16 weeks down...How many to go?

My labral tear was confirmed on June 10, 2011 after my Doctor checked out my MRI and I started physical therapy on June 16, 2011.  The hope was that physical therapy would loosen my hip joint and my leg/hip would no longer "catch".  There was a really unnerving cracking/popping/clicking sound when I would rotate my hip.  And for some reason this had increased pressure on my hip flexor, causing a lot of pain in the groin area, along with tenderness along my outer hip and even into my butt.   


Anyway,  my Doctor suggested a physical therapist at the location I was planning on going.  I was dubious.  Physical therapy and I have a love-hate relationship.  I feel like sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  And having been a high school and college athlete, through stress fractures, shin splints, hamstring pulls, tears, and undiagnosed injuries, I am not always confident in physical therapy as a successful treatment.  Well, physical therapy didn't fix me, but my physical therapist is amazing.  She's a runner-score, she's impatient with injuries, so she gets me AND she has the exact  same injury I have.  She gets it all--when I describe pain, she knows what I'm talking about.  It truly was a match.

When I started physical therapy, it was twice a week--with A.R.T. for half of the session and exercises for the other half.  Hip strengtheners mainly:  bridges, side steps with band, monster walks, superman, one-legged leg press.  Finally, in July, I was told to try running again (at this point I'd been off of running since the pain started in May.  I tried.  The first time I ran--I ran to beach volleyball--I felt fast and actually thought Physical therapy had fixed me.  Until I tried to run the next day.  My right side (the side of the labral tear) could not support my running, so now my left side was hating me.  My left IT band all the way to my knee was crazy sore.  I have never had pain in either of those areas, so I had to stop  running, again.

Fast forward to now.  I had surgery (more about that to come in a future post).  As I left physical therapy today, I noticed that my hip strength today isn't even back to what it was pre-surgery.  I wasn't frustrated, but I just feel like I have been there F-O-R-E-V-E-R.  I joke with Kristen that she has now made my holiday card list--since I see  her so much.  But seriously, I spend at least 2 hours a week with her, more than I get to spend with a lot of my family and friends.  I truly hope that all of my physical therapy will help me get back to the level of running I was at prior to surgery, but with at least 2 months more of it on my calendar, I just want an end date.  (wow-that sounded really whiney--sorry).

I have tried to remain positive through this all, but running and yoga keep me sane--and I haven't been able to run for 4 months or do yoga for the past month--grouchy Leah may be appearing more often.  Fortunately, long walks with Tenley are allowed--so we have been going on a lot of those, enjoying Chicago and the lakefront path.

Fall brings out the fog along the lake--How can you not LOVE this city? 

Help me!  What do you do when you can't do what you love?