Concerned about my upcoming revision
Hey yall,
I posted here a while back so if you want the full details on my hip. The TLDR is I'm a 19yo male, had a torn labrum for about three years before receiving arthroscopic surgery in December of 2024, I had a Femoroplasty, Labrum repair with 4 anchors, and I had pretty severe cartilage damage, the cartilage was cleaned up but nothing major was done concerning it.
Recovery was on track until around 6 weeks post op, I received additional PT and attempted to return to normal activity but struggled with pretty severe discomfort and pain that grew with time. This last December I tried an injection and received an MRI. The injection did nothing (honestly made my pain worse) and the MRI results varied depending on who looked. After consoling the radiologist, My original surgeon, and a hip preservation specialist at John Hopkins they determined that I at least re tore my labrum and that the femoroplasty had not removed enough bone the first time and I still had an impingement, which that was the likely cause of my re-tear. Additionally, both suspected early signs of arthritis due to the cartilage damage seen in the first surgery.
Both surgeons agreed that surgery was the next step, and I am now scheduled for a revision with my first surgeon at the start of June. The plan is to repair the labrum (cadaver tissue will be on standby if the condition of my labrum is too far gone), a repeat femorplasty, a Acetabuloplasty, and depending on the state of the cartilage that he sees in surgery, I may or may not have drilling preformed to stimulate fibrocartilage growth (unsure of the official procedure name)
My concern now is, that my pain level has lowered over the past 1-2 months, but it hadn't until then. I have severally cut back on my activity level and use my hip minimally. There is definitely still discomfort and I know my hip doesn't feel right but its not the same constant pain as it was after my surgery. My range of motion has severally decreased, with external rotation I can get slightly more then 45 degrees of rotation on my good hip, and I cant get 30 degrees in my bad hip (When I stopped PT, my strength levels and range of motion where very close to equal, with my surgery hip being better then my nonsurgery).
I think a large part of my pain being reduced is due to this guarding and reduction of activity. When stretched I can feel severe discomfort and it almost feels as if my hip is seizing at times. For example I was out fishing the other day and struggled to raise my leg enough to step between rocks.
I know that I have gotten multiple professional opinions which all agree, and the reduction of pain makes sense with the guarding, but the pain not being as constant or persistent as it was a few months ago has the little voice in the back of my head telling me this surgery could be a mistake. I really want to get back to a point where Im not fearful of physical activity, I used to be one of the most athletic people I knew but now I am scared to do anything more then walking to class.
Id love some advise and to know if anyone else is or has experienced this or something similar.
Thank you all for you're time!