I’m long overdue for some good news. The last post was a bit of a bummer, primarily saying that I was giving up in order to end the pain. My doctor was out on vacation, things weren’t going so well, and I suspected that I’d had yet another major setback. There had been talk of scar tissue complications, but given the amount of pain I was experiencing after each popping instance, my PA thought it sounded a little worse.

Finally last Thursday I was able to visit with my doctor. He gave me some good news, but rather than blab about it, I wanted to let it situate a few days and make it sure it would prove correct.

He said that it was almost definitely scar tissue. His way of wording was convincing. He said that of the top 5 things that it could possibly be, 1-4 would be scar tissue. The chances of the injury not being fixed and requiring surgery later are almost zero. I still have a labrum. It’s just that my pelvic muscles are inflamed because the scar tissue rubs them the wrong way. Every time the hip moves in a new direction, there’s an actual cut with bleeding deep down, and pain is completely normal. As I’ve found with everything involving hips, the pain can be worse than other parts of the body and takes longer to heal, so what I was enduring was completelyreasonable.

So what now?

Scar tissue does not heal. It is going to be there, although it will likely become a lesser issue over time. Some people find that they can never get completely away from it, and have to find ways to tolerate the pain. Others find that with patience and not overdoing things, it’ll gradually get better and they can be themselves again. For some people it takes longer than others.

He started me out on a low dose of prednisone. I groaned. I’ve taken it before and loathe the medication. It makes me feel bloated, keeps me up at night, and just gives me an overall blah feeling. I reluctantly took it, wanting to try anything at this point.

The problem is I had to stop taking my anti-inflammatory altogether. That had been the only thing taking the edge off the constant pain, so for the first two days on the medicine, I had a tough time. Not only did I have the prednisone side effects, but the hip felt like it was about to burst. That was Friday and most of Saturday.

Late on Saturday, as some pain medication had worn off, I felt surprisingly good. I went to sleep, and woke up the next morning still feeling good, and found that throughout the day, I didn’t require a single pain reliever. On Monday morning I still felt good. What do you know? The doctor might have been right. The prednisone has definitely helped.

Of course I cannot and don’t want to take prednisone forever. It is possible this dose will get me over the hump temporarily and I can continue improving. There’s also a possibility of getting a shot into my iliopsoas that will reduce the inflammation for a time.

The other good news is that I’ve recovered enough that my doctor thinks I am finished with physical therapy. As long as I can get around the scar tissue pain, I should be able to bike and swim as long as I don’t go too hard.

This coming weekend, my wife and I will be leaving for New York City for a week-long celebration tour of her Jeopardy win. By then I should be back on all of my anti-inflammatories, and I should be able to walk around mostly like any other human being. The thing is, as a tourist in New York, I’ll be walking a lot. It could get painful, but it’ll also be a test, and might actually be good for me to finally strengthen the hip without excessive impact. We’ll be leisurely and careful, and will make sure to have enough downtime to recover.

So this is definitely good news. At least better than last time.

While all of the Jeopardy excitement was going on, I was slowly rehabilitating from what has now been nearly a two-year injury. The digression was good timing, because frankly, writing about a series of progressively lengthening training rides was not going to be fascinating. The idea was that once this was all over, I would write a recap of the rehab over the last couple of months.

Some bad news threw a wrench in my plans.

After that first ride in May, and a few more in June, I was well on my way. I managed 144 miles on the bike, mostly easy, tempo rides, with 10 total hours in the saddle. I had also done a lot of therapy work, spent some time on stationary bikes, and done a few other things to get my fitness level back up. The last ride was 27 miles, and while I struggled to keep up with my friends, I found that I had some fitness. I was on my way back.

Each ride would leave me sore, although it steadily got easier and easier. I would need some recovery time, but I started feeling better faster. It was clear, steady improvement, just like the doctor ordered.

After Jeopardy, we spent our weekends traveling to visit family, and I made a short sojourn to Boone to put on my reporter hat. Finding time to ride was difficult because I had PT during the week. That always results in a little bit of soreness even though we were being careful not to push too hard. I wisely decided against riding when sore. The way it turned out, I wasn’t able to ride for a couple weeks.

A week ago on Thursday, I had a particularly tough day at therapy that included the exercise bike. I was sore that evening and the next day, and then felt better on Saturday. That was pretty much the norm. Aside from a couple hiccups, after a short recovery period I would be fine. Occasionally the hip would randomly pop and give me some added soreness for a couple of days, but it would pass.

This past Saturday, when my wife and I were sitting on a couch talking about her Jeopardy experience with my family, I moved my leg slightly to adjust. I moved it at most three inches outward.

POP!

Did you hear that? My wife said that she had. It wasn’t sore right away, but I had a feeling it would be. The next day we returned home and it was only tender, so I was encouraged it would pass. This wasn’t the first time it had popped. The other times I had written it off as scar tissue redeveloping, and I didn’t worry much. It had never popped this loudly.

It started to hurt the next day, and by Monday, it was nearly excruciating. It is hard to describe hip pain when it is bad. It feels like someone is clawing at you from your insides, and you cannot get comfortable no matter how you sit or lie down. It radiates to other parts of the leg, making each muscle feel like they had just run a marathon. Of all the different types of pain I’ve experienced, this is my least favorite.

I had to dip back into my pain medication to get through Monday. Tuesday was no better. I took half a day off work just to rest the hip, again in bed with medication.

I was concerned. This couldn’t be scar tissue, could it? I called the doctor’s office and they were also concerned. No, it didn’t sound like scar tissue to them either. Usually that doesn’t hurt as bad or last as long. They told me to stop everything except for stretching until the doctor can see me. Since he left for vacation on Wednesday, that’ll be two weeks from now.

At first I was disappointed, a little depressed even. As you blog readers know all too well, every time I begin to make some progress, something happens to set me back a ways. After the pain had barely subsided by Wednesday, and stayed about the same Thursday, I knew this was a major setback. Since I am now nearly six months from surgery, the implications are dire. Unless I am the slowest healer on the planet, it is clear that the surgery was not successful. If only the surgeon had repaired the hip instead of cutting off the torn portion, then I probably wouldn’t be in this situation.

The bad news is that I am off the bike and everything indefinitely. I have a feeling the doctor will say it is okay to pool walk or do easy swimming, but even that will probably bring back pain. It is time for a long period of rest, maybe a couple of months, maybe the rest of the year. This is no longer about me returning to the sport I love. This is about me living my life and being able to perform daily activities.

The above 800 words sound depressing, and like I said, that’s how I first interpreted them. Since then, I have actually come to a place of relief and acceptance. That’s why I think this setback was partially good news.

Knowing that I need to let myself heal has taken a weight off my shoulders. In a few weeks, I should be able to walk normally again and pain free. Rather than continue to push myself into a perpetual state of agony, I’ll enjoy being recovered and having as much mobility and comfort as possible.

The random popping should end because it only happens after workouts. That’s my hip telling me it isn’t ready. I need more time.

The potential downside is that there’s an outside chance that I’ll need another surgery. The hip may need to be completely repaired. I’ve been through this surgery once and am not excited about going through it again, but I will take that step if it’s a matter of me never being active again.

When my friends and family have heard this news, they have apologized to me, and given me plenty of prayers, support and encouragement. I cannot express enough how much it is appreciated. But this isn’t a funeral. This is part of a lengthy rebirth. Everyone goes through hurdles in life, and everyone finds a way to deal with them. While I’ve had to endure a lot more than the average person, I’ve still found a way to love life. That’s not going to change. There are plenty of adventures waiting for me. The question is whether they’ll be in a few months, next year, or yes, maybe even the year after.

In the meantime, I have this blog. My past adventures are well documented, and just recently I found a way to enjoy my passion from another perspective. That will continue. With some of this free time, there will be other avenues to get involved. I’ve already been participating with a number of local bike planning and advocacy groups. The 50 State Project may be on hold, but there are plenty of other projects waiting around the corner. Stay tuned.

When I had surgery, my appointment was initially scheduled for 2pm with me arriving at noon. Some sort of delay happened that they didn’t tell me about. It is possible there was another, more serious surgery that needed to be performed. Since my doctor works on collegiate and professional athletes, it is possible their surgery took precedence because of a game. Who knows? Whatever it was, I was fine with it.

The delay went on awhile. 2pm came and went, then 3pm, then 4pm. The hospital staff was terrific and they checked on me periodically, apologizing for the delay and giving me an ETA on when I would go in. They even gave my starving wife a sandwich.

I sat in this room waiting patiently for many hours.

The procedure began sometime before 5pm, and I woke up in the recovery room around 7pm, drugged to the gills, pleasantly telling people “good morning” as they passed by.

After the procedure and recovery, there was supposed to be someone to show me how to properly operate the crutches. It would be unlikely I would remember, but at least my wife would be there to take mental note, and practice would make perfect.

By the time we arrived back at the nurses station, a lot of people had gone home. It was 8pm on a Friday night after all. If I worked there, I wouldn’t have wanted to stick around either. On top of that, it had been a long day for both of us. My wife was tired, and of course I was blitzed.

We had also left the crutches in the car. So when they asked if we needed help, my half-drugged response was “nah, I know how to use crutches.” That was not entirely true. I’ve used them before, but not for something like this. My wife believed me, and we went home.

For the first few weeks, I barely got around anyway, so it hardly mattered. During week three when we went to Jeopardy, I had to get around more than I would have liked, and I was often very sore.

My big mistake was that I did not use the proper toe-touching method of crutch walking, as demonstrated in the video below. I was using the crutches to support my right hip, but I was unwittingly putting some weight on it.

When I returned to work in week 4, I had to get around more and more. The recovery seemed to stall and I wondered why. The answer is clear now. I was putting too much weight on my hip!

Just before week 6, I saw my surgeon again. He asked how everything was going. Good, I said. I had recovered far more than the surgery date, which was true, and was progressing slower now, but felt I was still making a little bit of progress. He didn’t seem alarmed, and he said he would allow a little more weight bearing.

Guess what? He was allowing the same thing I had been doing the whole time.

Oops.

This week when talking to my Physical Therapist, I wondered why it was hurting so much, especially after therapy. You would think it would get better. She said that after PT, I should try to go back to no weight bearing for a day or two. Okay. So I continued along the same way I had been, thinking that was right.

The pain continued, and it made me think. Last night I started googling around, and found that video.

Oops.

Today is the 7-week mark and I don’t feel too much better than week four, probably because of a combination of this and weaning off the pain pills. I spoke with my Physician’s Assistant and there’s really nothing that can be done at week 7.

The good news is that now that I know, I can start doing it the right away and I should start feeling better. The bad news is this probably extends my crutch time to perhaps another month or longer.

The lesson here folks is that if you have surgery and they offer to show you something, take them up on it regardless of the hour, or how drugged up you are. They won’t babysit you to make sure you are doing it right.