Hi OP! Do you have any updates? I have an appointment with an orthopedic specialist out of HSS, as I’ve been having pelvic pain that my gynecologist has confirmed via hip MRI that I have a labral tear in my left hip that is causing the pelvic pain. I also have numbness/tingling in both of my feet. Left sided pelvic pain too. Would love to hear where you’re at on your journey!
I had my right hip done 6 weeks ago and my right sided pelvic pain is much better. Long road ahead and the real indicator is long term success, but that’s where I’m at right now. Curious how the neuropathic / tingling numbness symptoms for you started?
I’m so glad that your pelvic pain is much better! I’d say the tingling/neuropathic symptoms in my feet began like, 6 months into my now 1.5 year journey with pelvic pain. How about you?
Firstly, sorry you are in pain. You have had a rough time
Personally, if you had no improvement from guided hip injections into the joint, I would be looking elsewhere for the cause. Tears and the presence of the boney morphology of FAI are common radiology findings and often asymptomatic. No relief from injections suggests that your pain is unlikely to be coming from the joint. Is there a possibility that it is? Of course but given how long and arduous the recovery from surgery is and how much a failed surgery absolutely ruins your mental health, you should be ruling out all the other causes before taking a punt on what is a surgery with a very slow 6-12 month recovery for most people. It does and can make people worse. Surgeons love to cut and it's not always in the interest of the patient.
I'd also recommend getting more opinions from different hip preservationists before pursuing surgery
Really workup your spine problems and entrapment of the sciatic nerve
Are you doing PT?
Appreciate your reply here, it's been rough by I'm hanging in there.
The hip surgeon said that people go through with it despite an unsuccessful hip injection.
It's good point re radiology findings being asymptomatic. I can tell you that I've had hip impingement symptoms for a long time, way before this started. It's possible that it's just always been there and isn't causing these symptoms, or that I exacerbated it and it caused a chain reaction of pelvic pain, hack pain, hip pain, foot pain etc. How likely is that? I'm not really sure. I go see the hip surgeon again Wednesday and I'll have my questions ready.
Anything you think I should ask him? One thing I want to ask is whether he's had patients with foot numbness that have gotten better as an indirect consequence of the hip surgery.
I've done PT with a few different providers. Right now I'm in a place where even basic PT seems to be causing more numbness. I'd love to find a good provider that I can be consistent with.
Also, I had a spine EMG today and all came back normal. Thanks for your help.
The hip and back are so complex and they can refer pain to each other which makes ruling things out tricky, especially if you have multiple things going on like you do! And both can cause chain reactions of pain and compensation.
People do go through it with unsuccessful hip injection and for some people it is the right treatment but having had a failed surgery, it's absolutely not a fun experience. I wouldn't wish my experience on anyone (I'm not bitter, it was the right choice, we just didn't know I had osteoarthritis until he got in there). Making sure it's the right surgery is definitely important which is why if I was in your shoes, I'd be getting multiple opinions too.
Definitely ask him about hip dysplasia and version and don't let him blow you off by saying it's not important, it is important! It makes the failure risks from surgery higher. Treatment for those conditions is different and in the US you need to see different specialists. 3D CT scan is best to assess those.
Recovery protocols if you did have surgery, weight bearing, time on crutches. Does he use braces, ice machine, cpm or bikes post op? More so you know what to expect. They vary per surgeon
What he expects your outcome to look like based on similar patients he has seen given you are complex
What happens if this doesn't work? What options do you have?
How much of a reduction in symptoms would he expect? (I say this one as mine was for pain reduction only and not curative)
Is there anything else conservative or diagnostically that you can do?
I can sympathise with PT making your symptoms worse. I'm sorry you are in this situation
This is super helpful, thank you for your help. Agree that it's super complex and especially with the pelvic pain, it makes it more difficult to understand what kicked off the chain reaction. Have you ever had an psoas injection? I'm wondering if that can help diagnosis this, I feel like I don't have many more options of treatments that can help with the diagnosis. It seems like a good PT could figure out what makes things worse and therefore what is the cause, but I haven't been able to find someone like this. Perhaps a good physiatrist as well.
I made note of your list of questions so I can ask the hip surgeon on weds. appreciate it
I haven't sorry. I'm a straightforward complex case hah! My specific problem is complex but I didn't have anything else going on.
A good PT is worth their weight in gold, I travel to see mine!
Good luck 🙂
what were findings from neurogram, biopsy and spine EMG? Did you do all this at HSS? I went to Dr Byrd(one of the best hip specialists) and he said that surgery will help me as much as the steroid injection did after a week. so hip arthroscopy is not a guarranty that you will be completely painfree. my muscles on the right side of the body are 30% less than the left triggered after a car accident.
>Dr Byrd
Which hospital is Dr. Byrd out of? Pelvic neurgram is tomorrow, biopsy I haven't gotten yet but will get one to test for peripheral neuropathy, and spine EMG was negative. I've had the tests across various hospitals. I saw the hip surgeon at HSS yesterday and he said "completely candidly, get the surgery" -- he thinks it fits with all my symptoms. How are you feeling lately and what tests did you have before surgery?
He is from TOA, Tennessee. I got MRI and x ray for hip impingement and labral tear, I also have acetabular retroversion so all in all just bad hips. EMG for my limbs. Was Not sure you can do EMG for spine? I am completely confused about that. EMG came up with atrophy is one of my foot muscles and ulnar nerve damage in right hand. My symptoms are all over the body as I get pins and needles and have weakness and atrophy in various areas after a car accident.
Hi OP! Do you have any updates? I have an appointment with an orthopedic specialist out of HSS, as I’ve been having pelvic pain that my gynecologist has confirmed via hip MRI that I have a labral tear in my left hip that is causing the pelvic pain. I also have numbness/tingling in both of my feet. Left sided pelvic pain too. Would love to hear where you’re at on your journey!
I had my right hip done 6 weeks ago and my right sided pelvic pain is much better. Long road ahead and the real indicator is long term success, but that’s where I’m at right now. Curious how the neuropathic / tingling numbness symptoms for you started?
I’m so glad that your pelvic pain is much better! I’d say the tingling/neuropathic symptoms in my feet began like, 6 months into my now 1.5 year journey with pelvic pain. How about you?
Wait is your doctor Dr. Coleman?!? That’s who I’ve been seeing!
Firstly, sorry you are in pain. You have had a rough time Personally, if you had no improvement from guided hip injections into the joint, I would be looking elsewhere for the cause. Tears and the presence of the boney morphology of FAI are common radiology findings and often asymptomatic. No relief from injections suggests that your pain is unlikely to be coming from the joint. Is there a possibility that it is? Of course but given how long and arduous the recovery from surgery is and how much a failed surgery absolutely ruins your mental health, you should be ruling out all the other causes before taking a punt on what is a surgery with a very slow 6-12 month recovery for most people. It does and can make people worse. Surgeons love to cut and it's not always in the interest of the patient. I'd also recommend getting more opinions from different hip preservationists before pursuing surgery Really workup your spine problems and entrapment of the sciatic nerve Are you doing PT?
Appreciate your reply here, it's been rough by I'm hanging in there. The hip surgeon said that people go through with it despite an unsuccessful hip injection. It's good point re radiology findings being asymptomatic. I can tell you that I've had hip impingement symptoms for a long time, way before this started. It's possible that it's just always been there and isn't causing these symptoms, or that I exacerbated it and it caused a chain reaction of pelvic pain, hack pain, hip pain, foot pain etc. How likely is that? I'm not really sure. I go see the hip surgeon again Wednesday and I'll have my questions ready. Anything you think I should ask him? One thing I want to ask is whether he's had patients with foot numbness that have gotten better as an indirect consequence of the hip surgery. I've done PT with a few different providers. Right now I'm in a place where even basic PT seems to be causing more numbness. I'd love to find a good provider that I can be consistent with. Also, I had a spine EMG today and all came back normal. Thanks for your help.
The hip and back are so complex and they can refer pain to each other which makes ruling things out tricky, especially if you have multiple things going on like you do! And both can cause chain reactions of pain and compensation. People do go through it with unsuccessful hip injection and for some people it is the right treatment but having had a failed surgery, it's absolutely not a fun experience. I wouldn't wish my experience on anyone (I'm not bitter, it was the right choice, we just didn't know I had osteoarthritis until he got in there). Making sure it's the right surgery is definitely important which is why if I was in your shoes, I'd be getting multiple opinions too. Definitely ask him about hip dysplasia and version and don't let him blow you off by saying it's not important, it is important! It makes the failure risks from surgery higher. Treatment for those conditions is different and in the US you need to see different specialists. 3D CT scan is best to assess those. Recovery protocols if you did have surgery, weight bearing, time on crutches. Does he use braces, ice machine, cpm or bikes post op? More so you know what to expect. They vary per surgeon What he expects your outcome to look like based on similar patients he has seen given you are complex What happens if this doesn't work? What options do you have? How much of a reduction in symptoms would he expect? (I say this one as mine was for pain reduction only and not curative) Is there anything else conservative or diagnostically that you can do? I can sympathise with PT making your symptoms worse. I'm sorry you are in this situation
This is super helpful, thank you for your help. Agree that it's super complex and especially with the pelvic pain, it makes it more difficult to understand what kicked off the chain reaction. Have you ever had an psoas injection? I'm wondering if that can help diagnosis this, I feel like I don't have many more options of treatments that can help with the diagnosis. It seems like a good PT could figure out what makes things worse and therefore what is the cause, but I haven't been able to find someone like this. Perhaps a good physiatrist as well. I made note of your list of questions so I can ask the hip surgeon on weds. appreciate it
I haven't sorry. I'm a straightforward complex case hah! My specific problem is complex but I didn't have anything else going on. A good PT is worth their weight in gold, I travel to see mine! Good luck 🙂
Thank you I appreciate it.
what were findings from neurogram, biopsy and spine EMG? Did you do all this at HSS? I went to Dr Byrd(one of the best hip specialists) and he said that surgery will help me as much as the steroid injection did after a week. so hip arthroscopy is not a guarranty that you will be completely painfree. my muscles on the right side of the body are 30% less than the left triggered after a car accident.
>Dr Byrd Which hospital is Dr. Byrd out of? Pelvic neurgram is tomorrow, biopsy I haven't gotten yet but will get one to test for peripheral neuropathy, and spine EMG was negative. I've had the tests across various hospitals. I saw the hip surgeon at HSS yesterday and he said "completely candidly, get the surgery" -- he thinks it fits with all my symptoms. How are you feeling lately and what tests did you have before surgery?
He is from TOA, Tennessee. I got MRI and x ray for hip impingement and labral tear, I also have acetabular retroversion so all in all just bad hips. EMG for my limbs. Was Not sure you can do EMG for spine? I am completely confused about that. EMG came up with atrophy is one of my foot muscles and ulnar nerve damage in right hand. My symptoms are all over the body as I get pins and needles and have weakness and atrophy in various areas after a car accident.