I mentioned two weeks ago that I may have finally got a diagnosis for my weird hip pain that comes and goes.
If you recall, I've basically been battling left leg issues all year. They're not painful enough that I've needed to stop running but nothing I do seems to make them better, either.
I've seen two kinds of physical therapists, done numerous physical therapy exercises, I've seen a chiropractor, massage therapists, and I've had three MRIs.
This last MRI was done with contrast which basically means they injected a dye into my hip socket so that they could see the area better on the scan.
Why did they do this? Well, apparently many of my symptoms can be caused by a hip labral tear and the only way to truly diagnosis this is to have an MRI with contrast.
So, that's what I had done.
And they think they found a tear. Apparently you can only see it on a few of the images and it's tiny, but the sports medicine doctor I've been seeing is pretty sure this is the cause of my issues.
No, I don't know how it happened. All I know is that I can still run as long as it doesn't hurt (which is why I did 5 miles on the treadmill at the gym on Thursday night) and that I'm scheduled to see an orthopedic surgeon at the end of December.
As much as I want this weird pain to go away I also don't really want surgery. I've been doing some research and it appears that that the recovery from surgery can go really quickly or very, very slowly depending on how much work the surgeon has to do in the joint. I won't really know my full options until I see the surgeon.
So, for now, I'm still running and doing some Pilates. And I'll still be running the Las Vegas Marathon. But I feel like I've had to put any plans for 2012 on hold until I figure out what's next.
But I did recently read an article in Competitor Magazine about taking six weeks off from running. Unfortunately I can't find the article online but basically it said that certain coaches recommend you take six weeks off at the end of your season and don't run at all. Instead they suggest you try lots of different exercises to keep your fitness and break up the routine of just running.
I've been running hard all year so I'm thinking that no matter what the surgeon says I'll take some time off in December and January. Maybe I'll try swim lessons again. Maybe I'll do a lot of Pilates and yoga. And if I'm really lucky I'll be able to lift weights again. We'll see. I hope you stick around for the ride!
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