Surgery with mild pain? When did you move forward?
Hello All, first time poster.
30YO, F, recreational long distance runner (mainly the marathon distance). diagnosed with FAI (CAM impingement), labral tear on left hip (2?? anterior and posterior tear) as well as a paralabral cyst.
symptoms begun 5 years ago. I did PT at the time and MRI which showed only the anterior tear. at the time the pain resolved and I went on to run several marathons with no pain. after giving birth to my son, the pain returned. my doctor thinks this is a coincidence, but I am convinced pregnancy worsened the tear (I ran throughout pregnancy until the very end). the pain returned as soon as I began running even with very little running and mileage (run/walking a mile or two) and I also had a lot of pelvic pain while pregnant which I feel is related. I got a steroid injection a few months back which lasted about 4 weeks.
Current symptoms:
honestly I get very mild discomfort throughout the day. Most of my pain occurs after a run especially a longer run and maybe reaches a 6 and persists for about a day, may hurt to sleep on, then will resolve. I can still go about my day its not debilitating
if I don't run, the pain/discomfort honestly does not interfere with my day to day. I would say maybe a 1 or 2 at most.
I am having a hard time reconciling surgery with the perceived lack of day to day pain. the doc recommended surgery and said it likely won't get better with PT this time but did admit that most patients who move forward with surgery have more symptoms and more pain.
I'm wondering if anyone else has been in my shoes with moving forward with surgery despite not being extremely symptomatic. doc said I dont necessarily need it if I am willing to stop running (I'm not 🥺) and said I could continue running and keeping an eye on it if I wanted. I feel like I'm at a loss here!