Printing a plan to resolve an athlete ’s pain

Just days away from a complex hip surgery, Louise Atadja smiles and laughs. “I’m not really nervous at all. I feel like it’s the next thing on my to-do list, like we’re just checking off a box,” she says. “That’s the type of person I am — I make lists of what I have to do, so that’s how I’m thinking about it.” I trust God, I trust Dr. Matheney, and I trust the procedure. I know it’s all going to be just fine. Competing through pain As a track star in high school and college, Louise was always playing through the pain — which mostly seemed to come from her knees. She decided to visit a doctor during her senior year of high school, when the pain became so bad that she couldn’t finish a cross-country race. An MRI revealed she had very little cartilage left in her knees, but Louise refused to let it affect her collegiate track career. She underwent physical therapy while at Amherst College — still tormented by knee pain so significant she often couldn’t walk after track meets. While many athletes would call it quits, for Louise, the pain wasn’t enough to stop her from running. “It should have,” she pauses for a moment, “it really should have. But it didn’t, because of my love for competing and my love for track.” Planning for her potential After graduating from Amherst with a degree in neuroscience and working as a medical researcher in Texas, Louise decided to seek a second opinion from Boston Children’s Hospital Orthopedic Center. ...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Diseases & Conditions Our Patients’ Stories (PAO) surgery Child and Young Adult Hip Preservation Program Dr. Travis Matheney FAI femoral acetabular impingement hip dysplasia Source Type: news