Hip Impingement (FAI) - Who Has Had This?

Hello folks,

Today I was diagnosed with hip impingement (Femoracetabular impingement). I have a MRI scheduled for this coming Monday to see if there’s any labral damage.

I’m 28 and am an avid gym goer that consists of mostly lifting weights and gym is life. I don’t do any competitions or any of that, I probably work out as a hobby more if that’s a thing .

After doing some research online about this condition, some have had good luck with therapy and others have gotten surgery. So I wanted to start this thread to get peoples’ feedback from folks who have had this condition and what maybe worked and maybe what didn’t or what to expect.

Thank you for your time. I plan to provide updates to this thread as things progress through this journey. Any feedback is appreciated.

 

Eric- I’m a PT and work with this all the time. I’ve also rehabbed myself from both a labral tear and impingement and continue to lift weights, run, etc.

shoot me an email if you’d like to chat more.

ncunningham21@hotmail.com

 

It's been a while since I started this thread but as I mentioned I would provide some updates to maybe help some people out if they are reading this and have this condition. Picking up from the original post, I did go in for my MRI and the doctor said that I did have a labral tear in my right hip. We talked it over as he figured I would be a good candidate for surgery. So I talked it over with my wife and we decided with how active I am and being young with hopefully the rest of my life ahead of me to go ahead and pursue surgery. So, the middle of June I had surgery.

After surgery it turned out I didn't had a labral tear after all but I did have cartilage damage which was fixed with a procedure called a microfracture. The surgeon also shaved the bone down on my femur. So, for the first 6 weeks after surgery I had to be on crutches. This was not non-weight bearing but partial weight bearing (this was probably the longest 6 weeks of my life). Within the first 4 weeks I had to use a CPM (continuous passive motion) machine for 6 hours a day. This basically moved my leg back and forth to promote healing in the early stages.

Believe it or not I actually started PT two days after surgery. As of writing this (5 months after surgery) I have been going twice a week. I have officially been cleared to go once a week now which is good news.

How is it going now? Well, not too bad. I don't get a whole lot of pain anymore but I will have occasional discomfort pop-up; mostly from activity. I will get some discomfort sleeping on the affected side (really both sides as my other side I have impingement too) but it is hard to predict when that will happen, every night is different. Right now, I can utilize the gym to start doing regular exercises such as leg press, squats, lunges, band walks, sled (pull and push), bridges, adductor and abductor machines - the exercises most people would do who aren't hurt. Still no running or jumping yet.

SUMMARY: Overall I feel fine. There's not many daily tasks I am concerned about doing. The recovery has gone really fast and really slow at the same time. This is my first real surgery (does wisdom teeth removal count? lol!). I would say what has really helped me up until this point is really sticking with the PT and not trying to cut and corners in the recovery process. It has been hard mentally and physically trying to get through but I believe I will come out satisfied with the results. During the recovery I would get flare-ups and that was hard because I feel like it set me back a few days but it was all a normal part of the process. At the end of the day it really is amazing watching the body be able to recover and heal itself.