What is FAI anyway???

I have always wanted to start a blog but never really felt like I had a whole lot to blog about...Until now. By writing this, I hope to reach out and inspire others with my story to not quit just because someone tells you to!

Here it goes.....

I say this because it is true..........In my quest to become a more FIT person, I discovered that I have Femoral Acetabular Impingement of my left hip.

So..let's rewind a bit. In September of 2009, I found Jazzercise. Don't laugh..it is NOT your mother's Jazzercise! It is fabulous. I was hooked after ONE class. A full hour of heavy impact, 600 calorie burning, dance-type fitness and even strength training had me coming back to 5 or 6 classes a week! A few months into it, I started noticing some pain in my left groin area during certain movements. It was a sharp pain, sometimes popping like a rubber band. I chalked it up to a pulled muscle of some sort and kept on truckin'! Over time, it progressed to pain when getting in and out of the car, stepping a certain way, and would often times wake me up from a sound sleep. (probably when I would change positions). I was referred to see a physical therapist to see what was going on. (In the midst of all of this, I had decided to become a Jazzercise instructor and had begun my training.) After a few weeks of therapy, my PT was pretty sure that I had a labral tear. Off to an orthopedic doc I went with MRI results. I was convinced that my problem had been SOLVED! I would get a tiny little surgery to fix my labrum and I would be FIXED! Bad news. He didn't see a labral tear but what he did see was a "significant" amount of arthritis. WHAT? I am 37 years old! How do I have arthritis? His advice to me was:
1) you need to quit the high-impact jazzercise
2) there isn't anything that I can do to help you
3) You will need a hip replacement
4) I think you should see a hip specialist.

Devastated. I was ONE week away from my Jazzericse audition workshop! I had paid my money, and worked my butt off! Should I quit? No way. I wasn't going to let one doctor tell me to give up what I had worked so hard for.

July......finally got in to see a fabulous Hip surgeon in Ft Worth. X-rays done and a diagnosis. One look at my x-rays and he knew EXACTLY what was wrong with me. FAI he said....what?? Femoral Acetabular Impingement and he drew me a picture. Basically your femur(top of leg) and your hip socket are like a trailor hitch. My trailer and my hitch are not normal. By definition:
Femoroacetabular impingement or FAI is a condition of too much friction in the hip joint. Basically, the ball (femoral head) and socket (acetabulum) rub abnormally creating damage to the hip joint. Here is a great link with pictures and all! Not exactly what I wanted to hear but was happy to know that I had options and that Dr Croffard was willing to fix me. My options were to have a total hip replacement, wait and do nothing, or have an arthroscopic procedure that might help prolong the need for a THR. He DID tell me that arthroscopy was not a guarantee but he thought that because of my young age that it was worth a shot.. Arthroscopy of my Left Hip was scheduled for September 9th, 2010.

One week prior to surgery, we found out that our insurance provider was not going to cover the procedure. Treatment for FAI is considered "experimental" according Tricare. We appealed with no luck. During my extensive research, I came across a wonderful website hippreservationportal.org. I was amazed to see how many young people had the same issues that I had and I began asking a lot of questions. Through this site and it's administrator, we were given a few names for military surgeons in San Antonio. The first surgeon that we saw did NOT think that I was a candidate for athroscopy. His suggestion was to just wait until the pain was keeping me up at night and then opt for a total hip replacement. Needless to say, I was furious. How could he commit me to a life of sitting on the couch when I was in the best shape physically that I have ever been in?? I wanted to be fixed and was NOT going to settle for a hip replacement at my young age! I will say that the only thing that came out of that visit was a referral to see Dr Warren Kadrmas. A month later I had an appt with him and he agreed to do the surgery! He is VERY experienced in Arthroscopy of the Hip and I feel that I am in GOOD hands! We decided to wait until after Richard's 4 month deployment to have the procedure done so here we are...10 days from surgery and I am READY. Ready to move forward with surgery and move onto healing.