u/swissmiss1910

TLDR: has anyone gotten any counseling/therapy approaches that helped them with the mental aspect of this degenerative condition?

25F dealing with OA caused by hip dysplasia. I used to be very athletic even after undergoing two labral tear repairs. Over the years I’ve had more and more pain which has limited my ability to run and now walk or exercise. It’s accelerated drastically in the past six months and everyday is getting harder. I can barely walk five mins without being in pain and having more trouble with range of motion as time has gone on. I’ve done all the physio in the world and continue to keep up with it to no avail. I have an appointment with another specialist at the end of the month.

In the meantime, I’m struggling REALLY hard mentally. I’m having a hard time accepting my body degenerating and not being able to live the life I knew in my 20s.
I’ve been in therapy before but this is different. I find it really hard to talk about what’s happening to me and anyone I tell I just feel more and more misunderstood and get even more frustrated. Being in pain and leading to lack of sleep has caused me to get incredibly impatient and frustrated easily. I feel myself isolating myself from friends bc I don’t want everyone to have to cater plans around my inability to walk or be active bc it’s more mental effort for me and feel like a burden. I’m gaining weight bc I can’t exercise as much as I used to and becoming very insecure. I notice myself falling into destructive habits again. I don’t know what to do.
I realize I need to go therapy again but I want to approach it the right way so I don’t get even more frustrated. Has anyone had experience with this?

TLDR: 25 year old looking for advice on daily pain management and/or next steps to advocate for any treatment

Used to be an avid runner in my teens and started experiencing hip pain at 18 ending up with a hip arthroscopy on right and left side to repair label tears and FAI. Doctor noted I have mild dysplasia, worse on left side. This was in USA and moved to Ireland at 20. I had a stellar recovery until a year in and pain started again, had x rays and mris but told my hips are completely fine.

So five years later I’ve modified my activity and focused on weight training. I have a spell where I wasn’t able to go to the gym for a few months and the pain has been 70% of the day since (and I’ve resumed consistent training). Started physio (again), had updated xray and mri, told I have stage 2 OA. No advice. No further steps. Everyone keeps telling me I’m too young for surgery and to keep up with physio and basically just let it get worse and get a replacement in 20 years. It’s been incredibly frustrating, isolating, and painful. I can’t walk more than 15 mins. Sitting long hurts. Cold rainy weather flares (frequent here unfortunately). I can’t seem to win anywhere. I’ve started taking supplements, better shoes, heat pad, and applying voltaren when particularly bad.

Does anyone have any advice for pain management or a similar situation? Any treatments that have helped? Should I consider PAO or ceramic hip resurfacing? How can I help heard or treated? Im waiting on another appointment with a different doctor, specialized orthopedic sports surgeon. I feel so dismissed and find it hard to believe I’m meant to live this way until I’m “old enough”.

Mental health advice w OA

25F Hip OA Advice