow down the possible sources of your pain a bit and help you figure out if options like steroid injections or PT are worth pursuing.
@dbtoo - definitely worth talking to someone and getting imaging and keep asking questions! You sound a bit like me with regards to sleeping with the leg straight being better compared to bent legs and the limp while walking. Anything that put too much of an angle on the hip (ie squats, sitting too long, driving in city traffic where I needed to brake a lot) always caused pain for me.
I presented with symptoms of a labral tear ~2 years ago to my sports med doc. Over the course of these 2 years I had 2 MRA’s and 1 MRI done that showed no tear, but several stress fractures (ultra runner)… Even after the stress fractures would resolve, I would still exhibit symptoms of a tear. Sports Med got fed up with me and punted me to their ortho who does only hips last August. I was told that ~10% of the patients she scopes have negative imaging but end up having something (tear, etc) when she’s in there.
When she scoped me, she found that I what I actually had was delamination of the acetabulum (cartilage was pulling off the hip socket creating a blister between the socket and ball of the hip) which is easier to see with the joint dislocated. At post op, she told me that this injury presents similarly as a labral tear will. I’m 16.5 weeks post op and my hip pain was gone almost immediately a day later…(the usual post surgical pain was there, but the constant dull ache was gone).
my hip pain started a few years ago mostly when I was mounting a horse. I adopted a very weird way of mounting by having my body parallel to the horse’s Topline if that makes sense . I had my right leg straight and my upper body was on the horse’s neck. I was okay when I was riding.
fast forward to the last year and I still had the mounting problem but I also had discomfort when I first sat in the saddle in terms of tight hips. I’ve had lower back pain forever and that coupled with my right hip just really limited my ability to do my normal tasks around my farm. I mostly had a burning from my groin down to my knee on my right leg. If I did a lot of squatting down and standing up , I’ve been trying to get some painting done, sometimes I was unable to put weight on my right leg the next day.
the MRI I had about a year ago showed two labral tears. I also found out that I’m bone on bone with my hip. I had a cortisone shot last June which was fantastic. It lasted for about 3 months. I just had the second shot a couple of weeks ago and it also has helped a lot. I’m praying that it lasts as long as the other one did.
my ortho surgeon said that’s the last shot I’ll be able to get so I went ahead and scheduled surgery for this June. I’ve been doing physical therapy to try to strengthen everything around my hip since last summer. Now, of course, I’m wondering whether my elective hip surgery in June will get canceled.
Wow! Thanks for sharing this. I bet it will be helpful to @dbtoo.
I’m impressed you had such good results form cortisone. For me (labral damage and advanced arthritis) it didn’t last very long at all.
And man, I hear you on the squatting. Last spring’s gardening pretty much destroyed me for weeks after the first big weeding and planting day.
I would guess that with no cartilage left you’ll be going straight to THR? Fingers crossed that the surgery goes forward as planned!
Yes, THR . You have to wait a minimum of three months after a cortisone shot for the hip surgery. So we scheduled June to allow for that time frame. Everyone has told me that after the first shot, each successive shot usually lasts a shorter of time. Still hoping for the best.
Even with the help of a cortisone shot, I have to say that my life has totally changed in the last couple of years. As an upper-level dressage Rider, my riding now is nowhere near the level of proficiency that it used to be. My body just seems off… My whole life I have been pretty much fearless As a rider, but that’s totally changed now. it seems I’m always riding in a defensive mode which certainly is not desirable. if I ride more than two days in a row now, I’m totally exhausted. Right now though I’ll take it.
Thanks for all of the answers. I’m so glad I’m not the only that has had this mounting issue.
Magnesium oil temporarily helps with the pain (more like a dull ache) so it seems to be muscular, I can’t imagine that would help with joint or bone damage. From looking at anatomy charts I’m guessing its the tensor fascea latae. Squatting doesn’t bother it but it does get tight while sitting and it takes a couple of strides before I can walk without a serious limp when I get up.I’d flunk my PPE for sure.
I wouldn’t rule out the labral tear though. Whadda I know? I will get it checked out before too long.
Thanks again for the help. I hope everyone on this thread is pain free soon!
I’d wonder about bursitis. The hip pain I had before it was replaced was not as you describe, but each person is different. However, in the other hip, I have diagnosed bursitis --orthopedic surgeon diagnosed after extensive exam and x-rays. He also said that it really wasn’t treatable --but was willing to try a bursectomy (remove the lining) but said his success rate was only about 40%. However, on a whim, last November, I started riding my husband’s spin bike that he keeps in the basement. I put on a YouTube class (beginning spinning), about died, then the next day, did it again. After a month, I progressed to a more challenging class (generally classes I do are 20-30 min). I set up a "Spin Studio"for ME based on the few times I went with my husband to his spin class at a swanky gym —I have a fan, dark lighting, water bottle, clean towel and my “class” on YouTube.
My hip pain --which I thought would become worse —actually resolved. It is gone! I was in agony when I stood from a sitting position for TWO YEARS doing the old lady hold on to table move, and shuffling until it “unlocked.” Now, I am moving free and easy. I don’t know if riding a bike would work for anyone else with hip bursitis, but it worked for me. As to exercise being dull --yep, still is, but I tell myself I can stand anything for 20 min —my adult kiddos have been great --gave me a fit-bit and showed me how to use myfitnesspal.com —all added to the fun —making me fit became a sort of video game for me.
And since November, spinning 20 min every day except days I hunt, I’ve lost 25 pounds! I’m almost 70, and was always a bit dubious about gym type exercise —seemed contrived and dull. I kept reasonably fit with my farm work --but spinning has really moved parts of my body around —belly gone, hips smaller, waist smaller, and well, I feel good. Husband has always been a gym rat --guess I know why.
Anyway, might be tough to start with the current stay-at-home situation, but when you can, might try a week trial at a gym and give spinning a spin —lol! Oh, we have a low end spinning bike husband got for $100 when his fancy gym upgraded to Pelaton —I’ve ridden the Pelaton bike --nice, but not really much different than what we have at home.
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@Foxglove That is a great idea. I have a recumbent stationary bike at home which probably isn’t the same as the spinning bike but I can try using that for a while. I’m like you I thought walking and riding and related horse activities gave me enough exercise so I haven’t used it in a while. I’ll get serious again with it and see how my hip feels after a month or so.Thanks!
