I am totally hip!

5 months ago this hip journey finally received a proper diagnosis:

I found out in March that I have hip dysplasia. I always knew I had some golden retriever in me!!! All joking aside, dysplasia affects 1 in 1000 babies at birth, and only a small percentage are caught shortly after. The rest of us (mostly women, ratio 5:1) are left to go on until we are in our 20's/30's before symptoms develop and slow us down, causing pain, limping and a disruption of life. Hip dysplasia is an abnormal developement of the hip joint, in my case the acetabulum (the cup, or socket, of the hip joint), which is too shallow, or more dish like than cup like. My hips have been bothering me for at least 6 years that I can remember and my low back (SI joints) have always hurt along with my knees. (In fact my back and knees have sidelined me from sports many times and sent me to the doctors with pain that could not be explained). In late January of this year I suffered a debilitating back injury that took me off work for a couple of days. Well, back to work and it seemed that the pain was now localizing deep in my right hip, a pulsing, sharp pain that was constant and wouldn't go away. It would radiate down the front of my thigh at times also, so I was a bit concerned. I saw my primary care doc and he suggested either a DO or a chiropractor to readjust my SI joint, which is what he thought the problem was at the time. I took his advice and saw a chiropractor. The results were amazing, for 2 days. I felt so good that I was optimistic I was cured. Then I had to keep going back to get readjusted, for 5 other separate appts. The chiro said that my SI joints, especially the right one, were very loose and not staying in place with any adjusting. He diagnosed me with subluxating SI's. I was in so much pain at the 5th appt and the chiropractor could not adjust me without me tearing up or just being too tense, so I told him I would go home and ice my back and hips and call him next week when I felt better (I never did call him back). I called my PCP the next day and complained that the pain was getting worse and he felt this was abnormal and so ordered an MRI on my right hip. A week later I was diagnosed with an anterior-superior labral tear. What is a labral tear? The labrum is a special cartilage of the hip that helps to deepen the socket and seal the joint. A tear in the labrum causes pain in the hip, primarily in the groin or front of the hip. My PCP referred me to a surgeon out of Grand Rapids that he has been to and really respected. I was nervous to say the least. I am a registered nurse and I work in the operating room, but to be on the other side of things as a patient possibly facing surgery, was just plain scary! I, of course, went home and looked labral tears up on the internet. I found that most tears were caused by a deformity of the hip joint, hip dysplasia, i.e: too shallow sockets or abnormally shaped femoral heads. But the doctor never said anything about hip dysplasia on the xrays of my hip or my MRI, so I figured my labral tear was a fluke, a repetitive mini trauma to my hip. Fast forward to March 19, the day I met Dr. K, a hip replacement specialist. He was very nice and informal and really knew his stuff. He immediately diagnosed me with acetabular dysplasia in both hips, the left actually being worse than the right on xray. Since I was there to talk about my right hip though, he focused mainly on that. He told me about hip arthroscopy to clean up the tear and not to worry about the dysplasia, that I wouldn't have to do anything crazy to fix it. However, he told me he was not the surgeon to do hip scopes and that I would be meeting Dr. H in a month when he gets back from medical leave to go over surgery and my diagnosis. When I got home from that appt, I looked up hip dysplasia and found all kinds of fascinating things, the most gruesome being PAO, or periacetabular osteotomy, where your socket is cut off your pelvis and realigned on to your femur with screws (usually 3) and then the recovery is about 3 months on crutches! Wow, no wonder Dr. K said don't worry about the things you read on the internet! (Can you sense some foreboding here....?) I continued on with my research regarding hip scopes and learned everything I could so I would be fully educated when I finally met with Dr. H. Fast forward a month and a half and it's finally my appt with Dr. H. I meet him, immediately like him, and then wham! He hits me with the recommendation of needing a PAO, definately on the left, and hopefully the scope is all I'll need on the right hip. WHAT?!!! So I sit there numbly, shaking my head yes and he says he'll refer me to Dr. Z, the only reputable surgeon in Michigan that does this surgery. Meanwhile, we'll still plan on scoping the right hip. Now I'm really upset...I am told my dysplasia is mild on the right with an angle of 20 and the left is moderate/severe with an angle of 5. He says that anything less than 20 needs to be considered for PAO or it could deteriorate and become arthritic at much to young of an age and need total hip replacement (THR) which is bad because I would be looking at several revisions of my hip throughout my life. I don't relish the thought of being crippled and in a wheelchair in my retirement years. But what the heck does all this mean! I'm 28, my hips shouldn't be this bad! Apparently, when one's hips are dysplastic, the hip manages to function well throughout most of young adulthood, but eventually the soft tissues that are trying to make up for where there should be bone covering the ball of the hip joint, begin to wear out and become painful. Much like the treads wearing out on a tire. This is why I have a labral tear. Dr. H is hopeful that since my right hip is borderline dysplastic that the hip scope will take care of my problems and that will be the end of it. I agree! I schedule my hip scope for May 28th and begin the long wait until then....