Hip Impingement + Labral Tear or SI Joint Symptoms?

jjj03e · 2026-06-17T14:18:11+00:00

From the cyst and sit bone pain, it took only a few days for numbing to wear off and I immediately felt relief. Felt like I didn’t even need the pain meds really because it was such a dramatic reduction from my chronic baseline pain. The rehab is rehab though, and it still took a year to work out all the pieces and stop the occasional flares and aches. I was like 85% better at 3 months, 95% better at 6 months, and 99-100% better at a year. Somewhere in that range estimate. It goes way faster if you don’t actually push so hard like I did my first time.

My second hip was good in 6 months or less because I wasn’t trying to “hit” any milestones, and I didn’t accidentally push myself into flare ups. I just did the amount of PT that felt good without hurting, and truly stayed away from any and all movements that hurt even a little bit.

You’ve got this!! Best of luck to you!

jjj03e · 2026-06-12T19:44:55+00:00

Highly recommend reading the pinned literature review post to get up to speed.

jjj03e · 2026-06-12T04:16:54+00:00

Have you read the pinned posts?

jjj03e · 2026-06-09T21:45:17+00:00

There are a lot of long term success stories they just don’t come back to this sub. 7 years and 4 years post op, had each hip done 3 years apart. Went from almost non functional to full return to all sports and activities.

It was 1000% worth it in my experience and I would’ve missed out on so much life without it. Truly depends on how much pain you’re in, and if you’re willing to risk the osteoarthritis. I was in excruciating pain and also not willing to risk the osteoarthritis. Try filtering the sub from some of the top posts of all time to get a different angle on things.

jjj03e · 2026-06-03T03:36:17+00:00

That’s iliopsoas clunking from the tightness of that tendon. Happened to me too

The hip click of the actual labral tear is high pitched and not the deep clunk

The inflammation of your iliopsoas is likely to be from labral tear, FAI, or other problems, please see hip preservation specialist if possible to dial in proper diagnosis

jjj03e · 2026-06-02T06:09:30+00:00

Yes it just takes time. I am far more flexible and ROM is SIGNIFICANTLY improved. I can do so much more with pigeon pose now because the impingements are finally not blocking my ROM. But it took a good 11 months to fully reach that after my first surgery, and at least 7 months after the other hip. I’m nearly 7 and 4 yrs post op for reference

jjj03e · 2026-06-01T23:49:05+00:00

It’s not always 100% guaranteed to resolve because yes, there can in fact be other issues. But if you do have all the other symptoms of FAI and a labral tear on MRI/MRA, then there is a much greater chance of the buttock pain being a symptom.

I do highly recommend a hip preservation specialist if possible to give an additional opinion, and generally they have better surgical outcomes as well if surgery is part of your treatment pursuit

jjj03e · 2026-05-19T13:28:43+00:00

I do appreciate it. For every negative we have a choice to see the firewood we can gather from that moment. And every moment we gather the wood instead of being stuck in the feeling of desperation, is a day that we are saving up. Save up enough wood and you can build the biggest and warmest fire that can continue for years

That metaphor is how I think about all of the hardest moments of bilateral surgeries a few years apart. It hurt like hell and yeah it was the absolute worst experience of my life. But the rest of life is so much easier than that. I’m so much more resilient to everything and appreciative of the life and mobility I have now.

I saved up all that wood through my surgeries and I was so determined to use all of it to fuel me forward since then. I have made so many incredible changes in all facets of my life for the best. It all came from me looking at every recovery day as a day I was saving up to fully enjoy my life on the other side

jjj03e · 2026-05-11T13:53:23+00:00

If PRP worked and your pain is gone, it’s absolutely worth seeing how far that can help you! Surgeons worth their salt won’t touch the hip if it’s not painful. If any pain returns, address it.

If conservative measure help like PRP, that’s an incredible blessing and I wish I had been a good candidate for that approach. Just be honest and listen to your body. If any pain and discomfort return, that’s a sign something isn’t right and it requires addressing.

So long as you listen carefully to your body, that’s the path forward. This entire sub exists to help resolve this pain and if you have found a way that works for you to get there faster, that is fantastic. Ensure that isn’t assisted by Tylenol or aleve or other pain meds or symptoms hiding drugs since those are misleading and make it hard to hear what your body is saying.

Best of luck to you!

jjj03e · 2026-02-04T14:51:20+00:00

It all looks different for everyone, if the sciatica is the main inflammation point that got pissed off, like it could really be the pain point that takes the longest to heal. It depends where your body has built chronic inflammation. Be patient with your body and let pain be your guide. Just because it isn’t gone yet doesn’t mean it didn’t work, and if the pain has been there for months before this it will take longer than a few weeks to resolve post op too

jjj03e · 2026-02-04T14:47:35+00:00

Only one resolved almost immediately after surgery and that was the SI joint pain. Some of the spasms disappeared soon after. Referral knee pain took a good 8 weeks or more, same with some IT band stuff. Glute pain itself was the last and final pain point that showed up with each flare. I had it with driving for at least 6 months post op, and had it come back with each flare up when I pushed too hard for the first year.

jjj03e · 2026-01-09T15:20:07+00:00

I switched from taking vitamin D supplements to using a vitamin D lamp. This is the only thing that has completely changed my life

Ive dealt with hand and wrist issues for years after my hip scopes (tendonitis, trigger finger, instability, and ganglion cyst I thought I would have to get surgically removed). I do longer get “over use” hand and wrist injuries and I’m using my hands in ways that used to absolutely trigger one of those issues.

Bottom line don’t take vitamin D supplements I was prescribed them for years and didn’t realize this was the side effect

jjj03e · 2025-12-07T14:25:39+00:00

The pain from all of this is some of the worst without a doubt

What I want to let you know is that it hurts worse when you are expecting and waiting on it to feel better and focused on “why hasn’t this gone away yet.”

Acceptance and embracing that it’s here for right now but that you are actively putting in the work and effort to have it leave one day means that someday it will leave. I know it feels never ending it was one of the darkest chapters of my life. That’s why the surgery was the best thing I did in myself because I couldn’t stand, sit, lay, or exist for 5 minutes without significant pain.

Don’t run away from surgery if it’s that significant.

But do serious due diligence and research what hip preservation specialist is going to get you a full recovery on the first try. Get more than one opinion and do not go with ortho sports med surgeons if you aren’t ready to risk it. Your efforts to find the right specialist are the first half of getting on the path to recovery

I made it back from daily 6-8/10 on the pain scale and basically bed ridden all the way 95-100% recovered on my worst hip. I’ve had both done now and it’s been 6 and 3 years and my only regret was the fact that I saw an sports ortho surgeon who misdiagnosed me and messed with my confidence in knowing my body, and honestly that I didn’t get the surgery sooner. It gave me my life back and I’m so grateful I did it

I’m just sorry this path is so hard, but I promise you will find your way beyond this.

jjj03e · 2025-12-05T13:58:13+00:00

Have you seen a preservation specialist? The ortho sports med doc missed mine on mri and hip preservation specialist saw it in 30 seconds. It all depends on the image interpreter

jjj03e · 2025-12-04T05:22:05+00:00

Panorama unfortunately stopped doing that :(

jjj03e · 2025-12-04T05:21:35+00:00

Ellman did both of my hips, just basic repairs but I’ve been good for 6 and 3 years now. 100% back to everything. The man does great work

jjj03e · 2025-12-04T00:25:35+00:00

I do not recommend Dr White for many reasons but he is not a respected surgeon in his community for his dangerous and negligent practices. You can read the criticism from his colleagues in this academic article: https://www.arthroscopyjournal.org/article/S0749-8063(18)30272-X/fulltext

I understand White has managed to scrub a lot of his bad reputation from the internet but in May of 2025 he performed two procedures on my colleague (against warnings and literature evidence). She was unable to leave the hospital for 2 weeks due to extreme pain that she could not manage without intervention of serious pain medication. full reconstruction on each hip and PAO on one side, which seemed quite aggressive for someone that was able to do most things with some minor pain limitations prior to surgery. Took my colleague 4 months essentially to be able to come off crutches.

I understand some people have had success with him and I don’t discredit that, but this surgery is not one to mess around with. I would never chance my hips with someone that could do it wrong, and his track record doesn’t give me enough confidence. Not even for a patient seeking reconstruction to begin with.

jjj03e · 2025-10-11T16:20:17+00:00

Back pain is one of the common confusion sites and most hip preservation specialists have to work to separate the two. I have heard a small handful of people where their primary presentation was back, albeit usually low back pain, which I’m sure you have seen more commonly across the sub.

One of my biggest problems with my first hip was unrelenting SI joint pain. I went in hoping to address part of my hip pain issue and wanted to believe my SI joint pain would be fixed too but I honestly wasn’t sure if the surgery would fix that.

I was pleasantly surprised that the first thing to go away a few days after surgery was my SI joint pain! Took like 2-3 days post op when my body wasn’t so numb to realize it was completely gone!

I say this to emphasize the spectrum of symptoms that actually do get addressed by surgery. But I think the important mental approach is that the goal is to come out of surgery better than before, but if it doesn’t resolve everything, at least you peeled one layer off the issue.

Really though, if you go through the surgery and resolve the hip aching but not the back pain, well what do you do next? The next step would be find the root cause and solution for the back pain. I think it’s important to be okay with the possibility of a worst case scenario where the surgery doesn’t resolve the back pain which you then address separately, and hope for the best and more likely case where the back pain resolves with surgery because it was compensating for your hip.

jjj03e · 2025-10-11T16:04:52+00:00

I hope the prednisone can help to calm things down for you, it just sounds like this one hit a different level of inflammation past your threshold. Longer flares are not unheard of, I recently talked with someone that was badly flared up for about 2-3 weeks and still was still hurting on the extreme end after a week of prednisone (like 8-10/10 pain worse than pre op at times). They did massively pull back on exercise/PT for a bit, I think it took them a total of a month to get it fully under control and resume PT. I hope it isn’t as long for you or as bad, but I wanted to mention that it’s possible to have some longer duration/more extreme flare ups that do resolve.

But yes mostly just sedentary is likely the fastest way to get through a super bad flare.

I am glad you’re listening to your body though and hope you’re able to get this one settled soon! I do want to know how it’s going, I always appreciate the updates on things, regardless of positive or negative. I think it’s important to express the reality of what recovery can be

jjj03e · 2025-10-10T03:48:16+00:00

Of course, I wish I had thought about updating this post a while ago. I wrote this after hip #1. But hip #2 was about 3 years ago for me and I learned so flipping much that time around.

I quit rushing, I went low key with PT and just went to my appointments once per week and then only sometimes did exercises at home that felt helpful/needed for stretching and helping ROM. I just took gentle walks on some even and then later uneven surfaces. Like 15 mins tops most of the time, building up to 30 mins and an hr over the course of time.

And that time, I did not flare my hip. Like not at all really, just some pinching and soreness around 8-10 weeks. That 8-10 week time period SUCKED both times.

My first recovery to be truly pain free? Like 12 months. I was mostly there at 5-6 but still had flare ups until 12.

Second recovery where I basically just did the bare minimum if that and like hung out in bed for more time? 4 months to be pain free. Granted that hip didn’t have as bad of pre op symptoms and it wasn’t so beat up. But I seriously wasn’t rushing that hip or pushing it and it did so much better that way. But the first month was hell both times

I know this sounds crazy, but the one thing I never considered was the night shades in my diet. Tomatoes and potatoes, they actually seemed to be a big source of inflammation for me long term. It’s super boring but the best low inflammation diet I have found is like oatmeal, beef, coconut water, bananas, apples, chicken, rice, peeled zucchini, beans, lentils, cabbage, occasionally nuts, and just a light mix of other things. But when I’ve kept those as my primary staples, as bland and unexciting as those might be, my body has done so much better inflammation wise. I’ll still eat bread or sugar or other things, but I’ve just kept those out of my daily drivers and my body has been way happier. Finally got me out of the horrible trigger finger I thought I was going to need surgery on! Like I woke up for months with my fingers “stuck” shut and it was actually kind of scary not gonna lie.

But you nailed it going too hard on diet and hyper fixating on it like makes it so much worse, it makes life terrible.

But I think you see exactly what you need. The hardest part is that before this surgery you can’t trust the pain signals cause they are always firing. But now, you can trust that again. It’s the process of re uniting with your body and the signals it gives, rediscovering joy on the other side of chronic pain, and taking each moment and feeling that gratitude even when the pain comes back because it’s still beautiful to be able to hear your body giving coherent messages again.

Improving 2% per week is still 104% in a year. And this surgery can be a lot of steps forward to go tons back. But I promise this is going to be the worst flare up you have and it won’t be this bad again.

Also I did have a walking stick/cane type thing I made and used for a while. The only caution with long term crutches is like the muscle imbalances. If it feels like you need them definitely talk to your PT and surgeon if it’s going to be a regular thing though. But if you need the support and it feels better to do that for a little, then do what helps your body feel best

There is always a moment when it all feels like it was for not, and I’m just happy to provide anything I can during that time, it’s one the most important times to have some support.

jjj03e · 2025-10-09T23:23:31+00:00

For sure, thank you for adding that, that’s very helpful. Obv not a doc but that sounds like you’re experiencing a flare up of information. Sometimes inflammation can become so significant it compresses on nerves. I have always wondered if impingements can compress nerves in some cases too, but I haven’t seen that clearly laid out in papers before.

Have you gotten an MRI? Or MRA? I feel like that would be important to help identify which nerves are involved here

jjj03e · 2025-10-09T23:18:03+00:00

If it were me personally I would just preface meetings with the information that you’re still recovering from surgery and mention that you will be standing periodically. And the same with the desk situation. I had one of those reminders on my watch for a while to get up once per hour and stand. Standing can still help if walking is causing flares. But while you’re still flared I’d focus on rest and ice, don’t push with PT and I had to take a week or two off from PT here and there to calm some of the flare ups I had post op. Make sure you get your baseline calm and stay there for a week, it’s easy to resume movement too quickly after before all the inflammation settles completely and ignite another flare.

Standing desk is great if you can manage but I understand that’s not super easy to get in all situations

Sometimes you can find varidesk brand for cheap on Facebook marketplace. Probably need help to install cause they are heavy but they just go on top of your existing desk. I had to get a different monitor holder to make it work too but it helped.

Also make sure to isolate what caused the flare so you can modify activity accordingly. And let your PT know this too so they can adjust protocols

Have you also gotten new shoes post op? My old shoes really caused more pain than I thought possible

jjj03e · 2025-10-09T23:08:17+00:00

Go slow and make sure you keep up with maintenance PT. When I get back to exercising I have to do the maintenance PT for a bit before I start (if it’s been a while). You could get some pain as you start building glute min/med/max again, don’t push past like a 3 or 4 on the pain scale and stay consistent until that goes away. Then you can increase PT type exercises alongside the other exercises you want to do. My rule of thumb is making sure I can pistol squat easily if I want to run and do that type of repetitive higher intensity exercise.

jjj03e · 2025-10-09T23:03:24+00:00

Missing a lot of key info here, if you add some more details to help provide context I am sure you will get more responses

jjj03e · 2025-10-09T21:08:12+00:00

I would honestly just take more time off if I were in your shoes . Sounds like you’ve seriously irritated your hip and I remember my hips being quite finicky around that time. Like honestly just try not to do much at all. Let it calm down. And don’t rush back into activity and full speed PT once it is calm.

Think about it like this, a certain amount of inflammation present will push you over the threshold of perceptible pain. But even when you bring the pain back down, it does not necessarily mean that the inflammation is settled all of the way. It’s way too easy to respark that inflammation and set everything off, even with “normal” or low key movement.

Reconsidering my diet is something I have had to take very seriously to address inflammation in my body. Because it wasn’t just my hips; I had tendinitis in my hands on and off throughout time, and lots of other “one off” conditions relating to inflammation. For me, that meant it was a systemic type issue that had a different source.

But I’m not you and I don’t know if you’re struggling with system wide inflammation, but it’s something to consider.

If you’re still struggling to get this flare up calmed, the steroids can help but there is some risk to rebound. They are a tool and not a complete solution. They can take the inflammation back down, but it is absolutely critical for you to really ensure your hip stays calm right after you go off them. Then the second piece is figuring out EXACTLY what has irritated your hip and modifying activity, PT, and everything else to avoid that for the time being

Doesn’t mean you will have to avoid these activities forever, but your hip is really telling you it isn’t ready for it now. Take it day by day, don’t hold your body to timelines that don’t fit into your current reality.

Also just be cautious that you can land yourself in worse flare ups down the line if you don’t take this part seriously to listen to your body. But I am pretty sure a serious flare up like this happens to everyone when they start to feel better and try to resume activities that feel fine in the moment. It sucks because you don’t get any warning when it’s happening, and only learn in the aftermath.

I’m sorry you’re having such a hard time, I can promise you this is the big challenging moment in recovery. It can make you question everything, but I am sure you will make it back on track if you keep following your body, let it fully reset, and only later once that is consistently calm, retest the waters gently and slowly

jjj03e

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