7 Weeks Post Op

Not much to report, but today marks my 7 week mark since my LPAO.  I have not needed a single Norco for the pain since last weekend (just had one bad evening of pain).  I'm really itching to walk.  That may come on Monday when I see my surgeon for xrays and hopefully get the clear to bear weight and start weaning off of crutches.  I'm not gonna lie, I've tried standing with 50% when I brush my teeth and in the shower.  I would be hard pressed to find a single PAO patient who didn't "test their hip out" slightly ahead of schedule! 

I take Tylenol and the occasional Tramadol for pain relief.  But this is mostly due to my pain in my right (non-op) hip.  SO sick of hip pain. Speaking of pain, I have noticed that my pubic symphysis is extremely painful to palpate.  I accidentally leaned on the island in the kitchen today and nearly jumped out of my skin because it hurt so much.  Maybe I just irritated it somehow....it's just odd that it would come out of nowhere.  It kinda caught me off guard.

I got my surgeon's bill today. It was a lovely $18K.  The breakdown of procedures was as follows:

• Periacetabular osteotomy
• Open treatment of slipped femoral epiphysis; osteoplasty of femoral neck (Heyman type procedure)
• Arthroscopy of hip, surgical with debridement/shaving of articular cartilage (chondroplasty), abrasion arthroplasty and resection of labrum
• Bone graft; major/large

I hate hate hate insurance because of past experiences, I am so careful with these types of things because of traumatizing experiences after previous surgeries.  It makes me nervous just looking at the bill.  But it all looks like it has been billed properly and I have to pay just over $1000 for the surgery itself.  I am still waiting on the anesthesia and hospital fees.  I know that I will hit my $5000 OOP and $200 deductible.  I just would love for it to go smoothly without any hassle or hiccups.  For insurance purposes, I hope to get my right hip PAO'd before August 1st as it would be covered under my current insurance and essentially be no additional charge.  I could definitely handle the copays and that is it.

Sleeping is still sucky.  I got some melatonin and tried that last night and it seemed to work.  It's hard to be fully confident in this supplement as it is usually used for circadian rhythm disturbances.  But, it worked, and I fell asleep last night very quickly.  I was extremely tired though since I had been out and about yesterday.  I convinced my Mum to go to Applebee's for their $6 burger Wednesday.  YUMMY.  And then we went to The Dollar Store and then to Walmart.  I crutched all over each of these stores.  It wasn't exactly fun, but it also wasn't terrible.  What irked me was that I have a handicap parking pass for an entire year and at each of these stores there was not one single open handicap parking space available.  Which, whatever, it's busy because of Easter weekend approaching, but when they don't have a handicap parking pass displayed makes me think that they just parked there because it was close and don't actually have difficulty getting into the store.  So, I STILL haven't used my handicap parking pass to date since I a) always forget it or b) all the spots are occupied.  First world problems...I know.