Gameplan for the hip and Deadlift 3 rep max

On Wednesday I got to see the surgeon, Dr. Johnson. According Dr. Johnson, Dr. Bruno was a little uncertain if I have a torn labrum because in his notes for Dr. Johnson he wrote, "torn labrum?". Anyway, after looking at some x-rays and the MRI, he determined that I definitely have femoro-acetabular impingement, as indicated by a cyst in my femur. Whether or not the labrum is torn was a little harder to tell, given that the MRI was done without contrast (even though I suggested to Dr. Bruno that it be done with contrast, thank you online med sites). However, the cyst is from the femur hitting something in the hip improperly, so even though the images were not exactly clear, if the hammer shows damage, most likely the anvil has damage as well.

He said that if I were to have surgery I wouldn't be able to get back to crossfit for around six weeks.

Six weeks? Is that all? I could do that no problem.

However, first I will try conservative treatment to see if addresses the pain, and if not then we'll do surgury. Here's the Hierarchy of treatment, starting from the most conservative to the least, being surgery.

1. Physical Therapy
2. Prolotherapy
3. injection of the hip joint of a numbing agent
4. Arthoscopic surgery

The third option would also be prep for the surgery. Contrast in MRI's are just liquid, so Dr. Johnson recommends adding a numbing agent so we can hit two birds with one stone. First, we'll have contrast for another MRI. Second, if the numbing agent takes care of the pain then we'll know the pain is not from anything muscular.

Regardless, I'm very excited about prolotherapy and am not afraid of surgery anymore. I'm also very, very happy to have a game plan. I think the mental anguish of not knowing what to do was worse than anything else. Now that I have a plan, nothing looks that bad.

I think the mental boost was very helpful for Wednesday, because we had another heavy lifting day, and tried to find our 3 rep deadlift max. Last time we did this (6/23/09) my 3 rep deadlift max was 265. Today it was... 305. A full 40 pounds more. I also managed to do 2 reps of 315, which is 20 pounds more than my previous two rep max.

I'm very happy with how I approached this workout. I caught myself mentally giving up, looking at the 305 bar and doubting my ability. Thankfully, because I caught it I reminded myself that this is my chance to prove my strength, that I have to make this moment count because this exact moment won't come around again. This motivated me to address the bar, take a deep breath and pull. At first nothing happened, and I almost gave up, but then I dug a little deeper and the bar started to move, and then I was standing. I could feel my back bend under the weight, but I kept the core tight and nothing hurt. This was great because I found a way to keep focus and push though, and most importantly, I didn't hurt myself.

It seems that I'm addicted to making large gains, it's like I've been going through withdrawal and Wednesday I got my fix, and it was quite a high.