Why should I write one of these? Very good reasons...

My name is Klau, I've been living with chronic hip/groin pain since 2009. I've mostly been a very active person in my youth and did many sports including : Softball, Ringette, Swimming, Rock Climbing, Alpine Skiing, Running and I have been into Martial Arts since I was 9 years old (Green belt in Karate and Black sash in Kung Fu). In 2009 I was at the top of my game and was working towards becoming a certified Kung Fu instructor at my master's school. On top of that, I work a physically demanding job that hasn't helped for the pain at all. I hope that writing my experiences here, I can give faith and some much needed encouragement to other people coping with the pain of FAI.

 Pain, you sneaky sneaky pain...

Like many people I've read about who have lived with FAI, the pain started slowly and so discretely that it was hard to pin-point what was causing it. I gradually went from working out 6-8 hours a week at high intensity, to working out one hour on a given day and having to pay for it in pain for 4 days. 

My GP got everything started by sending me to an ob-gyn for the pelvic pain. After an ultrasound and CT scan, I was diagnosed with an ovarian cyst that wouldn't go away, so I had laparoscopic surgery to have it removed but the pain in the area never went away post-op. The same ob-gyn then told me I must have Endometriosis, since the pain didn't go away after surgery.

 I did 6 months of Depot Lupron treatments in 2010 (that cost me buckets of money and made me go through a "chemical version" of menopause at 25 years of age) that never put a dent in the pain. He then told me that "it might all be in your head", yet the shrink I consulted a month later said otherwise so I fired his ass (the ob-gyn) and went to see a new one.

The second ob-gyn said I needed to have another laparoscopy to check if I have adhesions from endo. She said she couldn't do the surgery, but that her colleague could. So she referred me to yet another ob-gyn.



Third one was no charm...none at all!

The third ob-gyn didn't want to do the surgery. She pulled up the report from my 1st surgery and it had no mention about endometriosis or any adhesions. At this point, she started defending the ass-clown ob-gyn from the 1st surgery and never wanted to consider there might be something else going on to cause the pain. She did the surgery and found an anomaly that indicated trouble with my urinary system.

After a 2 hour plus wait in the waiting room and less than 5 mins in her office, the urologist told me I wasn't her problem. This was the first time (and not the last) that I told off a doctor. Went back to ob-gyn #3 and she started telling me that it might just be stress and depression that was causing my pain. I argued with her and convinced her to refer me to a physiatrist (aka muscular-skeletal/rehabilitation experts). She prescribed me a low dose antidepressant for the pain and I got the referral.

Note:  I took the antidepressants for 5 months till my pharmacist told me I was having unusual side-effects (being drowsy till 10 am every morning) and I stopped taking them. They never did anything for the pain, but they helped me sleep...a lot! 
*Note: I did not give those pills to a cat. Firstly I'm allergic and have no cat. Second, who the fuck is sick enough to feed random pills to a cat?

I tried massages and chiropractic treatments in 2011, but it was completely useless for my hip pain (great for my back though).

The physiatrist was a doctor I met before (for another problem) and I like how he's open and honest with his patients. He's so far one of the few doctors who's never lied to me. He sent me to get a MRI of my waist area. Nothing found there, nadda. I was disappointed but I was used to hearing that tune. Sent me for a nuclear bone scan...nothing there either. Frustrated, he said there was no way that with over 33 years  of practise he couldn't crack this one. He sent me for the deluxe package of an MRI-Arthrogram of my right hip with a contrast injection. 



Bingo! He found it!!! June 2012

 For once in my life I could thank a doctor for doing something good for me and I had a name to call the thing that wrecked my body : Torn labrum with FAI. He also confirmed my suspicion about ob-gyn #3, he showed me a note she sent, saying to be careful with me...cause she thought I was a junkie/drug seeker!

He referred me to the best FAI orthopedic surgeon in the area. 

Somewhere in  August 2012, my GP finally gave me medication that works for my pain and I went from my usual physically demanding job to a light duty desk job.  After more than 4 years, I'm finally on the right path to escaping the FAI pain trap that got hold of me all these years. I'm glad I didn't give up and stood up to the nay-saying doctors. As I look on those years, some of the lyrics from the "Truth about Love" song from P!nk popped in my head :   

The truth about love comes at 3am
You wake up fucked up and you grab a pen
And you say to yourself
I'm gonna figure it out, I'm gonna crack that code
Gonna break it break it down
I'm tired of all these questions
And, now it's just annoying
Cause, no one has the answer
So I guess it's up to me
To find the truth about love

Just change the word "Love" for "Pain" in the lyrics and that's  just about how I felt before finding out I have FAI.


*note: picture is from the video of P!nk's "So What" song from the Funhouse album. Fucking awesome gal that P!nk!!

­~ Klau