FAI/labrum tear does not have to equal surgery!

So I just got a question from a follower from Denmark asking how I'm coping post surgery.  Maybe there's a bit of a language barrier, but maybe not and I haven't been that clear.

So let me clarify the record.

Two years ago I was diagnosed with FAI (cam and pincer type) and was told I may have a small tear in my labrum as well.

Incidentally I learned I had tight hip capsules.

I started seeing a massage therapist while doing exercises to treat the hip on a regular basis to release the hip muscles, and it starts to render me pain free.

Fast forward to August last year and I seemed to make the hip worse in an Olympic lifting competition.

I go get another MRI to see what's going on.  In the report it comments that my femur heads are nice an smooth, nowhere does it mention that there is an impingement.  It seems that my impingement has gone away.

I still have a laberal tear though (which seems to be the root cause of the pain), so I start seeing a Dr Hauser, a prolotherpist, and I seem to be progressing nicely.

Nowhere in there did I get surgery.  For me, surgery is not the answer for a hip impingement.  An impingement is the result of poor mobility, if you fix the impingement it will just come back because you still have the mobility issues.  Moreover, even if the surgery fixes the underlying issues it may not leave you pain free.  I'm willing to bet good money that the large majority of people who have pain and impingement actually have muscular pain and not joint pain.  If you fix the impingement, the muscles are still going to be too tight.  After months or years of learning how to be tight (and painful), the muscle is going to take a lot of attention to make it release and stop hurting.  If you go online and read people's blogs who just have the surgery, it just doesn't seem to work.  Even if you have multiple surgeries (like five of them).  Surgery is at best an incomplete solution.

First fix the mobility issue, the body will take care of the extra bone growth on its own (mine did).  If you already have a tear in the labrum, then try prolotherpy before surgery.  Prolo seems to be largely dependent on the skill of the administrator.  For example, the "expert" in Alexandria said he couldn't help me, but lo and behold I'm getting help from Dr. Hauser and it seems to be working.

My point with all of this is surgery is not the only answer.  Orthopods think it's the only answer because that's all they know.  They don't know anything about massage therapy or PRP treatments or anything else.  They just do surgery, and that's it.  So if you ask an Orthopedic surgeon for help of course all they are going to recommend is surgery.  But there are other ways, I'm a prime example.

[Edit 7/8/13: I am now seeing a PT who does dry needling, and it is doing wonders for the last remaining bits of pain. I highly recommend you find someone who does dry needling early on in your search for pain relief.]