Latest / The ACL Athlete Podcast / 218 | I'm Having Surgery: Pulling Back the Curtain - Part 1

Transcript

218 | I'm Having Surgery: Pulling Back the Curtain - Part 1 · The ACL Athlete Podcast

• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome everyone to the ACL Athlete Podcast.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is the podcast where we talk about everything related to the ATL, whether that's the injury itself, the rehab process, return to sport, and more.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Dr.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Ravi Patel, performance physical therapist and coach.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Between myself and fellow guests and experts, you'll learn through the lens of the patient, the healthcare professional, and the coach.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: The goal of this podcast is to equip you, the athlete, with the education to make the best informed decision about your care and your ACL journey.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's dive into today's episode.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: What is up, team?
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: We are having a little bit of a different episode for today.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: This is one that I was debating whether to do, and I was like, let's do it.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, a lot of you guys have been following for so long, listening to what's crazy is all the episodes, and I just feel like I need to share this with you guys because it's something that's important in my life, and I feel like I talk so much about this ACL rehab process for clinicians, for ACLers, for coaches, for supporting roles.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just wanted to pull back the curtain a little bit for these particular episodes.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because guess what?
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm having surgery, and so this is something that I've been really trying to tackle for quite some time now, and to give you guys just a little bit of background, that's going to be the focus, especially for part one of this episode, is to just share my perspective, just where I've been, and really just my story and leading me up to today, recording this very specific podcast, which is I'm having surgery tomorrow.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: So this is something that I just want to give you guys the full transparency of this whole entire process and give you my journey.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so you guys are probably wondering what kind of surgery and what's going on here.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: So just lean in, hear me out here.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: I promise you that there is going to be so much value from this.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: And my goal is to just be raw and transparent.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so, as we start this off, I just want to share: look, I've had a lot of injuries over my years of being alive for now 33 years.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's just really crazy playing sports growing up in a small town.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: I've dealt with my fair share of injuries, bad luck, if you will, but there's been blessings in disguise from all this stuff.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I wouldn't have had this podcast or this company or anything if it wasn't for my ACL injuries.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I do not regret any of this stuff.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing is, is that my two biggest injuries over these years have been the ACL injuries.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And they were my two only surgeries that I've had outside of, you know, wisdom teeth.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: But with that said, my first surgery was in 2008, and my second surgery was in 2013.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And these two surgeries came at different time points in my life.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: I was in high school for my first one, and I was in my senior year of undergrad in college.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just a very interesting experience going through these two processes, especially with it being ACL and navigating it myself for the most part, with having you know immigrant parents and not understanding the healthcare system.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, let's be honest, y'all.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Who does understand the healthcare system?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: But with that said, it makes it even more challenging with parents who, you know, English isn't their first language, they don't understand a lot of the healthcare processes.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was just you kind of trust the healthcare providers, right?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Or whoever is local to you.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we didn't have Google to necessarily search all the best things or all the ratings at the time, especially in my first surgery.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so then, therefore, you're just kind of relying on just hoping you can trust the healthcare providers, right?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I've had a lot of experience over my life.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, I'm only 33 years old, but guys, I've I've dealt with a lot of stuff.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so the thing is that I want to share essentially this whole process of what is leading me up to having this surgery, which is different.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually for a different joint, and a lot of you are probably suspecting the knee joint, but it's actually my hip joint.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's my left one to be exact.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: While both are dealing with issues, my left one has been dealing with issues for quite some time.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: And while this podcast is focused on ACL rehab, I do want to make sure I share this journey up until this point because I do think this will provide a lot of insight for y'all.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be super unfiltered and raw about this and just share everything.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: And basically sharing the timeline, the steps that I took to get here, and honestly, just like wrestling with this for years and years and years.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm someone who honestly knows better.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: I do in the healthcare process, I'm very well up to date.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: I understand the system, I understand the human body.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's kind of crazy, especially being a medical provider and a physical therapist, has honestly made this process all a little bit more challenging for me.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's just been crazy.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I know way too much, I see way too much, and I've honestly experienced way too much.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm super cautious, too cautious sometimes.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's made it really hard for me to get to this point, especially being 33 years old.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: But here we are.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm having surgery on my left hip and tomorrow.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: I put in less than two days, but it's actually tomorrow.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm having what's called hip resurfacing.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: So what this is is a doc is going to basically go into my hip, my left hip, and they're gonna put a metal cap on my femur and a metal socket in my pelvis.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: So basically the thing that creates your hip joint, the ball and socket.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm basically gonna have a metal piece that is the components of that joint coming together.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, the thing that is similar to a hip replacement.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, probably your grandmother or grandfather or very elderly kind of patient, if you will, in their 70s, maybe 60s, maybe 80s, they're getting done, right?
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is something like that, but I get to keep my femoral neck and my head versus getting that thing completely cut off, which is what commonly happens in a hip replacement.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is just a little different.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just gonna get like a metal cap on that thing and then a metal interface for the socket.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you take your fist and you open up your other hand and create like a little bit of a socket and you put those together, the integration of that is gonna be metal.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And it's honestly been a lot for me to process.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: But before I talk about this, I do want to highlight the journey and the background getting here.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what a lot of this is gonna talk about.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so this all started about 2013.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: As you guys can tell, this is probably hard for me to talk about because it's all kind of being real and it's happening, and so I'm just trying to process a lot of this, and I have, but telling you guys about it has honestly like struck up some emotion about it, but I'm gonna do it.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: So this all started in 2013-2014, so it's been a while, 11, 12 years ago.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: I tore my ACL in November of 2013, um, which was quite interesting about this whole process starting.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: I was graduating undergrad in May of 2014.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to delay going to PT school immediately after and decided to focus on my ACL rehab and doing my internship with UGA strength and conditioning, along with lots of other jobs.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: So it was a very busy year focusing on those things.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: I cared a ton about performance and lifting and just geeked out super hard.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: I just went all in on this stuff, super focused, especially with my internship with UGA strength and conditioning.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: It was super intensive.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was just so just uh curious about the human body.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: I already had been, but especially with my injuries, I was just like, why me?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like I love performance, I love lifting, lifting, and guiding people.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: So it was just really cool to be in this world, and so I always questioned one of the things about myself.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Before I was like, oh, squatting was bad for your knees, and I think it was more of my own cop out because I just couldn't squat to full depth, right?
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just something I'd always had kind of trouble with, but never really pain or issues with it.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: I just, you know, people just have limited squat depth.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't start digging into this until a little bit later.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, once I got to this phase of life and being like, okay, well, is it just range of motion in my hips?
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, is it uh just a mobility thing?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: But I always just felt limited.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I stumbled upon a PT named Kelly Surrett, who some of you may know, but he was really big on YouTube at the time.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he honestly was a big encouragement for me getting into PT because it wasn't just this like cookie cutter, like lay on a table, do these like few exercises.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was like performance-based, and it was like self-care and taking care of your body.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And while not everything he preached was to the book or like you know, evidence-based, like he still was a front runner of someone leading the field and changing the game.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was something that one of the things that at that time he was big into band mobilizations and trying to open up more range of motion, especially with CrossFit coming onto the scene, and people just wanting to take care of their bodies more.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Health was starting to become a little bit more of the forefront of old school stuff versus new school stuff, especially in 2010 and beyond, especially with social media.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: People were able to reach things a little bit more and easier, see other people's philosophies.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I started getting into these banned hip mobilizations, just seeing like, all right, cool, can I free up some room in my hip and get some better range of motion in my squats?
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought my hip limitations and squat depth was a mobility thing.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: I just felt like I just didn't have good mobility.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, sometimes people feel stiff or don't feel like they can get all the way with their arm overhead or get into that squat depth.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: And there's differences in people's actual range of motion and their anatomy.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Anatomy will dictate your function.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: So some people are built with deeper hip sockets or more bone, and some people are built with less.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: So then they have a lot more range of motion and more mobility, right?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then muscles create tension, and so do ligaments and tendons and all those things.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: So everyone's range of motion is different to some degree.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now we have normative data of like, all right, this is normal ranges for most people, just like most people have hyperextension in their knee, or their flexion might be around 140 to 150 degrees, depending on their muscle mass.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: So these are things we know are normal, but at the same time, people have, you know, minus 20 degrees hyperextension because some people have different anatomy or dig different genetics, right?
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Or different hormones in play.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, you know, I thought it was a mobility thing.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I had the range of motion, but I thought I just needed to work on it.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: I worked on it so freaking much.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: All kinds of other drills, too.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: It'd improve a little bit, like I'd feel a little bit better, um, but then it would regress back.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: I just wanted like really good squat depth.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: I really wanted to be able to like sit all the way down into a squat.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: I always wondered why I couldn't.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it's something that I always wrestled with, and I just didn't have enough knowledge at the time to really dive deeper into it.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so what I would do is I would work on these things, I'd force myself into positions, and over time, just with lifting and working on it and playing sports, I would flare the hip up all on and off all the time.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: So it would just, especially in the left side in the front, I would just kind of get these like sharp, weird pains, these pulls, and it would flare up.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I would just kind of work around it, think nothing of it.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, ah, like I'm just kind of you know, getting this thing used to these positions.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Again, not really understanding a deeper understanding of the hip.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I just kept working on mobility drills, thinking it was uh still a problem, right?
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then I got into PT school and I finally set up a physical therapy evaluation with a local PT.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so with that, I just started, you know, she was someone that I rec really respected at the time.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so what she did was she uh basically blamed it on some muscles and gave me some drills to do.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in hindsight, looking back when I I look at what I know now and looking at that evaluation, she didn't assess what needed to be assessed.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: She didn't really assess my hip range of motion really well, she didn't really listen as much to like some of the issues I was dealing with.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: And she was someone honestly that could have caught this problem for me early enough and guided me.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but she didn't.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: And she just wanted to honestly stick needles in my TFL and some muscles around there and just give me some exercises.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: And while of course, this is not her fault, but at the same time, you know, I talk a lot about like working with someone who knows their stuff.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, at the time it was just kind of flashy exercises and needles and stuff like that, and so inundated with it that I just kind of like leaned into that without vetting it.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then in hindsight, I was like, man, that she didn't know what she was talking about.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if someone was truly like listening to my story and someone who was truly doing a full evaluation and looking at things, they would have caught that this hip was having issues that needed further insight on it, or at least said, hey, like let's let's work on this first, and if not, we'll refer you somewhere to get some more imaging and get this stuff further assessed.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: But no, it was let's just stick needles in it, let's do some exercises and you know, cross our fingers, it gets better, right?
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's just interesting because I started learning more and more in PT school and asking questions.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: I started to connect some more dots.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh, this is how the hip joint works, this is the anatomy of it, this is the normal ranges of motion, this is the function of it, these are the muscles that attach to it, this is how they're all supposed to integrate together.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: I was starting to put things together and really understand the deeper levels of this process.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so then I started to connect that, man, this seems something really structural.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's not adding up.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I set up an appointment with a local hip surgeon here in Atlanta.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: I got x-rays on both my hips and I got an MRA on my left hip, which is an MRA, is an artrogram.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's basically like an MRI, but a little different.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: So the difference is that they actually inject contrast dye into the hip joint or the specific joint if it's somewhere else.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: They'll do this for the shoulder too.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but this is guided under X-ray.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: They'll do the injection into the hip caps or into the joint, and that contrast dye is gonna help to point out certain tissues and highlight it underneath an MRI essentially.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it shows if something's gonna be torn or not, because sometimes it's difficult with just smaller tissues and the signal of it to see it on MRI.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why an MRA is done to be able to get a little bit more insight on what is truly potential causing these issues.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so the labrum specifically is the thing that they're trying to look at, especially for the hip joint, to see is the labrum, which is basically think about like a gasket around your hip joint, and sometimes that could be torn.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: So if that's torn, it could provoke some issues, and it could also just not have as much of a strong seal on the hip.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's still locked in there, but it could just be a trigger for the pain and issues people deal with.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so it turns out what I had was called FAI.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: That is short for femoral acetabular impingement.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where people have bony growth around their fever and the acetabulum.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: So that's where that ball and socket come together.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, their ball and socket joint.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and I had torn labrum along with some other tissue that was a little bit inflamed.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I met with the surgeon, and honestly, he sucked.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: He was not a great surgeon.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't even really get to explain my concerns or anything.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: He just walked in, he put up the x-rays on the little light up thing.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, Yeah, you got some bony growth here.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um he's got he's like, You're you've got a torn labrum, said surgery must be done for both hips.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, first hip, let's do that, you know, ASAP, and then six weeks later, the other one's gonna get done.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't really kind of stop to answer any questions.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like he kind of pretended like he was yay questions, and you know, it's kind of one of those things where it's like a five is it was literally five minutes, and this guy is about to do surgery on my hip, and I'm about to trust him to and guess what with this surgery, they have to pull your hip out and be able to reshape some of the bony pieces and fix the labrum.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm about to trust this guy that I've talked to for five minutes who didn't answer any of my questions really to do this surgery as a PT school student.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I was what roughly 24 at the time.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not an idiot, I'm still an idiot, but not as much of an idiot as I was whenever I was younger.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm like, I kind of understand this stuff a little bit.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: So the procedure itself, um, just to kind of give you guys that idea, is that they're going to go in and they're going to reshape that stuff and they're going to repair that labrum, as I had mentioned.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: The thing is, is that the outcomes at that time had some variability, like it was being done at such an increased rate.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: If people had hip issues, surgeons would see this problem and they'd go in and then they would have surgery.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: The thing is, is that they weren't referring people to physical therapy at the time, they were just kind of jumping to surgery.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes people's outcomes would not differ because they didn't necessarily tackle the problem.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because people have problems that show up on imaging.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: The thing is, is that are they symptomatic related to the imaging and the clinical testing?
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the thing that's super important here, especially in the time of 2015, around this time, 2015, 2016, um, it was really growing and spiking in popularity of this surgery.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: But then the outcomes were still fine, but we didn't know the long-term outcome.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: So between him not being awesome, he actually sucked, me being in PT school early on.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I was so, so, so deep and wanting to learn and be involved in that.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I cared so much about like studying and really getting good at this craft.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was like, between that, you know, I didn't really have a lot of help or resources.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: I had awful insurance, reminding you guys that if you haven't learned about my previous story, I had to pay 10k out of pocket max, 10,000 US dollars, uh, for my ACL surgery in 2013.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so the thing is, I was still paying on that.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: I barely made a dent on that.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: I was still paying the minimum$25 monthly in PT school from my second ACL surgery, so it wouldn't go over to collections.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I was still paying on that.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: I had to debate this, and guess what?
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: My insurance in PT school,$10,000 out-of-pocket maximum, man.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: Good old US healthcare system, really serving us well.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was like, I don't want to keep going into debt.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I had undergrad debt, I also had uh PT school debt that I was accumulating, which I knew was not gonna be cheap.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, you this kind of stuff kind of you think about it, and then the last factor in this decision was you know, I started consulting other PTs in the field and different surgeons as well.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: And this was something that I was just like, do I want to do this?
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, at the time, as I had mentioned, the surgery was kind of blowing up and it was happening to people with no symptoms.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I was just like, you know what, my symptoms aren't that bad, like I'm not that limited, I could still like play sports and do things, and so I was like, you know, all these things combined, I decided to wait, especially because my pain, as I had mentioned, wasn't awful, and it really my biggest issues were just getting into deep positions of hip flexion and squatting, right?
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so if I forced myself in those positions, I would flare the hip up, but if I avoided them, I was fine.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, fast forward to the past two to three years, I've noticed that my hip mobility and pain started to get worse.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: My hip mobility and range of motion just continue to get less and less, like I just feel super limited.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: And to give you guys like a A good idea of an example of things that I'm struggling with.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: I can no longer tie my shoes on my left side, so I have to wear shoes that I could just slip into.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Or if I need to tie my shoes, I'll pull my left shoe off, pull, bring it up to me, and tie my shoe.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: Sitting in a chair, like the chair I'm sitting in right now, makes my hips ache, especially my left hip.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: I can't sleep on my left side.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: I can't sit on the ground comfortably with my one-year-old.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that's probably been the biggest thing that has like really sat with me is like I have a one-year-old, you know, and I'm able to do most things with him, but I can't crouch down on the ground with him necessarily comfortably.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: I have to like kind of kneel as if I'm like, you know, kneeling, right?
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and it's just kind of awkward, but it's fine, you know.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: But he's gonna get older and he's gonna want to move, and he's already moving all over the place like a little gremlin, and we want to have future kids too.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's just something that factors into this, but I can't sit on the ground comfortably, you know, and I'm not gonna say this like, you know, appropriate, but you know, I'm Indian, so I need to want to be able to sit on the ground Indian style, you know, crisscross applesauce, whatever they say.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing is, I can't, you know, and it's crazy.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, this is my heritage, like I should be able to do this.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: We sit on the ground, we use the toilet with a hole in the ground, you know, and I'm like, how is this possible?
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't do any of those things.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: I can't even sit on a normal toilet comfortably, and so the thing is it's crazy.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I can't pick up something off the ground with two legs.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: I have to basically do a single leg RDL on my right side because it's a little bit better to pick it up.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: So from a pencil, heavy dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, plates, whatever it is, like I have to do a single leg RDL to get myself down there to kind of like you know angle it to pick it up.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: My hip is always in discomfort.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it just depends on how much I've tried to push it.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: If I do push it, I do pay for it.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: So therefore, it impacts movement and activity for me because it's this cycle where I might just kind of hold off a little bit because I don't want to flare it up.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: The lifting and activity in general has been pretty limited for me, even more than it was before.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: When I truly think about how much this hip limits my abilities, I'd say it's about 80%.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm operating at a 20%-ish capacity, and that's how it's honestly felt since I've noticed this issue in school to some degree, um, especially with lifting and being able to like work my legs a little better then, but now it just like it's not great.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: So when I go to lift in the gym, I am reduced down to a lot of machines, and y'all trust me, I know how to work around exercising, like I know how to regress and progress things, I know how to modify things, I know how to do all this stuff with lifting.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing is, is that it's just so challenging because there's not many cut positions that I'm just like, I feel like I can really utilize my legs really well, and so I'm gonna get off of this like pity party here.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Just wanted to really expose you guys to the limitations of this, and I think the main thing for this is I'm not sharing this to get you guys to feel sorry for me.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm getting this to share like this is real life shit we deal with, and it happens to all ACLers, it happens to people who are dealing with physical limitations.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's also a mental side to it, but the thing is, is that it's real, and so I think you guys like going through this ACL rehab process, know like what you're dealing with is real, the limitations are real, the life changes are real, the things you can't do is real.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I want you guys to know that, and I feel that, and I felt that with the ACL stuff, I feel that so much with this hip stuff, and the thing that sucks the most, I will say, is that my biggest hesitation over the years, more than anything, has been insurance and healthcare.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't trust it, and especially as a small business owner, my insurance has been absolutely awful.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's terrible.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: My wife works for a small nonprofit, and so they're you know, they don't have great insurance either.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, there's some years where I've opted to get on it, and luckily I'm on it this year, but it's still awful, y'all.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's terrible.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: We pay so much money, so so much money for insurance that is awful.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: And what I'm gonna share with you guys in part two is the actual numbers and the breakdown of this stuff.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: So you guys can have transparency of someone in my position going through this process and the steps I am taking.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm giving y'all all the numbers, I'm giving you the raw information, what we're spending, our deductibles, like how much this is gonna cost me this year, just so you have full transparency of someone who knows this stuff, who goes through it, and who is paying for it, and to be able to just kind of like be able to live their life, you know?
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want y'all to know about this stuff.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so my bus biggest hesitation has been insurance.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so last summer, to walk you guys through how I got to this point today, is that last summer I decided to finally find a doc here in Atlanta I trusted, especially now that I've been more connected with surgeons and just the community here.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I can find people, I can vet them a little bit better, I understand talking to them.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not I'm not intimidated anymore talking to these surgeons.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I found a really solid one by just reaching out to my network.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, it's time I have a kid who's three months old at the time, which was you know last summer essentially, and I need to be able to move more.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I was hoping to get the procedure that I was going to get done in 2015, 2016 done now.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I had x-rays done again last year.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: I had MRAs done to both hips, so you know, on left hip and right hip to see what was going on.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it turns out it's now progressed from what it was to osteoarthritis.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: My left hip was not great, it's not in great condition.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was moderate level.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: I I'm speaking past tense, it is moderate level uh osteoarthritis, and my right hip is a little bit better.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's mild osteoarthritis along with all the things.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it's got like osteophytes in there, it's got torn labrum, it's got cyst on there, um, of course, loss of arthritis, plus there's a lot of bone that was there before, but even more now.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: And if I'm honest, when I found out about this, my heart sunk.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because the surgeon this time was like, you know, the previous procedure you could get, the hip arthroscopy procedure where they could go in and they could shave the bone down and repair your labrum isn't an option anymore.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: He was like, maybe on the right side, but the left side, definitely not.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: He was like, I don't know any surgeon that would touch this with a hip arthroscopy.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so yeah, I had to really, really sit with this.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so he said, your options are you could either one, manage it conservatively and just go get shots periodically every six months or so to see if that'll help.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, option two, get a hip replacement, option three, get a hip resurfacing.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: And he recommended the hip resurfacing.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I honestly did not know anything about hip resurfacing this procedure because it's not super common like a hip replacement, where surgeons within a 15 to 30 mile radius of pretty much any city do them.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone knows what a hip replacement is, everyone knows what a knee replacement is.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: The thing is, hip resurfacing is a whole lot less common.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is something that you know some surgeons in big cities do, but there's really only like I would say three to five in the US who are like that is their thing.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: That is the thing that they do.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's people all over the world, there's a guy in Belgium, um, there's uh a few in Australia.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they're different places for sure, but you're talking about world-renowned surgeons like who do this thing, there's far and few between.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so the the thing is that most surgeons get trained by hip replacement because it's the most common thing.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: Hip resurfacing is more intensive from a surgical procedure, it's a lot more work, and so it's just something that is just not often done.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: And in PT school, we didn't even learn about this, to be honest.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like, this was all new stuff to me.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so I started researching, I was like, oh, this is a thing.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, I talked to some friends, and most friends have never heard of a hip resurfacing.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, I started talking to people who maybe working within these kind of communities of hip and specializing in them, and like, oh yeah, this is a thing.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was like, wow, finding out a lot about this process.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so um, Andy Murray is a good example.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: So he was the one, he had a documentary, he had a bunch of hip issues, and so he actually went and got a hip resurfacing done after having multiple hip arthroscopies that failed.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he ended up having a hip resurfacing done and actually returned back to playing tennis, pro tennis again.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so there are other professional athletes, especially in the NHL, um, who have this done.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then so there's a doc, uh Dr.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: Sue out of New York.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: He is a big-time hip resurfacing surgeon.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: He is not the one I'm actually picking, but he's one of them who has done uh some of this work.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's something that does exist, and people actually have good results from it, uh, depending on you know how their body responds to it and the rehab and all those things.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so to kind of circle back around after this session, um, whenever the doc had presented the options to me, I ended up getting injections in both of my hips because I felt like I needed to do something, and I was hoping if for some reason it would magically help me feel better and reveal a door that can help me manage it.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: I was just hoping, fingers crossed, like somehow like it freed up my hip and made my hip feel better.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing improved, maybe like one percent, you know.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't very much though, and so I just sat with this for a minute, to be honest for a while.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: I was in denial, I felt regret for not getting the surgery back in 2015, 2016 that could have maybe avoided me being here, and I'd be lying if I said I that still doesn't cross my mind now.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: But the biggest thing, y'all, is that I don't want to dwell too much on that, and I and I'm just not that kind of person, you know.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: I don't dwell on the past too much, I am very focused on the controllables.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: Complaining about it doesn't fix anything, and you know, I've learned that the hard way in the past, and so it's just something like why sit there and complain about it.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so here we are doing the thing.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: So there's going to be a part two diving into the actual getting to this process and talking through it in terms of my step-by-step of being able to go through the surgeons, the researching, all the things, because this is something that I know a lot of you guys deal with and you're going to have to deal with.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so, hopefully, not to the degree that I do, and you get on it.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because if I'm being honest, I wish I was having another ACL surgery, but at the same time, I don't, you know.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's just something that I think it just feels very personal because it's my hip, it's close to my body.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's just something that I'm like, they're gonna pull that thing out, and I'm getting metal in my body, and so it's just a lot of different factors that play into it, right?
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so my goal for you guys is to just share this as much as I can.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so hopefully this hits home for some of you, um, even if it's just a random story you're listening about my life.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: But I just felt like I owed it to y'all, um, and to be able to share this.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm excited, honestly, to share part two about this, which is going through the details of insurance, going through the surgical consultation process, so you guys can see what I went about doing it to know, like, okay, this is what he would do in a situation like this, in a world that honestly, especially with rehab and with the surgical process, like I'm familiar with it, but this world specifically, hip resurfacing is new to me.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not so like in the know of all this stuff, so I had to kind of learn a lot of it and understand it, and so I'm just gonna share a lot of this stuff in the following episode to come.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, I'm gonna go have surgery and just wanna say I'll see you guys on the other side, and let's do the thing.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, team, this is your host, Robbie Patel, signing off.