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Sunday, January 25, 2015

Update: L & R Hips

So a couple weeks ago I had my three month follow up with my surgeon. It went good and bad. My right hip is on track and I am planned to get my hardware removed March 6th. I am currently trying to arrange my work schedule so that I can take the day of surgery and the next day off. That gives me enough time to get my brain cleared of the anesthesia enough to take care of patients. I hope I don't need a walking aid, but if I do, no issues bc the weekends are pretty light anyway (provided I am not on call). He was extremely happy with my right hip and it is a bit ahead of schedule. I don't have any joint pain anymore, just muscular pain that will go away with time. It's too bad I'm on my feet so much bc I think that I could really be even further along in my recovery if I wasn't working 80 hours a week.

My left hip is another story. I continue to have groin pain and catching just the same as pre-op. In addition, I have obturator nerve palsy from the PAO. My surgeon said he has only had one other patient have this nerve palsy after a PAO. He said that I am to do two more months of physical therapy and then we will fully discuss whether or not I need a nerve decompression or not. He believes the nerve is either stuck in the acetabular bone from when he did the bone rotation during the PAO or the nerve could be twisted in fascia in the pelvis. The thought of another surgery is completely shattering. I essentially shot my surgeon down when he said that I may need another surgery. He said he understands my hesitancy, but we will discuss it at my next appt. He said usually he doesn't follow up too closely after the screw removal, but he wants to see me bc if my nerves.

I understand why he wants to do surgery. I had a nice conversation with my physical therapist. She said that I am only 30 years old and do I want to take neurontin for the next 60 years? Do I want to have inability to adduct my legs for the next 60 years? The obvious answer is no! But I've just had two major surgeries within 7 months this past year. Add that with the previous 6 hip surgeries over the last 6 years, and it makes for a chick who is less than enthused to need to make another return trip to the OR. Quite frankly, this is unbelievable. The chances of this happening are almost nil. With such luck, I should go buy a lottery ticket. My current plan of attack is as follows: get an EMG (if my surgeon thinks that is a good idea), get my screws out on the right side, then discuss with him what and when we should do based on the EMG at my next appointment in March. I am not sure how involved the surgery is, but he did mention that it is not a small surgery. But if I can keep working post op, then maybe, just maybe I'll agree to it? Deep down I wanna just live with it for another three years then get it fixed after residency. Who knows? All I know is, this is an unfortunate place to find myself: post scope, post PAO, and possibly needing nerve decompression surgery. I should write s book or something!