So how did an active man who runs regularly wind up with osteoarthritis in his hip?
More than likely by being active and running regularly.
“Told you so,” is what some if not many would say. Probably 95 percent of them are non-runners.
It’s commonly known by runners that sooner or later you’re going to have an injury. It’s just the nature of the activity. The same is true for football, basketball, baseball, soccer, hockey, etc., etc., etc.
The thing is when you use your body in a strenuous way, you run the risk of injury. Does that mean you shouldn’t be active?
Someone once told me, just after he’d had open heart surgery, that if I kept on running I’d probably suffer joint problems. My unspoken response was, “Better my joints than my heart.”
No matter how knowledgeable you are about the body and the effect on it of physical activity, you can seldom predict serious injury. Unless you have regular X-rays, MRIs and bone scans, you can’t see what’s going on beneath the surface. Usually, the first indication is pain and by that time damage has already been done.
So, rather than giving up strenuous activity, many of us decide to take part in sports that we enjoy. When you realize that there are side benefits to exercise, then injury may be a risk worth taking.
In my case, running made me feel strong and flexible while providing me with much more endurance. If nothing else, I feel much better when I’m running regularly.
Diagnosing my problem, which started out as pain in my groin while running, took several months and three orthopedic surgeons. The first wanted me to have a bone scan to rule out a stress fracture. I did and it was negative.
Then he decided it must be related to my back and scheduled me with one of his therapists. Her evaluation led to my doing stretching exercises that helped my running but didn’t take care of the underlying problem.
After a few months of stretches, I went back for therapy and was working with another therapist. Her evaluation led to more aggressive exercises, which eventually made my pain much worse. The doctor then decided I had tendonosis and took me off therapy.
Not satisfied with that, I saw another surgeon, who immediately told me I had hip joints that weren’t made for running. Understand, will you, that I’d been running regularly for 29 years. He said I’d better quit running or I’d have to have hip replacement.
After the initial shock from that bombshell wore off, I learned from surfing the Net that there’s an alternative to hip replacement. Hip resurfacing is for active people who want to remain active.
Seems the third time was the charm. Dr. Jinnah at WFUBMC said I was the perfect candidate for resurfacing and gave me nothing but hope.
Did running cause my arthritis? Probably to some extent. But it also made me healthy enough to have the surgery to allow me to run again.
And that’s what I plan to do.
