Regardless of What Happens...

I am almost fully convinced that a surgery in my near future. Yes, another surgery on my hip that refuses the behave. Honestly, all I have done all day was sit on my butt and study for my test tomorrow morning and I have a throbbing hip (which is manifested as a lovely groin pain). I found that sitting upright causes more pain than lying down, so I do most of my studying lying down.

I am now having more anxiety about my appointment on Monday; for what the arthrogram will show. It is hard to imagine that I am going to be a doctor in two years and I have this horrible fear of going to the doctor. I am afraid that this surgeon is going to say that I have to have a PAO or something of that nature. I mean, at this point, I know I would go through with it because I can't keep living like this. The quality of life is just not there. I can't bend over, sit for too long, stand for too long, walk for too long. I can't get to sleep without taking a muscle relaxant that will make me drowsy half the nights of the week. It is no way to live. That is for sure.

So, the waiting game continues until Monday. Until then, I get to try and forget about my appointment and consume myself with school which includes: board studying, otolarynology, dermatology, pathology. Oh the fun!!!

Post-Arthrogram

Well, I had to take some meds last night to get to sleep. I kind of tossed and turned all night due to the fact that every time I moved/flipped in bed I got a stabbing pain in the hip. But I woke up this morning and all I have is some muscle tightness and some pain inside the joint. Nothing that I need to take meds for, but definitely more than normal. All my ROM is back to the way it was prior to the injection. Oh well.

It was nice though, the pain doctor used one of my incision sites as a guide to get into the hip, and because of all the scar tissue getting the needle in didn't hurt as much as it could have. One plus about having already had surgery there! lol

So, I limp around today, but I suspect that it should go away in a day or two.

Now the waiting until Monday to get the results.

ARTHROGRAM #3 DONE!

Wahoo! I survived yet another freakin' arthrogram. I liken an arthrogram to being slapped in the face - no matter how many times you have one they still aren't fun. Really.

One good thing is that the anesthetic that was injected into the hip allowed me to flex my hip, internally rotate and all that jazz without any flinching of pain. No pain! I can flex past 90* for the first time in about a year. It is still all numbed up so there is no real pain. Just where the needle was placed is it sore. This makes me limp around and look like I can't walk but I CAN ACTUALLY MOVE MY HIP! That is very diagnostic that something is happening inside the hip.

Now the waiting starts. One week today I will have an idea on where I stand as far as what surgerical route we are going to take. Kind of worried that this is not just going to be a simple fix, but whatever will be will be, right?

So now I get to study on my bed all night eating Tylenol and icing my hip - should be fun!

Whoa. :S

Yesterday I went to see another orthopaedic surgeon about my hip pain that will not go away and I left almost in tears. Mind you, I held them back until I got to the car, but still, my worst fear came true. My hip is very inflamed, and, at the very least, I will need to have another scope to re-fix the labrum (if it is still there; more about that later) and take off more bone on the femoral head. At the worse it looks like a periacetabular osteotomy or a labral reconstructive surgery. Gulp.

So according to this surgeon, my surgeon back home has been using techiques that are about 5 years old and that there are better ways of going about doing things inside the hip now. According to the operative report, my surgeon removed the labrum by just cutting it out. Now they are able to refix it. Also, the femoral impingement is still a bit there and could be causing some residual impingement. To make matters even better, my hip sockets are mild/moderately retroverted which means that my hips will likely deteriorate in the future and need hip replacements if they aren't fixed.

From this point now, I am having another arthrogram to see how much labrum is left. If my surgeon didn't take out as much as he lead on in his operative report and there is some to fix, this surgeon may be able to fix it and help with my pain. Another thing I have to think about is getting a periacetabular osteotomy since it might be the only way to alleviate the pain and prevent deterioration. And the last optioin, if the labrum has been exised, is that I could get a labral reconstruction using a part of my IT band, which would bring the hip back to a stable structure and hopfully alleviate my pain. Best case scenario, I have to have exactly what I already had again.

Yesterday, I think I cried for three hours total trying to swallow all of these options. Although we can't know anything until the arthrogram results come back I have a horrible feeling in my gut that this could be something a not-medical-school-condusive-problem that may mess up my studies.

One thing that I am struggling with is that, maybe this doctor is just overreacting and too aggressive. What he said seems polar opposite to what my last surgeon and I feel like my head is spinning. I can't jump to any conclusions yet, but things seem to point to a real reason why my hip is still hurting which is VERY scary!

Afraid

So, I have found a orthopaedic surgeon here in town that does hip scopes and I have made an appointment to see him next week. I don't plan on getting anything done by him (because I think my original surgeon is great and he lives near me). But I have a pit in my stomach because I have this overwhelming feeling like something just isn't right. As this semester has progressed I am getting more and more groin pain. My ROM sucks and I am having to take more Ibuprofen during the day and sometimes muscle relaxants at night so I can sleep.

I am petrified that they are going to say that I have something wrong that needs surgery. I understand that something is wrong since I am 10 months post op and am declining again. I can about cry when I think about it. It is just so frustrating. I haven't the foggiest idea how I am going to do my medical school rotations without pain. Well, I won't not be in pain. I suppose I will have to suck it up. Unless something drastically changes in my healing process, I am very worried. If I do need surgery, I don't have time to fit it in. I suppose I could take my 2 months of vacation in one foul swoop (if need be)....but that would be using all of my vacation time for the next two years for surgery. Thinking about this is like jumping the gun. I really don't know if I need surgery or not yet. For all I know it could just be inflamed. Right? I am just so scared to get another operation on my hips!

I know that many people have had more than what I am dealing with, but it is still petrifying to know that something is wrong. I hate this!

Long Time No Post

So, I haven't posted here for a very, VERY long time. I was hoping that I could leave all of this hip stuff behind and try to move on with my life; since reading/posting about hips propetuates thinking of the hips and possibly hindering my ability to return to life not thinking about hips. To no avail though. Since I have posted, I have seen my OS who told me that I could do anything I wanted and should be good to go. Except for the fact that my L side (most currently operated on) is still inflamed. I was to see him at the one year mark to see if it is still inflamed, but I could cancel the appoinment if I don't think I need it. Well, fast forward to now, and I am no better than I was in November of last year (maybe a little bit worse actually). I can't flex past 90* yet and still have no internal rotation. I am always so scared to bring my hip into any form of ROM and thought that I should try it a couple of days ago - to see how far I could move it. Finding that my ROM is still very limited and painful it instantly gave me a pit in my stomach. What if things aren't healing properly?! After my first hip scope - I was already painfree and now I am still worse than I was before I had the surgery. I can't move my hip, I throb when I am in bed, I can't work out at all, I can't put on socks/shoes normally, or pain my toe nails. I try my hardest to not talk about it to friends/family since I am sure they have had their fair share of me complaining for the past 3.5 years about hip pain. But I am unsure of what my hip future is. I absolutely don't have time for another operation because of school but really, really can't keep living like this! I see my surgeon in the summer which will be 13 months post-op. I can hope that things improve in the next couple of months, but at the rate I am going, it doesn't look hopeful. I know that people are out there in more pain than myself, but I am totally fed up with hip pain. I am only 26 years old and can't even take one step without thinking of my hip :( What happens when I get older and age starts to play a factor? Rant over.

Happy Hip Anniversary - 2 years!

Today marks two years since I had my right hip scoped. I seriously can't believe it has been two years! It is still a bit funky, but I hope that it is of no concern. (will bring this up at my next appointment with my OS). I am really happy I had it done though. I have no more catching, groin pain, or buttock pain.

I wish that I could write up here that my hip is perfect and I am out running marathons and what not, but this is not the case. I really haven't had a chance yet to "try out" my right hip with any extensive physical activity since my left one is still recovering. I can't wait to get back active. It seems to have been so long since I could go for a run or do anything to really give me a good work out. But, it is coming in the future and this truly gives me hope.

So, all in all, I am happy that I had my right hip done. Happy enough to get my left side done too. I can already feel that my left side is going to be better than my right side after it is healed. Which is a good and bad thing I supposed.

My left hip is recovering nicely. Taking its grand old time, but nicely all in all :)