Then came a family ski trip in January 2025. I was an excellent skier, but my body just couldn’t handle it. I was in debilitating pain for weeks.
I remember lying on the floor after a day on the slopes, doing yet another set of PT maneuvers, when a friend gently said, “Sam, you’re too young for this. Don’t give up. Get another opinion.”
The Breakthrough
Despite presenting with low back pain, my physical therapist and I eventually hypothesized that my hip was the root of the problem. My hip internal rotation was severely limited due to arthritis. To compensate, my body had gotten creative and started torquing my pelvis to work around the limitation, dumping additional stress into my left lumbar spine and SI joint.
This February, a new orthopedist looked at my imaging and said, “Has anyone explained why this happened to you?”
“Years of bodybuilding, stubbornness and ignored warning signs,” I replied.
“No, Sam, you have hip dysplasia. Tearing your labrum led to rapid worsening of your hip arthritis because that protective layer was no longer there. You actually did everything right—stayed active, lifted, protected your joints. This isn’t your fault.”
He offered an intra-articular steroid injection for both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, noting that he’d think twice about operating on my hip if it didn’t solve the SI joint pain, too. The steroid felt like a miracle. I was completely pain free for seven glorious days.
He consulted a few colleagues to ensure that total hip arthroplasty was the right move—especially given my age. We decided it was, and my surgery was scheduled for May.
As I write this in June, I’m seven days post-op. My surgery went swimmingly, and I walked out of the hospital the same day with the help of my partner, mother and a walker expertly decorated by my best friend. My left leg is still quite swollen and tender, but my SI joint pain is gone. I’m tapering off pain medications day by day.
If all goes as planned, I’ll return to the gym in eight weeks, hopeful for a 90% recovery by week 12.
What I Learned
The short answer? A lot. The longer answer I’ll break down into 10 key points.
1. Arthritis Leads to Grief
Over the past three years, I’ve cycled through the five Kübler-Ross stages of grief:
