Hip Preservation Surgery Returns 34-Year-Old to Pain-Free Running
Ashley Schildroth had settled for a lesser existence.
For years, a painful hip dictated what she could or couldn’t do, and a prior hip arthroscopy surgery didn’t help.
Hip Pain While Running Prompts Patient to Seek Care
“I had a lot of pain on that left side,” says Schildroth, a 34-year-old mother of four. “Just to lift my leg up, go for a run, to do anything was just awful. It was hard to sleep, too. It just kept getting worse and worse. There would be days where I couldn't even get out of bed. Finally, I said, ‘I need to do something. I can't do anything I want to do anymore.’”
Schildroth, a surgical coordinator at the surgery center at United Medical Park, chose to see Dr. Rafael Serrano, a UnityPoint Clinic orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist.
Imaging revealed Schildroth had a torn labrum, and he recommended a revision hip arthroscopy. In surgery, Dr. Serrano repaired the labrum and reshaped her hip so it wouldn’t impinge.
“Hip preservation surgery is an evolving field that has allowed us to take care of middle-aged patients,” Dr. Serrano explains. “In the past, patients had to wait 20 years until their arthritis was bad enough to qualify for a hip replacement.”
Hip Surgery Restores Pain-Free Trail Running
“No joke, I woke up the next day after surgery and had absolutely no pain whatsoever,” Schildroth recalls. “Nothing down my leg, no back pain, nothing at all.”
Schildroth soon completed physical therapy and recently began running trails again.
“I can lift my leg up again, I can stretch out and all of that,” she says. “It’s great. Probably not even a week ago I said to Dr. Serrano, ‘You're my hero!’ He honestly changed my life.”
“It’s very rewarding to hear something like that, and especially so on Tuesdays when I operate at The Surgery Center,” says Dr. Serrano. “She works there, and she’s always telling me something new she did that she couldn’t do before."
“Everything about my experience was great,” Schildroth recalls. “It was so easy to schedule with him, the girls in the clinic are super nice, Dr. Serrano called the day after surgery to check up on me, and I can’t say enough good things about all the people I work with at the surgery center.”