15 weeks PO and doing very poorly

[tobyskier]

43 year old very (was) fit male.

A biking accident 3 years ago left me with damage to my femoral head. A failed scope 14 months ago.

There was a 2 year wait for the public system in Canada, so I cleared out my retirement and paid privately for a resurf with Dr Antoniou in Montreal May 1 2024 (30k CA)

The first 2 weeks were much more brutal than I expected. From week 2-6 I progressed at a rate I thought was normal, off aides by week 5.

It never felt remotely good however, which I just thought was part of the process. Deep glute pain and clunking ALL the time.

However from week 12-15 it has regressed a lot. I am now in constant pain (4 or 5 out of 10) while being on 15mg of meloxicam a day). I also have a limp again.

Attached is a photo (somewhat NSFW) of the hole where my glute med should be. Even though I have been working on it as much as I can. You can see my TFL has blown up.

Bloodword is clean for infection (doesn't mean there definately isn't one, but it's unlikely). I can't get the idea of metal allergy out of my head.

Dr Antoniou was great in my interactions with me in Montreal, and pretty responsive in the past couple of weeks. He responded saying that it can take 6-12 months for athletes to return to sport. At this point I don't care bout sport (although that was the reason for getting the resurf in the first place), I just don't want to be disabled any more.

To get back in the public system here in Canada will take months if not years.

Looking for suggestions from anyone who has been here.

[MarvinB]

Hi, Toby!

Did Dr. Antoniou prescribe an exercise regimen?  If you need another set of eyes, Dr. Gross here in South Carolina can look at your pic and x-rays via e-mail.  He’s at grossortho.com.  Might help to get it looked at by another surgeon that specializes in resurfacing.

[tobyskier]

Hey mate,
Dr Gross Looked at the xrays and said they were ok, another *very* well known surgeon looks at them at said there may not be enough anteversion, and then wierdly said some very not good things about my surgeon in particular which was very strange to read.
An ortho here in vancouver also looked at the xrays and said they were fine.

I left Antonious office with the first 6 weeks of physio covered and I have a very good physio here, I also used to be an athletic trainer, so am in a good spot for recovery in that area.

[MarvinB]

Not uncommon for some pain in weeks 12-15, but your pain level is excessive this far post-op.  Could you have torn something loose?  Depending how your surgeon performed the repair, could be muscle that was reattached to bone or sutured back together may have broke?  Only an MRI would show that.  Overdoing at this stage of the game before everything has knitted itself back together is common for setbacks.  I’ve noticed most orthopaedic surgeons tend to focus more on the bone and the joint.  “Hip looks great!”  “Joint looks wonderful!” Yeah, but my glutes and other muscles are hanging like draperies!!  All good things with time…and a bucket-load of effort!

[tobyskier]

Yup, I am putting my hopes on overdoing it, but my pt plan was not really excessive. I am going to get an MRI req tomorrow to try and see whats happening.



The pain in simple walking is 4 out of ten which for someone that was extremely fit going into this surgery almost 16 weeks ago seems not right.

[BSarchet]

That’s definitely not right. I’m no Dr and I know everyone is different but that muscle atrophy or whatever is going on there cannot be anything in the norm.  I read hundreds of posts on this forum leading up to my surgeries and of all the recurring themes and issues I saw, this one seems like an outlier.

I hope they get it figured out for you quickly and can get you back on the road to recovery. 

[catfriend]

I agree with BSarchet. I looked at your photo, and it doesn't look right. It looks sunken. Is that correct? Neither of my hips looked like that after resurfacing. Your scar looks good, though.

There were times in my recoveries where I overdid it, or did something "wrong", that caused pain, but for a few hours or a few days, at most. Developing as much pain as you're indicating, plus a new limp, is not expected, unless you've had an injury you're not aware of. By this time in my recoveries I was both walking and swimming for exercise, plus pt. I was not in any pain, unless I overdid it, or if something directly hit/slapped/bumped into my incision. While everybody heals at a different rate, something seems wrong with yours. You definitely need to find out what. What did the MRI show?

[tobyskier]

Waiting for an MRI requisition, and also waiting for a second opinion, but yes, I am a pretty muscular guy and it's distressing to see so much atrophy, even though I have been working hard with PT.