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.

Post sports science doctor physio

Went along to see my local physio, Matt today. We discussed the sports science doctor's findings and recommendations and then went into the gym next door to go over a strengthening exercises regime.

After a 10 min warm-up of walking he wants me to stretch the hammys, quads, groin, lower back and gluteals.

Then strengthening exercises including bridging, Russian twist using the Swiss ball (SB), leg raises (SB), planking, dog leg lift, side planking, hammy curls (SB) and back curls (SB).

A 4 min warm-down walk to finish.

I have appointments each week from now until Christmas too. Let's see how we go.