The Diagnosis

I consulted with Dr. Birmingham at the end of December. Prior to my first appointment, I was required to get a fair number of hip x-rays. During my diagnostic evaluation, he was careful to confirm the exact locations and type of pain I was experiencing. He took a thorough history, and then spent some time going over my x-rays and his thoughts on what was going on.

The images showed a bony overhang on my hips (both sides). It also showed - to Dr. Birmingham, anyway...I wouldn't know - that my hip sockets are turned forward, leading to a smaller range of motion. He indicated I was born with this, and it was just a matter of time before I ran into trouble. Since I was quite sedentary until 8 years ago, I never had any trouble! It wasn't until I started using my hip that it started giving me pains. He said I had a pincer impingement, and would probably benefit from a removal of the excess bone.

Dr. Birmingham then scheduled me for an MRI and a diagnostic steroid injection in my right hip. The injection was to confirm the pain was indeed coming from the joint, and the MRI to look for a tear in the cartilage. Now, I'm a bit claustrophobic, so I wasn't too keen on the MRI. I had it done at the Center for Diagnostic Imaging, which is a very nice place. They gave me headphones and let me pick any music I wanted. Then they gave me a clicker that will shut down the machine in the event of an emergency. Finally, they gave me funky glasses with mirrors set at right angles to the frames. These allowed me to look at the rest of the room during the test, instead of staring into the tube and freaking out. Wonderful gadget! Unfortunately, they had to tape my feet together to prevent me from rotating my hip. Ugh! It's not bad enough to be shoved into a big white tube with a jackhammer in it, but now my legs are tied together. Big deep breath - the 30-minute test will be over in no time. I managed to get out of that without a panic attack, but the steroid injection wasn't as uneventful.

Since I go to a teaching hospital, there's no shortage of students watching procedures. As I prepared to get my hip injection, I approved it for student viewing, and then watched as 4 new people filed in. Ok, crowded room...not the end of the world. Then the assistant, in an effort to distract me, goes about telling me how she hardly got any sleep last night and just wants to take a nap. She can hardly focus. !!! I get a little nervous but figure she's not playing a critical role so I should be fine. Onto the table I go, and the assistant says "just relax and take a few deep breaths while I mix your drug cocktail." What? Little Miss I'm-so-tired-I-just-want-to-sleep is mixing my painkillers? I'm suddenly afraid I will die on this table. As they do the scan to find the injection site, a doctor comes in. He's soothing, and talks me through the whole injection process. I get to watch it on the screen. I manage to hold it together until they inject fluid to make the final injection easier. The pressure is so intense I start to lose it. On the verge of a panic attack, I manage to blubber out that I'm ok, can someone just please hold my hand? Someone does, and I can breathe again. The injection is over and I'm free to go.

I'm floating as the first round of painkillers take over and I suddenly become invincible. Dr. Birmingham instructed me to behave as if I didn't have pain, meaning I should do things that I had been restricting and measure my performance against pre-injection stats. I kicked butt! I cleaned my house, went for a walk, and did a fantastic job in Tae Kwon Do. I don't recall the last time my hip felt that good...maybe never? Anyway, that did it. The pain was indeed coming from the joint, and the MRI confirmed a tear in the labrum.

Surgery required.