The labrum actually ain't that big

What the heck is a labrum? Do I even have a labrum, or is it a female thing? I was reading on the web yesterday about the "acetabular labrum" as it's formally called. Fascinating stuff. It turns out that the labrum is only the ring of cartilage that runs around the real deal, the acetabulum, or the big piece of cartilage that takes all of the pounding from the head of the femur. The labrum is only about 4mm thick. Heck, that doesn't sound like that big of a deal. I figured that the labrum did it all, but all it really does is keep your hip from coming out of its socket. I guess that's important too. Oddly, this knowledge makes me feel a little bit better about my surgery on Thursday.

I like my surgeon-- he used to be a pro football player for the Redskins and actually played in the 1991 Superbowl. He's performed over 100 of these hip scope procedures-- labral repair and reshaping of the femur to fix my impingement issue. Arthroscopic surgery of the hip is relatively new and very few orthopedic surgeons can handle it. He's in Houston, so I'm going to take a bus there and stay with my wife's relatives. Then they are going to drive me back the day after the procedure. Nice folks.

Yeah, I'm getting a little nervous. I've been experimenting with doing daily tasks with one leg. It's convinced me that the first couple weeks will be challenging. Six weeks on crutches. That's a long time. I figure that I can still go to the gym and do some seated exercises once the initial pain goes away. Hopefully that will keep me from going nuts. I expect to go nuts.