Holiday running

The groins feel sore. Ran a flat and hot 3.91km in 21.43min up at Deniliquin. Time for a beer. Happy New Year!!

Preparing the body for surgery

My theory is I want to be reasonably fit for the impending surgery. It should allow me to recover quicker I hope.

Not feeling too bad. Did a hilly 3.15km run in 21.39min around home. Left hip sore but feeling relatively fit.

Second surgeon appointment

I drove down to Melbourne today to have a consultation with John O'Donnell. John is "the man" when it comes to hips. I have discovered he has been performing hip arthroscopy since 1990 and is one of the most experienced hip arthroscopy surgeons in the world having done over 5000 of them. This certainly put me at ease.

John is a very easy-going bloke and has a terrific personable way about him. Many specialists have an "air" about them and seem to look down their nose at you but John was far from it.

He looked at my scans, including my MRI, and pointed out what everyone had been telling me was wrong with my hips. John was in no doubt he could correct my problems and get me enjoying an active lifestyle without pain. He explained the surgery in layman's terms and told me he'd expect I'd be on my feet the day after the procedures but probably using crutches.

Even though I have always had more pain in my left hip, John was sure my right side had more damage and wanted to go in there first. I went with the left side. But as it is I'm having both hips done one week apart.

The most daunting part about that is not the surgery itself. That sort of thing has never bothered me. The great unknown is the rehab and recovery and getting a good result. That's what has me nervous. This has been a long road and I don't want to be doing it for nothing.

Anyhoo, I'm booked in at St Vincent's & Mercy Private Hospital for April 22 (left) and April 29 (right). I could have had it done when my private insurance cover ticked over on February 17 but I'll wait until after the last week of the BCA cricket Grand Final and during the school holidays. Hopefully we make it and win back to back. Then they can do what they like with my hips. Most folks think I'm a bloody idiot playing with these bad hips as it is.

Bring it!!

Not a great return to cricket

Monday October 8, 2012

My hips felt tight today with tingling and soreness, especially in the left side. I had karate in the evening. I started off feeling very tight but loosened up and felt quite ok by the end of the session. However I got sore as I cooled down. It kept me awake through the night.

Tuesday October 9, 2012

I spent the morning working at the computer with very uncomfortable hips. I drove 160km to Maryborough and back in the afternoon and felt very tight. Back at the computer in the afternoon and I was very uncomfortable. At night I was sore in my recliner chair watching TV but wasn't too bad sleeping compared to the night before.

Wednesday October 10, 2012

The top of my left hip is aching and the left groin is burning. This is all while I'm sitting at work watching the kids do an exam for 1.5 hours. I am concerned that the minimal exercise I have done has caused this flare up.

What now? It aches above the joint in the pelvis, and into the groin and below the pelvis.

I went to karate and felt good once I warmed up at karate but I'm very sore tonight.

Resuming cricket

I bowled 16 overs in 3 spells in the first game of cricket for the year. I only bowl medium pace but bowling involves a lot of twisting in the hips, knees and ankles. A very unusual and unnatural action really.

I felt tight throughout the day having felt quite good in the weeks prior – the boy who cried wolf! I was quite sore in the upper left hip that night.

Leading up to resumption of activity

I'd been feeling quite good and wondered if I was going too far seeing surgeons regarding my hips. Other than karate and some golf, I'd not done alot of exercise. Walking the dog was fine but long driving could make them ache.

Changing surgeons through necessity

When I saw Michael Pritchard last week his secretary mentioned he was booked out for the remainder of the year and she wasn't sure what was happening next year about where he'd be operating from. My Bupa private health coverage doesn't tick over until Feb 17 too so there is alot to think about.

I would be quite happy to have the procedure done by John O'Donnell if possible. I have heard great things regarding John from a friend at Collingwood FC. I am covered now for surgery for my choice of surgeon in a public hospital with a shared room, but I assume John does not do arthroscopy in the public system either.

It is a shame that Michael will not be operating in Melbourne in 2013 as, had I known that that was the case, I would not have organised a consultation with him. Ideally I would prefer not to have to go to Hobart with the added travel, expense and putting my family out. Obviously if there is no other option then I will have to head to Hobart.

Mr Pritchard has specific days for interstate patients to travel to Hobart, and as such they can be seen and have their surgery more quickly than in Melbourne.  With only one operating session a month in Melbourne, surgery was booked out months in advance.  

Travelling to Hobart for surgery means I can fly to Hobart on a Monday or Wednesday morning, have surgery in the afternoon, stay overnight in the hospital and return to Melbourne the following  afternoon.

Therefore............I have decided to see John O'Donnell and have made an appointment on November 1 with surgery likely in Feb/Mar/Apr in Melbourne.

Mr Pritchard's office will get Michael to write me a referral and forward my MRI report to John's office. They offered friendly and helpful service during this experience. Stuffing around with upgrading my insurance and trying to sort out surgery can be a painful process but their lovely attitude to clients like me made it all a hell of a lot easier and I appreciated that and told them.

First surgeon appointment

Drove down to Melbourne today with Dad and my boy Tom for an appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon Michael Pritchard. He is apparently very highly regarded and does alot of the AFL players' hips.

Michael concurred with the opinion of the sports science doctors and was happy to open me up and get stuck into my FAI issues. Unfortunately it looks like he is moving his operations to Hobart and therefore I'd be expected to fly to Hobart, get a hip done, stay a night, fly back to Melbourne then drive home to Ballarat. Then I'd repeat that a week later. THEN I'd repeat that 4 weeks later for a post-op consultation. I'm not so keen and I wish I had have known about this earlier.

This saga just keeps on keeping on.....

On the plus side, Tom had surgery to remove some teeth a couple of days before so I took him with me down to Melbourne for a Ferris Bueler's day off. We visited Collingwood FC training, had a tour of the MCG and went to the National Sports Museum before my appointment. We had a great day together.

Tom gets a signature from Dale Thomas

At the MCG

Meeting Nick Maxwell

Meeting Tom's hero Dane Swan

With Cadel Evans' Le Tour bike

A happy boy with signatures on his jumper

At the MCG

Tom's press conference!

Phone appointment with sports doctor post-MRI

This morning I had a phone appointment with Dr Chris Bradshaw from Olympic Park Sports Medicine in Geelong. He is the club doctor at Geelong footy club and is very highly regarded. I had an appointment with him a couple of weeks ago and he was a very nice bloke. Some specialists tend to talk down to you, or at least their secretaries do, but Chris was a terrific bloke.


At the first appointment, Chris agreed with the assessment that I had FAI and its associated issues but did not concur with Andrew Jowett that surgery was not an option. This was such a relief as I felt that my progress had plateaued and I was getting nowhere.

The MRI tells him I have cam impingement on both sides with labral tears. Fortunately there is no wear and tear in the hip joint itself.

He recommends surgery and is going to get Mike Pritchard (Hobart-based surgeon) to contact me and get the ball rolling. He is also very pleased that cricket is finished for the year (I think he reckons I'm a bit mad playing out the year).

He reckons that if I get the femoral neck (top of the thigh bone) reshaped it will give me my mobility back, get rid of the pain in my hips, groins and lower back and head off any associated degeneration and potential hip replacements down the track.

He said to continue with glute and core strengthening exercises (which I have been very slack with).

It will be a very long process, both in getting into the surgeon, getting the surgery done and completing the rehab especially as it will be both hips.




I'm getting somewhere.....slowly.

MRI scan

I had the experience of having an MRI today. Apparently an MRI uses a magnetic field and radio waves to take pictures inside the body. It is especially helpful to collect pictures of soft tissue such as organs and muscles that don’t show up on x-ray examinations.


I was asked to remove all metal objects, including wristwatches, keys and jewellery. I had to undress and put on a surgical gown.

The MRI machine looks like something from a sci-fi movie. I had to lie on the scanner’s bed very still with my legs and neck held in place and upright by foam triangle shapes. When I was ready the radiographer made the bed slide into the MRI cylinder.

While it is in operation, the MRI scanner makes noises such as knocks, loud bangs and clicks. I barely noticed as I was still super tired after celebrating our winning cricket premiership and actually fell asleep! The next thing I knew the radiographer was tapping on my shoulder saying, "Mr O'Loughlin. Mr O'Loughlin." Apparently he'd never had someone fall asleep in his machine before!

The scan took around 15 minutes.

I'm not getting anywhere with this

I'm not getting anywhere with these strengthening exercises. If anything they make my symptoms and pain worse. I've returned to my doctor to get a referral and second opinion with Dr Chris Bradshaw in Geelong. Something must be done.