FAI and my story for the last 2.5 years

Gosh, the 'Long Road' really is a long road!  I didn't think I'd pick up the virtual pen again, feeling I'd have nothing meaningful to write given my goose egg accomplishment in the triathlon world since IMFL in 2011.  As it turns out, there was a good reason for my pain induced lack of motivation - I was finally diagnosed with FAI - Femoral Acetabular Impingement- which presented itself as a tear in my hip labrum on the MRI.

Cutting to the chase, here are the hippy details:

• DNS at Ironman Tremblant in 2012, 2013
• moderate pain since the injury in July 2011
• completed IM Florida in Nov 2011 with (not known) torn labrum.  12:03
• got discouraged in 2012
• spent time doing 'other things' in 2012 and 2013.  Didn't ride or run.
• wife was tired of my complaining so she booked a meeting with a sports doc in July 2013
• within 3 minutes, sports doc suspects torn tabrum and by the 10 minute mark, I was out of her office with a requisition for an MRI
• MRI in Dec 2013 confirms labral tear in my right hip
• Meet the local Orthopaedic Surgeon (hip specialist) in March 2014. Surgery booked for June 2014

Here are the surgical details and pictures:

• chose spinal tap and sedation over general anasthetic
• last thing I heard was cranking of the traction table to dislocate my hip
• surgery was arthroscopic
• shaved the acetabulum (socket side)
• inserted 2 anchors (like drywall anchors) into the acetabulum to hold sutures (thread) in an effort to pull the torn labrum back tight against the acetabulum;
• shaved the head / neck femoral junction to remove a 'CAM' impingement - bony overgrowth in the femur that was catching on the labrum at extremes of extension/flexion.

Surgery was 10 weeks ago today!  Pictures:

Knife piercing the hip capsule.

Sutures in place to hold labrum against acetabulum:

 A very frayed labrum

Starting the Femoro-osteoplasty (bone shaving the femur at head/neck junction).  The light orange peel looking section has been shaved and is not complete.

Last one for now - shows finished bone shaving - femur at bottom of photo, shaving burr at top.

I'm going to hold it there and cover the first 10 weeks (to present) post op recovery in another post.  And there is an interesting development to share.

Thanks for reading....!