FAI Hip Surgery - Day 1

As Kurt Vonnegut once wrote, “so it goes”…

yesterday I had my (very long awaited and much needed) surgery on my Right hip for "FAI" [femoral acetubalur impingement] work:

great overview of FAI 

The nature of the injury/impingement etc is well chronicled in my previous Blog postings, and, there is a mass of information online (see link above) - so I won’t bore you with technical sets. A good start is here: FAI movie - a blockbuster of hipster proportions!

Suffice it to say, I was finding my race performances really going downhill and even the every day routine aspects of life were becoming unbearable [don’t even ask about sitting - hated that the most] so I was thrilled - and anxious - when i got the confirmation of surgery scheduled for April 14. Having been on the wait list for over 1.5 years, I was more than ready for this.

Johnny's worst nightmare 

*NB: Nurse Ratched and I just got home from McMaster Hospital, and as I am on major drugs (who knew how great Percs are? hahaha) , I can't be held accountable for anything I write here.
However, in a moment of rare brevity, here is a quick post surgery update:

my poor messed up hip

Overall, the surgery went well - I was scheduled 1st up at 8am; had to be there at 6am - which was fine for me [got used to to those early morning swim practices]. Nurse Ratched, however, did not dig that 5am drive!

“Check in” was effortless - met with both my surgeon, Dr Ayeni [AWESOME orthopaedic surgeon - can't recommend him enough] and the anesthesiologist - both took me thru the surgical protocol and expected procedure.

My R hip was marked in marker - no surgical “oops - wrong leg” problems therefore!

Surgery time was just over 2.5 hours; however, the surgeon said my hip was wayyyyy more messed up then he was expecting to find; once he dislocated the femur head from the hip socket [NOT FUN!], he found 3 major issues he wasn't expecting:

1. Nearly 70 percent of my labrum was shredded - 2 yrs ago on the MRI It was only (“only” - hahaa!) 15 percent torn - I guess I sorta over did it the last year; at least that explains why racing all season on the indoor track hurt so much. I also had much more detached cartilage then expected as well.

2. Dr A  also had to do a “micro fracture” [overview of Microfracture surgery]

in the acetabulum (as the cartilage was so thin, he could see some bone = arthritis) which basically involved drilling several holes into the  acetabulum, letting it bleed into the socket; the blood clots and forms a scab that is made up of similar cartilage material as acetabulum = regrowth of cartilage. ta da!! In order for full recovery and stability, Dr A set 3 (4? can't recall) internal "anchors" which are screws holding my acetabulum together. Nice new hardware.

3. the "cam" and "pincer" impingements were pretty pronounced as well - requiring some significant shaving of the femoral head.

(Dr A told me after the surgery that with my hip the way he found it, he couldn't believe I had been racing tris etc, let alone at the competitive level, for the last year - he just shook his head and muttered "athletes". Nurse Ratched just rolled her eyes and gave me the "look", the one all husband's fear).

After my close shave, I was popped over to post op recovery, drugged up, and then the nurses noticed significant bleeding thru my bandages/surgical dressing. So, they called the surgeon who sent his resident - and they had to redo my post op dressings as I continued to bleed like a stuffed pig. 

Fun times today.

Overall, I have a lot of stitches and the 3 or 4  internal "anchors" which are holding my acetabulum together - they have to stay in for 2 yrs. 

And so now instead a few days "non weight bearing" (not putting my right foot down on the ground) - it was at first indication going to be 2-3 weeks.

Now, however, much to my major disappointment, it looks like recovery from FAI surgery which, like mine, involves the “micro fracture” procedure, I likely have to be non weight bearing for [wait for it…] 8 weeks or more.

Damn. So much for a quick return to racing this summer.

The one upside of all this is…wait, there is no upside, at least not today.

My hip and adductors etc feel like they have been dislocated and shaved down and screws imbedded into my femoral head [which is sorta exactly what happened]. But, and this is the last cliche for today, “that which does not kill you, makes you stronger”.

However: just so we're clear: I'm still gonna kick ass at the Tri World's in Edmonton this August!! (ok, probably not, but I can dream, right?).

still a hipster

Mellow Johnny

ps: a truly special thanks to Nurse Ratched - couldn't have done this without here. I owe you one.