5 months to go

It's exactly 5 months until the first day that I could have surgery- May 30th. I went to the doctor yesterday and found out that there isn't much I can do until I'm ready for surgery. He said it sounds like I have a labral tear on my left side which can be fixed with a scope. But if I fix it now, it will likely tear again before my PAO. I asked if a cortisone shot would help with the pain. He said it would stop the pain for a little while, but that cortisone also stops the cartilage from healing. So if my cartilage is trying to heal itself, getting a cortisone shot would make it stop. He supported me using the cane and made sure I knew how to use it correctly. He said if I want to exercise, I should use the recumbant bike. I told him how it hurt my knees the last time I tried and he told me to flip the pedals over and pedal without the straps over my feet. That way my knees aren't forced to go a certain direction. He said that the day of surgery another doctor would go in first with a scope to repair my torn labrum, then Dr. Scheid would perform the PAO. He said since I've seen Maiers, he could be the doctor to fix my cartilage. I also got good news that Maiers always does the first surgery of the day, so I won't have to wait all day to have surgery done. They said I could give blood a month before to be given back to me after surgery. I asked if Jeff could do it for me if he was a match and they said that he could do that. I have to call Scheid's office at least 6 weeks before I want to have surgery so that they can coordinate and schedule everything. His assistant says it can get complicated with 2 surgeons involved.

Dr. Scheid also said something that really made me think when it comes to scheduling the surgery. He said to think back to where I was one year ago, 6 months ago, 3 months ago, and now. One year ago I didn't even notice my hip except for the clunking/popping when I walked. All of my pain was in my knee. 6 months ago (end of June) I was recovering from knee surgery and only barely noticing an ache in my hip. 3 months ago (end of September) my hips still weren't a big issue, just aching, no major pain. And now, I'm in almost constant pain from my left hip and now getting pain in my right hip. Where am I going to be by the time I can have surgery? I don't think I even want to think about that. Having surgery during the school year means using all of my sick/PTO days (I only have 6.5 accrued right now), taking 1 week without pay, and then only getting 60% of my pay for the rest of my time off. I also have to worry about my job being given away while I am gone. So, I'm going to grit my teeth until May 30th.

Changes I plan on making to help me through:
1. Using my cane at all times at work and for major trips out of the house (grocery store, big shopping trips, etc.)
2. Going to the gym only twice a week, use the recumbant bike and rowing machine
3. Rearrange my work space at school so that I can sit and teach as much as possible. Work out a system with teachers where I won't need to walk to each room to pick kids up.
4. Since I won't be able to exercise as much and as rigorous as I want, I am going to stop eating all meat but fish. Hopefully this will help me keep my weight down.
5. Enlist Jeff's help more when it comes to cleaning the house. I don't have to do it all myself.

2011- Year of the cane

So I broke down on Monday and bought a cane. I'm getting frustrated about my pain and needed to try something new. Twice now my left hip has caught while I am walking and I've gotten sharp pains. It feels almost like tendons and cartilage are just getting tangled up in my hip. Now it hurts pretty much 24/7 and is making my right hip and knee hurt. So the cane helps release some stress from my right hip in long distance walking. I took it to Wal-mart today, first time in public, and I got some looks from people. But I stayed confident. It is going to be 1000 times harder adjusting to having it at school. Middle school students are cruel.

I called Dr. Scheid's office on Monday too to ask about screw removal and what I can be doing more about my pain. I've already cut back on activity and I am taking my prescriptions religiously, but the pain is only getting worse. I got a reply back from Dr. Scheid's nurse that they don't normally take screws out and if I'm having problems, he wants to reevaluate my knee. So I am going in tomorrow morning to have it looked at and I am going to mention that I think I have a tear in my left hip and see what he wants to do about it. I can't handle this pain for 5 more months. So I will be back on tomorrow updating on what the Doc has to say.

X-rays

So when I went to visit Dr. Maiers the first week of December, I got copies of all of my x-rays from Dr. Scheid's office. They only have films there, so I just have a pile of x-ray film laying in my office. I decided to take pictures of them to share.

Here is my knee post-op. Notice the wonderful screws I acquired.

In this photo you can really see how far the screws go through the bone. The bottom screw is starting to push back out.

Here is my most recent hip x-ray from July. Dr. Maiers drew all over it to show 15 degrees of coverage on the left and 26 degrees on the right.

Peace of mind

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from my visit to Dr. Maiers today, but I did walk away with some peace of mind that I'm on the right track. As for my knee, which has been a major pain lately, he thinks that Zumba was a bad idea and stopping that will help with the knee cap pain I am having. He said that people with patellafemoral pain pre and post surgery are always going to have trouble with high intensity activities like that. He also said that I am still in a healing process and my knee pain is going to change through that process. He looked at my X-ray of my hip and had me stand with my shoes and socks off. Then he had me lay on the table and twisted my legs all around. He made both my hips pop a couple times (not good for my pain!). Then he drew all the angles on my X-rays (something that Scheid had never done) to find out my angles of coverage. My right hip is 26 degrees and my left hip is only 15 degrees. He said that would consider it being pretty severe dysplasia. He told me that he could do arthroscopic surgery, but it would only be a bandaide for my enlarged labrum. It wouldn't fix the dysplasia, I would need the PAO done to fix the dysplasia. He said even then I will never have a normal hip and I may never be pain free. He also said that right now is the best time to fix my hip since I do not have children yet. He said if I wait until I have children, I would need to wait till they are 3-4 years old to fix things because of the 3 months I will be on crutches. That would mean waiting another 5 years for surgery and my already horrible pain multiplying. So it looks like the PAO first week of June is my course of action. Maiers said he could do a scope to fix the labrum now, but I can't take the time off work that is needed. So I will probably have a cortisone injection in January to help me survive the 5 months I have to wait for surgery. Overall, I liked how much time Maiers spent going over everything and answering all of my questions honestly. I think I will still have Scheid do my PAO since everyone who has been to him recently has done well. It is still really scary to think about, but I have 6 months to get used to the idea. Thank you for reading!

P.S. I am really going to miss Zumba : (

Feeling the same

So it's been awhile since I last posted and it's been about 1 year and 1 month since I first went to the doctor for my hip and knee pain. Right now I feel exactly how I did a year ago, except it's both sides of my body instead of just the left. Even after surgery, I still have extreme knee pain and general aching in my left knee. Now my right knee is starting to feel the same pain. Both of my hips are aching like crazy. I am even 20 pounds lighter than I was 1 year ago, because I thought that was a major part of the problem. I finally found a form of exercise that I love doing, but it is only increasing the rate that my joints deteriorate. One week from today I am going to see a different doctor to see if he can figure me out before anyone else cuts me open. However, even if he can figure me out, it will be at least 4 months, but most likely 6 months, until I can have any sort of surgery done. That's all the bummer stuff. On the good side, my job is going very well right now. I feel like I am being effective teaching my students this year. My school made AYP, even in the Special Education subgroup, and I am working hard to keep it that way. I'm also starting my masters in January in the area of Educational Supervision and Leadership. It's all through Ball State online and I will be able to apply for a Principal's license when I am finished. I'm excited about school and hopefully I will have a good update in a week with some answers from Dr. Maiers.

10 weeks

I know, it's been awhile since I posted anything. My personal life has been a hot mess the last month and things are finally back the way they should be. I've been cleared for all activity short of running (but I don't like to run anyways). I've made a few trips to the gym so far, but pain and plans have been keeping me from going as much as I would like. I had only 4 physical therapy appointments since I had my ROM when I began. The PT just gave me lots of home exercises to do. My scar is still ugly and purple. I'm ready for it to blend in a little bit. At my last appointment I got a prescription for a 24 hour anti-inflammatory because my hip was hurting bad with my knee. I still get a lot of pains shooting from my hip down my entire leg. It's not very encouraging for my surgery future. I go back to the doctor in a month and hopefully will be discussing my continued pain and what we should do next.

Almost 6 Weeks

Six weeks ago I didn't know that I would be where I am right now. I am walking--a lot of times without a noticeable limp. I have stopped taking hydrocodone, but it's hard to manage my pain with just extra strength tylenol. It could just be because I'm up moving so much, probably more than I should be. Monday is probably going to be my last day of physical therapy (I've only gone 3 times) and I go back to see Dr. Scheid on Thursday morning. I want to find out while I'm there when I can start working out heavy duty again and if I should be worried about all the extra pain I'm having in my hip now. I thought at first it was just from starting to walk again and limping funny, but the pain keeps getting worse and actually kept me awake last night. It's like a dull ache starting in the front of my hip and radiating around the side and back. I didn't have a labral tear when I had an MRI in December, but I'm worried I tore something through all this surgery recovery for my knee. I hope that's not the case because I am ready to be free of pain. Hopefully I will only have good news this Thursday.