Checking In

Posted on April 30, 2013 by vmarino| Leave a comment

On this last day of April, I wanted to keep the commitment I made to myself when I started this blog nearly two years ago (just before my first hip scope – on my left side) to post at least once a month. (Whew, just made it!)  I also thought it was about time that I check in again.

I’ve been swamped with grad school lately. This has also been a challenging spring – but not because of any problems with my hips. Or knees. Or anything orthopedic, for that matter. My (now-former) dentist did a poor job putting in a dental bridge a couple of years ago, so I have to have the work redone, along with root canal therapy, which I just completed today.

I continue to recover well from my two scopes. These surgeries, I’ve learned, leave us vulnerable, which is why I have been extra careful not to overdo my workouts. I am running three to five miles at a clip, at least three times a week, take a spin class and lift at least once a week; and so far I’ve been just fine. (I also try to squeeze in some of my PT exercises each week.) The plan now is to up my mileage ever so gradually this summer.

My thoughts and prayers, meanwhile, remain with the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. Boston happened to be my very first marathon – I ran the 100th running in 1996, the one year they opened the race to nonqualifiers. So it will always have a very special place in my heart.

I promise not to wait too long to write again.

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Posted in Hip Labral Tears, My Story, Running

Hip-Scope Recovery, Gaga-style

Posted on March 17, 2013 by vmarino| 3 Comments

 

lgaga1awheel

© Tumblr / Terry Richardson

No two recoveries from arthroscopic hip surgery are alike. Healing times will vary – as will triumphs and setbacks, not to mention ways we choose to pass the time just after the procedure. I spent the first three weeks after Surgery No. 1, on my left hip, working from home and doing graduate-school assignments. In the weeks after No. 2, on my right side, I wrote out holiday cards, learned Photoshop and watched film classics.

Kind of boring, I know, especially when compared with someone like Lady Gaga. As you probably know, the pop star underwent a hip scope in February to repair a torn labrum in her right hip joint. The painful injury forced her to cancel the remaining dates on her “Born This Way” world tour. (It caused me to cancel my tour of the five boroughs via the New York City marathon.)

I don’t know how La Gaga’s physical therapy is going, but I do know from various media accounts that she has chosen to pass some of the time away gazing at her new monster fish tank filled with over two dozen koi carp imported from Japan. (Sure beats old movies.)

And she’s getting around in a wheelchair made of 24-karat gold plate and lined with black leather; it even comes with a removable leather canopy. This one-of-a-kind device was designed by Ken Borochov of the luxury brand Mordekai. Borochov, more accustomed to designing jewelry for the likes of Nicki Minaj and  Kanye West, told the New York Post that he has “never done a wheelchair but am always up for a challenge and was thrilled to create what I affectionately dubbed the Chariot, a chair fit only for a queen.”

Here’s to wishing the pop queen a speedy recovery!

UPDATE: Lady Gaga has since traded in her golden chariot for a customized Louis Vuitton version. Why am I not surprised?

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Posted in Hip Labral Tears

Silver Linings

Posted on February 14, 2013 by vmarino| Leave a comment

The recent nor’easter and a recent bout with norovirus (a k a stomach flu) have, oddly, helped to speed up my recovery from last month’s setbacks (double workouts, severe spinning were the culprits). I guess my aching body (or, rather, aching left groin area) just need to rest some more, and with the bad weather outside and feeling under the weather inside, there was not much to do but convalesce.

I have since resumed spin classes, though my level of riding is down a few notches, and I am back to three-mile runs a couple of times a week. I also have dusted off my PT routine of stretching and core strengthening. (Memo to self: You must keep that up!)

This cold weather, though, is not exactly kind to those of us recovering from arthroscopic hip surgery(ies). I was feeling so much better in the warmer fall months.

Counting the days to spring.

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Posted in Core Strengthening, Hip Labral Tears, My Story, Physical Therapy, Running

An Update on A-Rod

Posted on January 15, 2013 by vmarino| 6 Comments

Alex Rodriguez’s next arthroscopic hip surgery is set  for tomorrow, Jan. 16th, according to MLB.com. The highly paid Yankees third basement is having his left hip scoped in order to repair a torn labrum, a bone impingement and remove a cyst. His right hip was scoped almost four years ago, in February 2009.

Dr. Bryan T. Kelly, who will perform the procedure at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, says he expects Rodriguez to return to the game around the All-Star break this summer. Rodriguez has already been undergoing physical therapy or “prehab” to prepare for the surgery and facilitate a speedy recovery.

Dr. Kelly says he believes the injury contributed to Rodriguez’s poor performance last season, adding that hip issues are genetic in origin and unrelated to his admitted past use of performance-enhancing steroids.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Rodriguez’s arthroscopic hip surgery, on the left side, “went as planned and without complication,” according to an announcement from the Yankees, and he is expected to be discharged from the hospital on Thursday, Jan. 17th.

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Forced to Back Off (Again)

Posted on January 11, 2013 by vmarino| 6 Comments

The New Year, for me, commenced with a gust of energy: an hour-long, kick-ass spin class, followed by a community-organized 5-kilometer run through my hometown, and a little weight-lifting later in the day.

Ahhh,  like old times again, I said confidently to myself.

But just as I thought it was safe to continue accelerating my workouts, reality set in. I am not completely back to normal – 13 months after my second arthroscopic hip surgery, in December 2011, and 18 months after my first, in July 2011.

This unfortunate revelation came courtesy of my left side – the first to be scoped, and also the most damaged. The groin area remains sore from the most recent back-to-back workout last weekend.

So now I am backing off. I’ve gone from double workouts to no workouts (on some days) and I’m revisiting my physical therapy exercises, which include stretching (which I had neglected to do lately), and icing. I’ve also been taking the anti-inflammatory Meloxicam again. (This seemed to do the trick after my last setback a few months ago!)

I’m still feeling some discomfort in the area, though I don’t feel as though the soreness is getting worse.

Only time will tell. I hate waiting, though.

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Posted in Hip Labral Tears, My Story

Happy Holidays

Posted on December 25, 2012 by vmarino| 5 Comments

xmaslogoLast year I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day on crutches, recovering from my second arthroscopic hip surgery in one year; this time  on my right side.

This year I ran five miles and took a kick-ass spin class.

What a difference a year makes, huh?

Wishing everyone a happy, safe and injury-free holiday season. And a speedy recovery for all those recuperating from their own hip scopes. There is life after surgery.

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Posted in Hip Labral Tears, Inspiration, My Story

Another Hip Scope for A-Rod

Posted on December 3, 2012 by vmarino| 1 Comment

It’s a double-header for Alex Rodriguez.

The New York Yankees announced today that its star third baseman will have to undergo yet another arthroscopic hip surgery – this one on his left side  – to repair a torn labrum and bone impingement and to remove a cyst. (His right hip was scoped in February 2009.)

The Yankees general manager, Brian Cashman, said that Rodriguez probably wouldn’t return to the game until next June. He’ll be required to complete a presurgery strengthening program of four to six weeks, before having the  procedure,  scheduled for January, then four to five months of physical therapy.

Dr. Bryan T. Kelly will perform the arthroscopic surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, the place where both of my hip scopes were done. Rodriguez’s first procedure was done by the hip scope pioneer Dr. Marc Philippon of Vail, Colo.

Cashman said Rodriguez’s left hip problems were likely a contributing factor in his poor performance recently. “The struggles we saw in September and in October are more likely than not related to this issue,” Cashman said on the Yankees Web site. Rodriguez “wasn’t firing on all cylinders,” he added.

It’s not uncommon to have both hips showing signs of femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), or hip impingement syndrome, which causes tears to the labrum.  According to my hip doctor, around 40 percent of patients are affected, though not all will need to have a second surgery – like A-Rod and I.

Sunday, in fact, marks the one-year anniversary of my second hip scope, on my right side. (The left side was done in July 2011.) I’m glad to be looking back at that year – and thrilled to be feeling like my old active self again.

Wishing A-Rod a speedy recovery!

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Posted in Hip Labral Tears

Thankful

Posted on November 24, 2012 by vmarino| 6 Comments

There are many reasons to be grateful this Thanksgiving weekend.

For starters, my family and I survived Hurricane Sandy (yes, we live in hard-hit New Jersey) relatively unscathed. Even though I lost power for 10 days and my commute to New York was for awhile a two-hour odyssey each way, no one was hurt and our house was still standing. (And unlike Hurricane Irene the year before, our basement did not flood.)

I am grateful, too, that I have been able to run again as a way to relieve the storm-induced stress. And on Thanksgiving day, not only did I volunteer for my town’s 8K fundraising race, but I was actually able to participate in it! This was my first race since my two arthroscopic hip surgeries last year (the first in July, the second in December) to repair two labral tears.

I wasn’t super fast – but I was far from last!

 

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Posted in My Story, Running

No Pomp, Better Circumstances

Posted on October 6, 2012 by vmarino| 8 Comments

“You’ve graduated! See you in a year, maybe, so we can get some more data on you.”

Those were the final words from my hip surgeon at the end of my regular checkup this past week. As I was leaving his office, I was handed – not a diploma or certificate, but my M.R.I. films and X-Rays, a thick set for each hip that was scoped last year. No more room in the office to store them, I was told.

And so marked the biggest milestone since I began my long, arduous journey to recover from what’s known as femoroacetabular impingement, or FAI. Quite simply: too much friction in the hip joint.

The journey began exactly two years ago when I started to experience sharp pain in my left hip and groin while training for the New York City marathon. I was ultimately forced to drop out of that race, and spent the next several months attempting to recover from what most health care professionals – from physical therapists to even a sports medicine doctor – thought was a bad case of tendonitis in my iliopsoas muscle group. It wasn’t until I finally broken down and saw an orthopedist, who ordered an M.R.I. with dye contrast, that I finally learned that I had a torn hip labrum caused by bone spurs.

My first arthroscopic hip surgery was in July 2011, the second, on my right side, was five months later, in December.

So what prompted my doctor to “graduate” me? According to him, I have full range of motion and full strength in both hip joints. He was also pleased to learn that I am now running up to five miles two or three times a week, and taking advanced spin classes and cycling.

The fact is, I have been feeling more like my old, active self lately. But I am not there. Yet. I still experience some discomfort in my left groin (This time it really might be tendonitis, according to my hip doctor) that only time will lessen. Or maybe not.

Still, I am so grateful to have gotten this far. As I look at the banner image of this blog – with all the guys running – I can now identify more with the last one.

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Posted in Hip Labral Tears, My Story

Exercise Slider

Posted on September 9, 2012 by vmarino| Leave a comment

In case you haven’t noticed, there’s another new blog feature: “Click for Quick Exercise,”  located on the bottom right of the Catching a Third Wind homepage (under Archives). When you click on this button  – well, not the one you see here in this post – out slides an exercise designed to help build core strength that I learned in physical therapy. The current exercise: the “Bird Dog.”

But stay tuned for more to come…

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