The Beginning

i started volleyball when i was 11 years old. since then, i have played 11 seasons. around my 8th season (i was 15), i began to feel pain in my left hip when i would run. then i began feeling it when i when i went up or down stairs. then it was just walking in general. i knew something was wrong.

i first went to my family doctor. he told me that it was growing pains, and to pop some ibuprofen. i tried to follow what he said, but it wouldn’t stop! i garnered the nickname of “grandma” on the team.

about 6 months ago, my doctors office hired a new practitioner to their team. i went straight to her about my hip, praying for different news. by this time, my walk had dramatically worsened to accommodate the pain, and i was using an elevator at my school. when this new doctor checked out my symptoms, she decided she needed an x-ray. when she saw what showed up, she immediately referred me to an orthopedic specialist in the city closest to my home town.

the orthopedic specialist took about two months to get into. once the time came, i was so nervous. i remembered thinking that all i wanted was a clean bill of health for volleyball. after closely examining and doing different tests, my orthopedic doctor decided he wanted to have an MRI arthroscope (i think that’s what it was called) done. he also ordered NO MORE VOLLEYBALL. i was distraught.

it took a month for my insurance to clear me for the MRI. it was a special kind that had dye injected into my hip cavity. it hurt like hell! the doctors basically had to hold me down to inject it.

once the MRI came back to my orthopedic doctor, he decided to send me to the west side of my state about 3 and a half hours away because there were hip and orthopedic surgery specialists that he trusted. at this point, it was thought that i had bone spurs on my hip that would be shaved off.

flip to two and a half months later. that’s a few days ago. i finally got into my consultation with the orthopedic surgeon! yay! he looked at all of my MRI’s and x-rays and discovered i have a torn labrum and a bone mass that is snagging the tear. he cleared me for surgery.

my next blog post will be about how the surgery will go down, so subscribe/follow to keep up! (it’s kinda gross)

❤️ali