"Dear Runner (LT) Chick"- Response (original msg in post below)

Here's my response to a fellow runner chick from Austin, TX (see original message in post below)...

Hi Leslie,

I often think about my abandoned blog and it makes me so sad, like i left my baby in a dumpster or something...sigh... (sorry, inappropriate reference). Sorry that I haven't posted any updates on my recovery in what seems like ages. I guess you could say that I've pretty down about things. Running is our lifeblood and it gets tricky sometimes without that regular outlet... very tricky.

So, here I am 5 months post op, wondering if the tear in my labrum was actually really the cause of my pain. I'm back to full strength and am getting around town just as well as I did prior to surgery, but as for running, I haven't really been making the progress I'd like to. For instance I ran outside for 20mins last night and it was like the highlight of my week. My chest was burning since I'm royally out of running shape at the moment, but every step gives me hope of getting back to where I once was.

It sounds as though, like me, you have quite a few different things going on. Without looking back to see what I wrote on my blog, I can tell you that I've come to find out (after surgery) that I have some pretty serious hamstring tendinitis. The whole idea with going in the direction of surgery was to fix my labral tear in order to then properly treat the tendinitis (with PT). However, we're still in a touch and go phase and I still haven't found anyone who will talk to me in more than generalities. SO FRUSTRATING! But for the most part, my PT and physician (who are working together on this) have remained positive, but seemed stumped on the day to day - up & down of my progress. One day, I feel fantastic (meaning, I can walk and sit comfortably with no pain or tightness) and then I push a little further with running or some other form of exercise and then the next thing I know the throbbing, achy pain is back. I've come to terms with fact that there are quite a few things going on in there... and unfortunately, I didn't get the right help/treatment five or six years ago when the first signs of this started. I did have a labral tear, but I also have hamstring tendinitis and I think there's some piriformis (nerve) stuff going on in there too. So, I know it's still a long road of treatment and patience ahead.

So, (much like my doctor) I don't have a clear answer for you, but definitely go for an MRI and skip the regular MRI and go for the MRI arthrogram where they inject you with dye. This will better show what's going on in there (my tear didn't show on a regular MRI). As I mentioned before in my blog, some people have labral tears and are completely asymptomatic. So, definitely do your research and find someone who is well studied in this injury. I found the Runners World Discussion Board on Injuries and specifically the LONG thread on Labral tears to be very helpful. You'll also probably see me on there if you go through this past year's posts. You'll come to see that there are many of us out there with similar symptoms. It's a very poorly diagnosed injury and there are many people out there grasping at straws to find out what is going on.

Hit me up when ever you want to vent or trade symptoms. I could talk about this for hours (while I'm not out running).

But don't get me wrong, I still have hope and WILL get back out there... hopefully soon!

Take care and best of luck to you!!

Denise

Dear Runner (Labral Tear) Chick

A message I received @ about five months post op...


Hey there!

I found your blog googling for "labral tears and runners" or something like that.

First, how is your recovery from surgery going?

Second, thank you SO much for your blog. I cried and cried while reading it. I am still in the diagnosis phase of my injury, but I started having issues in September 2008. I'm also a long distance runner, and was training for my 7th marathon and hoping to (finally) BQ, which didn't happen since I couldn't do my race. I had some hip clicking before that, but I could still run, no problem. Then I was doing speed work one night, and all of a sudden I couldn't raise my left leg up like I wanted to. It just felt impossible. From there, I have been to (so far) two doctors, one physician's assistant, a chiropractor and a PT. I have had an MRI of my hip, pelvis and back (all came back completely clean). I was on steroids for a week (nothing). Currently I'm taking Lyrica which is meant to help with my neural pathways because one doctor thinks I have meralgia paresthetica. I've tried running, not running, yoga, core work, tons of PT, etc.

Then last week my chiropractor said, I think you may have a torn labrum. I hadn't seen the chiro since January, so he was taking a fresh look at things (i.e., he had said completely different things in the past). I went to my PT, and he was like nope, that's not it. He wanted me to do a nerve test b/c they think something's affecting my femoral nerve. Then I went back to the chiro today, and he said the same thing about the labrum.

So I went back to work and started my googling. When I found your blog, it was like the biggest "aha!" The first post I read was after you had already had your surgery, so I went backwards to see how you were diagnosed. It all sounded SO familiar. All of the appointments, all of the treatment, all the different diagnoses. All of the frustration. With all the different diagnoses I've received, I've always thought, "That might just very well be what I have." When I read your blog I was like, that's me! That's exactly what I have. My pain does not present in my hamstring like yours (it's more directly in the hip and will radiate down my quad).

So now I've written this incredibly long email to a stranger, but I just wanted to tell you thank you so very much for your blog. I am more convinced than ever that this is what I'm dealing with, and now I feel like I can be more insistent on getting to the bottom of this. And as much as I hate to know that anyone has gone through what I've been through (and yes I agree with you, things can be worse), it's so reassuring to hear from someone else who really knows what this whole thing is like. At times, I think people have even questioned if anything is wrong with me at all.

Please let me know how you are doing. Recovering from the surgery makes me nervous. And I, like you, already feel like I've had to sit a fair amount of time out. I missed my marathon in December and was hoping to do some trail runs this summer, but if I require surgery then that will probably be out. I'm curious to know what all you can do, when you can't run. I've been doing yoga (since earlier this year when my mileage became too pathetic to feel like I was still a runner). It sounded like you've done yoga too, so I'm hoping I can at least get back to that somewhat quickly.

Anyhow, if you've read this much, you're amazing. If I do hear back from you, once I get my diagnosis for certain, I will let you know. There's a pessimistic side of me (from all of this) that still worries maybe this isn't it, but my mind is probably 99% made up, and that's saying a lot at this point.

Thanks again,
Leslie (Austin, TX)