WE CAN REBUILD HIM...

"We can rebuild him, we have the technology...but we don't want to spend a lot of money."

By now most of you probably know that I have a pretty severely torn labrum in my right hip as a result of Femoroacetabular Impingement (FAI).  What that means is that I have an abnormally shaped femoral head (the "ball" of the ball-and-socket joint) and certain motions result in excessive rubbing and pinching of my labrum.  Over time this excessive rubbing caused a tear.  If both the tear and the femoral head are not repaired, I could easily wear away the cartilage surrounding and lining the socket which would then result in bone-on-bone contact and premature arthritis of the hip.  These dangers aren't imminent, but if I wait any longer it just increases the odds that my labrum will be irreparably damaged (unless I switch over to a sedentary lifestyle, which is NOT an option).

This has likely been going on for a LONG time, but symptons didn't present themselves until late this summer.  My hips started "catching" and then "popping" quite often, and eventually I started to experience discomfort in my right hip (no pain, just discomfort).  That's the other bad news...I have the same type of impingement on the left side and likely a torn labrum too, but the impingement is less prominent and the tear is probably less severe.  My left hip is now like a ticking time-bomb.  The only good news out of this is that I haven't done anything wrong to injure myself.  This is a congenital condition that would have presented itself at some point.

Anyway, after experiencing the "popping" for long enough I decided to make a doctor's appointment.  I went to the Carrell Clinic here in Dallas (a very high-profile clinic whose doctors operate on every professional sports team here in the Metroplex...Cowboys, Mavericks, Stars, and Rangers) on September 18th.  The doctor took x-rays and could immediately tell that I had a cam impingement on both sides.  The next step was to schedule an MRI arthrogram (which involves injecting a contrast dye into the joint) to confirm the doctor's suspicions of a torn labrum.

My MRI arthrogram was last Thursday (September 24th).  Typically I wouldn't have learned the results of the MRI until days later after having the follow-up visit with the doctor.  Luckily for me Lauren works with the Radiologist who performed the MRI on me!  She called him before the procedure to let him know I would be coming in, and then he called her back later that morning to go over his findings.  He said "your husband has one of the biggest labral tears I've ever seen."  Damn.

My follow-up appointment with the doctor was yesterday morning (September 29th).  Lauren came with me and we asked him all the tough questions and ultimately we decided that the best bet for me was to have arthroscopic surgery to repair my torn labrum and reshape my femoral head to eliminate the impingement.

We also did our homework on this doctor (Mark Muller, M.D.).  He completed a 2-year fellowship at Cornell recently in which he focused on this very procedure.  So he has a lot of experience, and he even did his medical school, general surgery internship, and orthopaedic surgery residency at UT Southwestern here in Dallas.

I'm currently scheduled to have surgery on October 22nd.  I am extremely anxious to get the operation over with so that I can start the healing and rehab process.  I told them to put me on standby as well in the event that an earlier appointment becomes available.

On a positive note, Alex Rodriguez had the very same operation on March 9th of this year and was able to return to action shortly after the start of the season!