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Saturday, July 26, 2014

80 Hour Work Weeks are NOT ok

I simply cannot believe how much I am working. Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled to finally be making money, but working so much is very difficult. I think, rather, I know that my pain is getting in the way.  I will keep it brief tonight since I have to get up at 5:15 tomorrow morning, but yeah....wow. Both my hips hurt now.  I am hoping that the left is just hurting from the screws. But I'm not sure if screw pain can manifest as groin pain.

This week I saw a new PCP who is very willing to help manage my pain. We have increased my neurontin to 300mg this and then added tramadol extended release 200mg. I haven't taken the entire three doses of neurontin yet as I have to introduce it slowly as it makes me sleepy.  I have taken the tramadol and it literally does nothing. Well, it does do something: makes me constipated. But that's it :( I was hoping that it would do the trick. I know my PCP wanted me to start on butrans patches, but I was a bit hesitant so wanted to try the tramadol first. It doesn't look like the tramadol ER is gonna cut it. It's hard to make this decision: hurt or take low dose narcotics at work? I'm not sure which is better.

I also got my tens/e-stim unit this week. The tens is for pain relief and the e-stim is for daily contraction of my adductors. Since the obturator nerve was damaged during my LPAO, we are trying to stimulate the adductors as much as possible to get them strong enough to stabilize the hip while it takes up the slack during my RPAO in September.

I have some things I wanna elaborate on in the near future, but this is (albeit briefly) where I am at the moment.

Needing prayers

xxoo

Friday, July 4, 2014

Back To Work

I guess I can't say 'back to work' because I never really worked, but was in school.  Nonetheless, I'm back into a tiring routine that is in fact work because now I am getting paid. I am not gonna sugar coat this, working approximately 12 hours a day right now (with the odd 14 and 16 hour shift in the upcoming weeks)...SUCKS.

Not only is my stamina and physical endurance down, but my left hip is 17 weeks post op and my right hip is still pre-PAO.  My left hip is still painful, mostly in the anterior portion of the hip with a nagging ache that is hard to localize.  I hope that it are the screws.  One thing I noticed since I have started being on my feet all day is that after I sit for 10 or more minutes, my hip hurts when I weight bear for the first couple of steps, then it goes away.  It is quite odd, again, I hope that it are the screws. 

I've officially scheduled my RPAO for September 30th, 2014:  RPAO, R hip scope, L screw removal.  I just put the countdown onto my phone and saw that it is only 87 days until surgery.  I am closer to my RPAO than my left! (since I am 126 days post op from my LPAO).  The thought of doing this again makes my stomach hurt, but I have no choice.  I do believe that my right side will have better results than my left side given it hurts less than the left side. I'm so sick and tired of feeling so tired and sore all of the time.  I can barely do anything that requires significant standing and/or walking.  Just shopping around a couple of stores requires me to sit down and rest some bc I hurt.