14 Weeks Post Op

This last week has been relatively plateaued.  I can't say I've made any significant gains or losses.  So, I guess that is good.  Everybody keeps asking me how it feels, did the surgery work.  And I know it did, but as far as the amount of pain relief I am actually going to get, that will be determined when I am back on my feet all day working in the hospital.  Right now I am not doing much of anything on my feet.  I know my surgeon isn't telling me exactly how much pain relief I can expect, he is very cautious in giving me any sort of promise, especially since he operated and saw the inside of my hip.  The best we can do is hope and pray that the left hip survives the next couple years.  It would be amazing to get through residency with my own two hips!!

I see my surgeon in two weeks (hopefully, as long as my immigration stuff to work in the US comes through in time....long story of major stress).  It will be interesting to see what he thinks of my healing and when he thinks I could handle another PAO on the opposite side.  I truly think that my left side could hold me up, even if it was tomorrow.  I don't think that the left hip would be happy, but it quite possibly could be possible in another month or so.  I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed.  Having said this, if he didn't feel that I was strong enough, I most definitely won't go ahead with something that is unsafe.  But leaving the surgery until December (the timing my residency wants me to have surgery) is seeming more and more unrealistic.  Unrealistic in the fact that it would be unrealistic to work until then without being completely miserable.  I did the entirety of my fourth year of medical school with one (which turned into two) very sore hips, I was, in fact, horribly miserable, and if July isn't going to work, then we have to swing something sooner because life is too short to limp around and miss out on activities because of hip pain. All of these scheduling possibilities are simply ramblings of my thoughts, what it actually comes down to is when my surgeon feels I am ready to have the surgery, which will be determined next appointment.

So I've been doing some reading on femoral/acetabular version since receiving my MRA report.  I have 6 degrees of femoral anteversion which means that I am actually retroverted.  Now, femoral version issues have never come up in any conversation with any surgeon in the past, nor with my present surgeon.  After some reading, I have learned that my measurements put me into the severe category.  Mind you, my acetabular version could offset the femoral version abnormality, so that it may not have stability ramifications, but this is definitely something that I need to bring up my next appointment, because if this needs to be fixed, I want it fixed during my PAO.  We haven't discussed what my right hip is doing other than the fact that we have established that it is painful, it won't get better without surgery, and it has dysplasia.  Again, next appointment will hopefully clarify what the surgical plan is for this right hip.

Reminiscing....

I have had quite a bit of free time lately and had a look back at my old blog posts.  All of my previous surgeries have been documented here (not my first one, though I wish I had that one on here).  It made my heart sink.  Every single surgery I was so optimistic that that surgery was going to work, it was going to take away my pain and be my last surgery.  I refuse to now say that this one is going to be the last surgery.  Not only has it been false in the past, I don't believe that it will actually ever end, there will always be the possibility of another surgery until my hips are replaced.  My hips are essentially THR ticking time bombs.  And the day I get my new hips, then will be able to relax and stop worrying about surgeries.  It sounds pessimistic, but I can't help myself, after 7 hip surgeries, one becomes jaded and skeptical to believe that they could actually be done with regular surgeries.