Hip Cam Impingement Syndrome

I've had surgery on both hips to fix torn labrums caused by impingement. So my surgeries involved both fixing the labrum and addressing the impingement, although the surgeon said that shouldn't really change the recovery time. It's worth noting that I didn't really have a choice in whether to get the surgeries, since my labrums were already torn and needed to get repaired.

Recovery sucked big time, but was ultimately worth it. Completely useless and hopped up on pain meds for 10 days, crutches/non-weight-bearing for 3 weeks, physical therapy for 4-5 months, climbing indoors/toprope at maybe 4 months, running a bit by 6 months, back to 100% by around 12 months. Double down on physical therapy...I slacked a little on that after the first surgery and permanently lost some range of motion in my hip as a result.

Worth it to do your research and pick a top-notch surgeon, since that can make an enormous difference in recovery time.

Go find a good physical therapist in your area. I'm wrapping up the same issue currently. No surgery, about a month of PT and I was back at it. Lots of research out there showing the same or better results for PT vs surgery and the same for a torn meniscus. I'd personally do anything I could to avoid getting surgeries, (post having several). Either way, both a PT or an ortho will probably want an MRI to assess the issue fully.

Do you know your pain is from hip cam impingement? I went through the whole "you've got hip cam impingement and it probably caused your arthritis" thing. Long story short, my PT says to me, "You may have hip cam impingement, but it's not causing your pain." A lot of glute exercises later, plus some dry-needling, I'm much much better off. The doctors assumed arthritis=pain. My PT didn't. Just a cautionary tale. The first doctor that saw me, by coincidence, had just had hip cam surgery done to him. He indicated it was not an easy recovery.

I spent many years battling hip flexor tendonitis and was told by a surgeon at Steadman-Hawkins that this was a result of instability from an impingement/torn labrum. I never had the classic torn labrum symptoms. I had the corrective surgery, but it never addressed my symptoms.

What did was to stop running up to 80+ miles a week. I still have hip flexor issues, but they're no longer debilitating. My recovery was far shorter than Alyssa's. In retrospect, I doubt that surgery was worth it in my case. At least get a second opinion before committing to surgery.

I had surgery in November 2015 to fix my hip impingement. I had torn the labrum pretty significantly from marathon training in June 2015, and the surgeon wasn't sure whether or not they could repair it...hinting that it probably couldn't. After the surgery, he informed me that they did re-shape my femur head to better fit my hip socket, but that the labrum was not repairable. Hearing that, I was a little bummed.

I started PT about 5 days later, but truthfully I was progressing better than another patient who repaired the labrum. I never really experienced any agonizing pain, like she did. Just more of a dull ache after PT. I finished up PT after 4 months. It was boring, but I was warned not to rush through it. I felt like I could run by two months. But, as the surgeon told me, my femur head was weakened by the surgery, and an inadvertent step or fall could crack it. So, I stayed the course, sitting on the stationary bike, pool workouts, therapy bands and slowly adding weight with machines. I could still hang from the hangboard, so not all was lost.

I did defer the surgery so that it happened in Nov and the recovery happened over the winter months. When I talked to the surgeon, he indicated that the damage is already done, and that If I could stand the pain, I could continue to climb, bike, run, whatever until the surgery date. I continued to run, bike and climb (with a cortisone shot, and lots of motrin) until a week before the surgery.

I lost out on ski season, but kept cycling and climbing seasons largely intact.

Since the doctor couldn't save the labrum, I am at an increased likelihood of osteoarthritis. So, it's not all roses. But for now, I'm back to where I was before the injury. Better even...I can finally touch my toes!