2 Week Follow Up

I saw my surgeon yesterday for my two (and a half) week follow up and everything looks like it is going according to plan.  He wasn't very descriptive of how the surgery went or what he expects the outcome to be, but he did say that the PAO was the right surgery to have and that my hip joint is stable now.  He is a wee bit concerned about my nerves:  my lateral femoral cutaneous nerve is completely numb laterally and I have a patch of tingling, pin-like sensation on my inner thigh (I am assuming it is the ilioinguinal nerve).  We are going to watch it for now and hope that it improves.  I would rather not have to start something like Neurontin.  He refilled my pain medication but reduced the dosage of hydrocodone to 7.5 with is fine with me.  I am allowed to ride the stationary bike without resistance now...in fact, I have to since my atrophy is extensive already and it's just been 2 weeks.  I have to work on my flexion and external rotation lying down as it gives a better stretch on the hip.  He reiterated the fact that being aggressive early will help the overall outcome of the hip...so...let's be aggressive!

Overall the appointment went fine.  He is less than talkative and is rather quiet.  I have to drag information out of him.  I did get him to show me my scope pictures and radiographs.  The scope showed cobblestoned and yellow cartilage on a large portion of the femoral head, mostly the weight bearing portion, and some smaller areas of smooth cartilage  And the xrays look fine.  I have four nice screws holding things together.  I took a picture of the AP and false profile, but only the AP saved to my phone.  The AP doesn't show the significant correction I received anteriorly.

As far as pain right now, it is rather constant and I need pain medication every six hours.  I have stretched it out to eight hours once, but since going to see the surgeon, the pain has been more severe.  Crutching to the office, going to get x rays, getting on the exam table, him examining my hip (resistive adduction hurt like the dickens....i'm not sure I have much muscle activity there), and ROM testing, followed by a crutch back to the car....adding a total of 1.5 hours of driving made for an EXTREMELY painful day yesterday.  Today was better though. 

I am doing passive flexion, external rotation, and resisted adduction like A LOT (feels like all day), I lie flat on my OMM table frequently to stretch out the hip flexors.  And I did gather enough courage to ride the upright bike today at 18 days post op.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  It did hurt my ischial tuberosity, but I was able to unweight myself with my hand on the seat, which made if much more tolerable.  I did five minutes without resistance and that was enough for me!

Otherwise I just get up and crutch every so often so as not to get too stiff and lounge around.  My existence seems extremely boring.  I'm used to being busy at the hospital or clinic on rotation and now I'm lying around like 100 times more than usual.  BOOOOORING.  I find I text some of my friends a lot more often.  When they are out being productive and Im at home distracting them and decreasing their work productivitiy. I bet they will be happy when I'm done recovering too!

So, I have another month of recovery before I see the surgeon again.  I hope that the nerve pain decreases some and I get some more feeling on my lateral thigh because it is totally numb from greater trochanter to knee and about four to five inches in width, plus the medial thigh burning and pin sensations.  Boo.  I'm also going to work on my bone growth :)  I need to fill in that lovely gap with callous, cartilage, then bone...and that seems to be like a heck of a job!

I will put pictures up, but I think I may wait until I get a false profile at my next visit to the surgeon, as the AP isn't that dramatic.

HERE"S TO HEALTH AND HEALING!!!!