Another Hip Update

It has been over 3 months since my last hip update, and I’m finally ready to write another one since for so long I’ve kind of been at a standstill with everything.

Here’s a recap:

My right hip flexor has been bothering me since the end of June 2016, which was almost 10 months ago now! It hurts when I swing my leg forward while running. At its worst, the pain was a sharp, stabbing pain, but on most days it is a dull ache. I know running on the ice and snow this winter made it flare up almost every time I ran, but otherwise I have NO idea why it started hurting me in the first place.

June 18, 2016 – I ran Grandma’s Marathon. It was incredibly hot, and I missed my sub-3 hour goal, which was a huge bummer. However, I had no hip pain during the race.

June 19, 2016 – I took a full week off from running and exercising altogether.

June 27, 2016 – I did an easy workout with some drills. I can’t remember if my hip bothered me during this workout, but everything was still a little sore, so it was hard to tell.

June 29, 2016 – I did my workout in the morning and then ran with my coach for a couple miles at an up-tempo workout that evening, which is really when I started to feel my hip.

June 30, 2016 – During my workout of some sprints, my hip really started to flare up. I didn’t complete the workout and basically had to hobble back home.

August/September 2017 – I took a couple weeks off from running and saw a PT. When that didn’t help, I took an entire month off in September. I saw someone for ART and tried to rehab it on my own. I started to make progress, and it would hurt later and later into the run, but finally by mid-November I decided to get an MRI after little to virtually no progress.

November 10, 2016 – MRI on my hip, which revealed a hip labral tear. I was devastated!

November/December/January – Ran mostly pain-free due to the steroid shot!

February 2017 – The pain comes back again as the steroid shot wears off. I try to experiment with different shoes, non-studded shoes, only one pair of pants–to reduce the amount of work my hip flexor has to do, and I had some workouts that I felt okay but most resulted in a dull ache.

March 2017 – Take 2 more weeks off to try and fully heal my hip. (It didn’t make a difference.)

April 2017 – The snow and ice are finally starting to melt, so most of the routes I run are 80% free of snow and ice. And as long as I stick to dry pavement, my hip seems to be fine. I’m still hyper-aware of it, so the slightest sensation or awareness of it, I start to freak out.

I am hopeful that my hip will be fine as long as I run on dry surfaces. For the time being, I am going to continue running as long as my hip feels good. I have very little expectations for racing competitively this summer, and I’m going to have to opt for shorter races (5Ks, 10Ks). I am way out of shape, but I’m still going to run races and do the best I can.

I still want to know what the doctor’s recommendation would be as far as surgery, so I have an appointment to see a doctor in town to get a reading on my MRI. I know my MRI shows I have a hip labral tear, but I’m not sure if surgery is necessary. I sure hope not, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he said I should have surgery.

Overall, I’m just happy to be running relatively pain-free. I’m hoping my hip continues to heal and get stronger this summer, so that going into next winter it doesn’t flare up again. I guess only time will tell. This is all part of the story.