I must get this down. This is to be my mental therapy for a while. You all know my life needed to be spring cleaned and this is still true. However, that pesky little hip surgery got in the way first. The first two weeks after the surgery were blissful! I spent two week lying in a bed in front of the TV with the entire series of The West Wing. I really was in heaven. I used my kids’ plastic shopping cart as my personal dolly. I placed a big tray on top of it and was able to push things from the kitchen to my bed in the living room. I thought I was quite ingenious to come up with the idea. I could move stuff with ease all around the entire living area of our house. On crutches with 20% weight bearing for the first week. Switched to 50% weight bearing – still no problems. I honestly believed at this point that I would be walking off of those crutches and not looking back. That is how great I felt at that time.
Went for follow-up at 10 days and I almost felt blown off. My husband says that he didn’t feel that at all. But I did, and that is all that matters! I was essentially told that He, yes my OS is a He, couldn’t do more for me. All my issues were related to the dysplasia and he couldn’t do anything for that. He had already told me I wasn’t a candidate for the much more traumatic surgery, periacetabular osteotomy. I had really wanted to revisit this with him, and perhaps I still will. See how much courage I can muster up before my next visit.
I was sent home to wean off crutches. Two crutches full weight bearing was just fine and I could have gone on doing that forever. But I had to go to one crutch and then none. The first day of none was fine, but I was very sore that night. The second day of none was even worse. And once I was back at work with my butt planted firmly in a chair all day, things kind of went to hell. There was no progression at all.
So today I finally had my next visit with him. To be honest, I was very nervous to see him again. I was afraid I was going to be blown off again, assuming the first time wasn’t all in my head. Once again, I had almost talked myself in to needing a periacetabular osteotomy. So I went in feeling someone down, thinking he wasn’t going to be interested in treating me any more. Well, I couldn’t have been further from the truth.
He showed nothing but concern for my pain. He isn’t sure it is all coming from inside the joint and the local anesthetic that he game only seemed to produce some relief. Lots of what could only be compensatory pain remained even after the shot. He also aspirated the joint before he put in the local and the steroid. Not sure which two meds he used so I must ask next time. He again emphasized that the pre-arthritic changes we more symptomatic than they appear on film. I got to see the pictures that were taken during my scope – no labral tear, big, nasty looking bruise in the labrum. Psoas tendon shiny and white, psoas tendon being cut by the blade, effusion in the joint. He spent the rest of the time telling me that I should wait 6 – 12 months and then be reassessed for a total hip replacement. This is where my brain stopped working like a normal persons brain. I totally shut down this idea and refused to believe it. It was denial at its most spectacular! Of course I wasn’t realizing it at the time. It was only afterwards on the way home that my husband pointed it all out to me. I came away feeling like a total jerk. I have early stages of arthritis. It isn’t going to get better. The steroid should give some relief. Not sure for how long. And then what? Why wouldn’t I be a candidate for PAO? That is what they are doing for symptomatic hips. What make me specifically an non-candidate? Should it matter? Its a huge surgery and what will it buy me? Will I lose as much from the recovery as I would gain from going straight to THR? I just don’t know. I need help.
Please tell me of your experiences with these things. Thank you.
springcleanedmom 