Monthly Archives: March 2013

Living Life on Hold

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I am very pleased to report that sinus surgery this past Thursday seems to have been a success. At the very least, I haven’t had any significant pain or discomfort following the surgery and I was able to work from home the day after the procedure. The nasal stints are scheduled to be removed tomorrow – those puppies are BIG!  I feel sorta stuffed up and sleepy but apparently it’s normal and resolves itself within a few days. I can’t do any lifting or bending for the time being but should be 100% within a few weeks. Yea!

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I’ve been thinking more about the nonunion of my pubis bone and the pain in my hip and front of my right leg that seems not to be getting any better, even though I can walk. As  I understand, nonunion is normally asymptomatic but in my case, it may be causing the pain and may be the reason my recovery is stalling (even though I am able to walk). I learned from other ‘hip women’ that I could request copies of my x-rays from the hospital, which I did. I figured I’d post the x-ray of the nonunion so that everyone can understand what I’m talking about.  For perspective, imagine that the camera is facing me and I am turned 90 degrees to the left.  My left leg is placed facing forward, in front my body, and my right leg is turned out 90 degrees and placed back and to the right.  That’s why it looks like my pelvis is torqued.

I’ve also learned that as part of my May Open SDD surgery on my left hip (which is 6 weeks and 2 days away and which will require more recovery time than my PAO), the surgeon breaks off a small portion of the greater trochanter bone from the femur to gain access to the joint and later reattaches that section of bone at the end of the procedure with two or three screws. Sometimes (I’ve heard up to 40% of the time) the screw heads catch on muscles or tendons in the leg and the screws have to be removed in yet another surgery.

So, if you’re counting, which I am, I had a right hip scope surgery (January 2012); right PAO (December 2012); sinus surgery (March 2013); and will have Open SDD on the left side (May 2013). Add to that the possibility of a surgery to fix the nonunion of the right side AND, if I’m lucky (said sarcastically), screw removal. Between all these surgeries, there is recovery and pain and holding patterns. I know that I can’t expect to have all the answers but COME ON!!! I just want to take my life off hold and start living again! Ride my bike, take a walk, NOT watch TV like an obsessive, go back to school, lose some of the weight I have gained from sitting around all the time.  I have tripped down the rabbit hole and I would like to find a way to climb back out.

I don’t wanna be whiny but man, it’s spring, almost April, the days are getting longer and soon the weather’s gonna be nice.  Let’s get this show on the road!

Surgeries and Surprises

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First, Happy slightly belated St. Patrick’s Day! Hope you were out drinking green beer and eating corned beef and cabbage!

It’s been a little while since my last post and I have lots to report. For those who don’t want to / have time to read the full post, here are the bullet points:

1. One of the bones in my right pelvis that was broken during the PAO surgery (the pubis bone) did not grow back together. Dr has prescribed a bone stimulator / increase protein to make it grow. If it doesn’t work I may have to have ANOTHER hip surgery on my right side to bridge the gap.
2. We are a go for my Open SDD surgery on my Left Hip on May 8th (pre-op April 30th).
3. Sinus surgery is set for THIS week (Thursday, March 21st). Basically, Dr is creating a straight shot out of my sinuses / removing bone and tissue / fixing my deviated septum. Same day surgery, home Thursday evening, around a week of recovery.

THE LONG VERSION
I met my hip surgeon for my 3 month RPAO follow-up / 2 month pre- Left hip Open SDD appointment on March 15th. The appointment started with x-rays. I met with my Dr. and mentioned that although PT (physical therapy) was going well and even though I am able to walk unaided, I was concerned about a new sort of pinchy/burning feeling that I’ve been noticing in the front of my hip. It also sometimes feels like the tendon is rolling over the joint, almost like it’s catching.

During my hip evaluation, my Dr. had me sit at the end of the table and try to lift my leg up off the table (really hard to do) while he pushed down. It was excruciating and I squealed in pain, not a normal reaction at 12 weeks post surgery. The Dr. then pulled up my x-rays. The x-ray showed that one my the bones had not grown together, possibly at all. The two sections of bone appeared to be about a centimeter apart, not even touching. This is called nonunion (when the bone does not grow back together following the surgical break) or slow union. It is one of the complications that can result from PAO surgery, normally only in about 1% of cases. Oh, lucky me. Even when it does happen, is typically asymptomatic and therefore does not require further medical intervention. Unfortunately for me, it may be the reason that I’m having pain in the front of my hip and, it’s possible that the tendon is getting stuck in the break. Gruesome.

The Dr prescribed me a bone stimulator which is a machine I will have to wear every day at home and will hopefully stimulate the bone to regrow. His staff also recommended I increase my daily intake of protein and calcium as much as possible so unfortunately for the animals, my efforts toward vegetarianism are taking a break. Hopefully the bone stimulator + increase in protein works. If it doesn’t, and if I continue to have problems, I may have to have a further surgery on my right hip after my SDD surgery in May. I should know more after my next appointment. In any event, it doesn’t sound like it will prevent me from moving forward on my left hip surgery which is good.

My next appointment on April 30 is my pre-op for my Open SDD surgery scheduled for May 8. It’s so strange to think of going through all of this again when I feel like I’m not even through the first surgery but I have to just keep moving forward, partly because I don’t really have any other choice.

In other news, my sinus surgery is scheduled for this Thursday, March 21. It’s a same-day surgery so assuming that the surgery requires that I get there at 7am, I expect to be home by 3pm or 4pm. The doctor is performing a septoplasty, turbinectomy, balloon sinuplasty and I don’t even know what else. The goal is to create more space in my sinuses so that when I have allergy problems, my sinuses don’t get so inflamed that they completely block and get infected. I also started back to allergy shots, 4 shots 1-2x week.

This year is already wearing me out and it’s only March. It feels absurd to me that my hip problems have so taken over my life. I am really looking forward to getting though the next 9 months and getting back to my life (surgery free!). Until then, the saga continues.

(Mostly) Crutch Free + 12 week Status Update

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It’s been 11.5 weeks since my PAO and I am crutch free (mostly)! I say mostly because I am not willing to put away the crutches quite yet, and will definitely have them with me for longer trips (and I will absolutely continue to use the motorized scooter when I shop at Target). But this weekend, when I went out to dinner with my husband and when I walked 23 (23!) blocks over Sunday afternoon I did it only with a cane. I admit, by the end of the walk both of my legs were aching something fierce but I surprised myself by going as far as I did. I don’t seem to have a limp (as far as I can tell) and my surgery’d side hurts less than my yet-to-be-surgery’d side so I am really pleased.

Recovery was tough for the last week or two – I was doing more because of PT and my hips were not happy about it, very sore and achy and my muscles always quivering. But something seemed to turn a corner this Thursday because when I went to PT it was as if my muscles all decided to start trying to work again and I felt stronger and more capable. My therapist even approved my not using crutches. I’m know that the rest of PT will not be a cake walk and that I have a ways to go to be ‘normal’ but it was nice to feel like I was improving.

For reference, here are some answers about the status of my recovery to date (as of March 9th — 12 weeks and 1 day post-op):

  • When did I feel significantly better?  My pain was well managed but I was exhausted for the first 2 months. It literally took until 11 weeks until I felt significantly better.
  • How long was I on pain meds?  Narcotics (oxy) – 11 days following surgery; non-narcotic but strong – thru Jan 10th (about 1 month following surgery); Tylenol/Aleve – consistently thru 2 months post surgery; still occasionally
  • When was I able to completely take care of myself? My mom and husband were willing to help a lot so I let them. It was until mid Jan (about 1month post surgery) that I started to really take care of myself completely. If I had needed to I could have taken care of myself completely at between 2-3 weeks.
  • How long was I on crutches/walker? Non weight bearing crutches or walker – thru 5 weeks; weight bearing crutches – thru 10 weeks.  I continue to use a cane.
  • When was I able to wear anything but sweatpants? 2-3 weeks
  • When was I pain free? Too early to answer – still have some pain and lots of soreness
  • When was I able to lay on the operated side? 4 weeks
  • When was I able to drive? Don’t drive (live in NYC)
  • How long before I had a day that I didn’t need to lay in bed most of the day? I started working from home at 3 weeks – that was when I stopped laying in my recliner as much but I continue to rest and sleep a lot more than I used to.

I passed the half-way point between my 2 hip surgeries on February 24th and I am 9.5 weeks out from the SDD surgery. The 24th was an emotionally difficult day because I realized that I am actually going to have to go through this (or something like this) again and although I have handled the physical components of recovery well, the emotional has been harder than anticipated. I am scheduled for my next follow-up with my surgeon on March 15th so we will have lots to discuss. I’m really curious to hear if he thinks that I will need another scope on my right side (please, I really hope not). Also, following my unsuccessful balloon surgery attempt, I am scheduled for full sinus surgery (fix the deviated septum, turbinectomy, balloon sinuplasty, who knows what else but ALL performed under general anesthesia) on March 21st. Good news is that recovery for that should just be the weekend, plenty of time for the May 8th SDD.

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