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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Whoa. :S

Yesterday I went to see another orthopaedic surgeon about my hip pain that will not go away and I left almost in tears. Mind you, I held them back until I got to the car, but still, my worst fear came true. My hip is very inflamed, and, at the very least, I will need to have another scope to re-fix the labrum (if it is still there; more about that later) and take off more bone on the femoral head. At the worse it looks like a periacetabular osteotomy or a labral reconstructive surgery. Gulp.

So according to this surgeon, my surgeon back home has been using techiques that are about 5 years old and that there are better ways of going about doing things inside the hip now. According to the operative report, my surgeon removed the labrum by just cutting it out. Now they are able to refix it. Also, the femoral impingement is still a bit there and could be causing some residual impingement. To make matters even better, my hip sockets are mild/moderately retroverted which means that my hips will likely deteriorate in the future and need hip replacements if they aren't fixed.

From this point now, I am having another arthrogram to see how much labrum is left. If my surgeon didn't take out as much as he lead on in his operative report and there is some to fix, this surgeon may be able to fix it and help with my pain. Another thing I have to think about is getting a periacetabular osteotomy since it might be the only way to alleviate the pain and prevent deterioration. And the last optioin, if the labrum has been exised, is that I could get a labral reconstruction using a part of my IT band, which would bring the hip back to a stable structure and hopfully alleviate my pain. Best case scenario, I have to have exactly what I already had again.

Yesterday, I think I cried for three hours total trying to swallow all of these options. Although we can't know anything until the arthrogram results come back I have a horrible feeling in my gut that this could be something a not-medical-school-condusive-problem that may mess up my studies.

One thing that I am struggling with is that, maybe this doctor is just overreacting and too aggressive. What he said seems polar opposite to what my last surgeon and I feel like my head is spinning. I can't jump to any conclusions yet, but things seem to point to a real reason why my hip is still hurting which is VERY scary!

Monday, April 18, 2011

Afraid

So, I have found a orthopaedic surgeon here in town that does hip scopes and I have made an appointment to see him next week. I don't plan on getting anything done by him (because I think my original surgeon is great and he lives near me). But I have a pit in my stomach because I have this overwhelming feeling like something just isn't right. As this semester has progressed I am getting more and more groin pain. My ROM sucks and I am having to take more Ibuprofen during the day and sometimes muscle relaxants at night so I can sleep.

I am petrified that they are going to say that I have something wrong that needs surgery. I understand that something is wrong since I am 10 months post op and am declining again. I can about cry when I think about it. It is just so frustrating. I haven't the foggiest idea how I am going to do my medical school rotations without pain. Well, I won't not be in pain. I suppose I will have to suck it up. Unless something drastically changes in my healing process, I am very worried. If I do need surgery, I don't have time to fit it in. I suppose I could take my 2 months of vacation in one foul swoop (if need be)....but that would be using all of my vacation time for the next two years for surgery. Thinking about this is like jumping the gun. I really don't know if I need surgery or not yet. For all I know it could just be inflamed. Right? I am just so scared to get another operation on my hips!

I know that many people have had more than what I am dealing with, but it is still petrifying to know that something is wrong. I hate this!