John, Hip Arthroscopy, Labrum Repair, NJ

Following fall cross country season my junior year of high school, I started noticing stiffness in my hip. It wasn't anything significantly painful, but it felt as though the muscles in my hip were suddenly shorter. That winter, I had to pay extra attention to it during my wrestling season, giving it extra time to stretch out. However, I continued to deal with it and didn't thing much of it. That spring I ran track and field, before returning to Avalon Beach Patrol in the summer. I began to notice more of a pain in the hip as the time went by, but I continued to ignore it for the most part, not thinking too much of it. That winter I again wrestled with it, and while I did have to give it extra attention again, I was able to win several tournaments, including the District 32 tournament, part of NJ's state wrestling tournament. Again I ran track and field, and returned to beach patrol i n the summer.

Over this time my hip continued to act up on me, nagging me more and more. Fast forward past my freshman year of college to the summer following. My first summer back from college is when more significant issues with my hip started to set on me. Often when getting up from the stand at work with beach patrol, my hip would very literally "lock up". I gave this a lot less thought than I should have in hindsight. The locking up became more and more frequent, to the point that it was almost commonplace, or where I would just naturally start to get up slow to try to avoid the pain of it locking. This interfered with work to a certain point, but I didn't want to think too much about it and continued to largely ignore it. It wasn't until the fall semester of my sophomore year that I realized I should find out what's going on. My hip began locking up almost every time I would go to stand from sitting, and was becoming increasingly more painful. When I returned home that winter, it was time to find out what was going on.

After something like a dozen doctors visits, x-rays, MRI's, dye injections, and even an ultrasound (unrelated to the hip), I finally landed at the Rothman Orthopaedic Institute, where Dr. John Salvo was able to tell me what the issue is. It turned out I had a torn labrum caused by a pincer like bone impingement. HE effectively broke down my options, and told me that at the rate my hip was degenerating, he would recommend surgery to repair the damage and fix the issue. My other issue would be to deal with my bum hip until a likely hip replacement would be needed down the rode. Naturally I wanted to avoid that, so it was decided that surgery to correct the issue would be the way to go.

Rothman was entirely helpful in setting up and scheduling for a surgery date, I returned home in early March for it. It was my first surgery, and wile it was very non-invasive and relatively minor, I was still pretty nervous about it. However, I was provided with excellent care, everyone at the Jefferson Surgical Center did everything to help me out and make the operation go as smoothly as possible.

Following the surgery, I was further impressed at the post op care provided by Rothman. I was more impressed at the work on my hip itself however. Since the surgery, I have been recovering along at a very fast clip, and while my hip still has a ways to go before I'm back at 100%, I can tell that it is vastly improved since the shape it was in prior to the surgery. I'm most excited to use this newfound mobility this summer and this coming fall. Now that I don't have to worry about a nagging hip, I'll be able to perform my duties on the beach as well as I can, be able to better compete in rowing competitions and other activities with beach patrol, as well as sports elsewhere.