Surgery or not

If it were me I would take into account all of the following:

1. Healing time for both options;
2. What is the possibility of the hip getting worse with and without the surgery; and
3. What % of 100% can you expect to achieve with and without surgery.

But, never ever consider giving up on triathlon.  Remember, triathlon is a way of life not just a sport we all love to compete in.

By way of example: Here is how I approached just such a decision during college.

     I suffered a separated shoulder (the right side) while playing basketball (severe strain/partial tear of the tendon that holds the collar bone down into the shoulder).  I could have surgery that could get me back to 90% of pre-injury (keep in mind this was 15 years ago) and would have a 4-6 week immobilization of the shoulder followed by 3-6 months of rehab (more towards the low end).  The problem with the surgery was it was only effective 50% of the time, and the results could be less than the 90%, but could also be slightly better - odds on that were 50/50.  Here is were the decision got tough: of the 50% that were uneffective half the time the results were no better than just immobilizing the shoulder for 8-12 weeks followed by 3-6 months of rehab, and the other half of the time the surgery was a failure and the shoulder would actually end up worse than just immobilizing it and doing rehab.  Just the 8-12 weeks of immobilization and rehab was always effective but could only usually achieve results of getting the shoulder to about 80-85% of pre-injury.

     The way I looked at was - if I had the surgery, I had a chance of getting back to nearly 100%, but had an even bigger chance of ending up worse off.  I don't know if all the figures I gave above are completely accurate, but I just remember that when I broke it all down the best odds of getting my shoulder the healthiest were to just go through 8-12 weeks of immobilization (something according to the doctors a lot of people could not, or would not do - so a lot of people took the crap shoot on the surgery) and 3-6 months (more towards the higher end) of rehab.  I was patient (I normally am not either, but when it came down to maybe having diminished use of my shoulder I found the patience), listened to my doctor and PT til the final appointments, and by the time I was released my shoulder was believed to be at about 95%.

     Today, the shoulder is no different than the left shoulder (I am left handed); and as a matter of fact any time I have a problem with swimmer's shoulder it is on the left not the "weakened" right side.  I also have a small problem with aches and stiffness from some scar tissue, but nothing that isn't taken care of by a good massage.

Moral of the story for me: sometimes we just have to let this amazing biomechanical thing we call a body do its job and heal itself - it is the best at knowing what it needs - we just have to be patient and let it do its job.

Just MHO - give it another month, and as long as the healing process is progressing I'd let your body heal itself.

If there is no downside (i.e. surgery could make it worse) and if the hip will heal to a set % of pre-injury that is the same with or without the surgery and the only difference is the surgery will most likely speed up healing time - I would say have the surgery.

The other possible complications have to be weighed against the difference in healing time and only you can make that determination.

Sue,

I guess that I would have to take the side of giving a month of **NOTHING** to stress the hip before taking the additional chance of surgery.  If there is any chance at all that by biking and swimming you could be limiting or delaying the healing you've got to stop and give it a chance.

That probably goes for your Golf as well.  No more competitive golf dates in the near future!

I'd hate to see you get surgery if there is a chance that your hip has not had any real time to heal on its own.

Don't worry....we'll all still be here when you are healed.  Besides you like this sport too much to lose sight of what you can and want to accomplish in it in the future.