It is official; I will be having surgery on my left hip.
Last September after a 5k race one beautiful Sunday afternoon, I noticed that my left hip was bothering me. I figured that because I had just ran I was just sore. So I took a pain reliever and put some heat on it. That seemed to do the trick....for a few days anyways. I was sick sometime in October and decided to get some medicine from the doctor. While I was there I causally mentioned that my hip had been bugging me since my run. My doctor quickly suggested that it was nothing more than a torn tendon and it would heal on its own.
Two months later, after experiencing increasing pain, I set an appointment in December to see my Doctor specifically for the affected area. After running a series of standard tests and xrays, she gave me a number of pain meds and decided to send me to a orthopedic specialist for further testing.
January has now rolled around and I am finally able to see this specialist. He then runs the same standard tests my first doctor did, and determined that it was nothing more than Bursitis, and wrote a prescription for three weeks of physical therapy twice a week. (This was when all physical activity had to stop due to extreme chronic pain) After only two weeks I was in more pain that ever and not even the vicoden was helping! That Friday night I called the doctors office and was basically in tears. He sent a prescription over to Target for STRONGER meds, and sent a referral to Edwards for an MRI.
The following Monday I was able to get in at 7 in the morning for my MRI; thankfully my mom drove me to the hospital that day. After changing and waiting for what seemed an eternity, I was taken back to have the dye injected into my hip joint. First they took xrays and numbed me with Lidocan. After seeing the next needle I should have been knocked out! With that really LARGE needle they injected me with the contrast dye and wheeled me to the MRI. Once inside the MRI, I quickly drifted off into a peaceful sleep, being lulled by the humming sound of the MRI machine.
About 45 minutes to an hour later, they woke me up and wheeled me back to the waiting/changing area. Upon arriving I told my mom, as I sat down, that I did not feel so well. I stood up to get my things from my locker and quickly became very dizzy and unstable. I felt like I was going to vomit. As the blood quickly drained from my face, I reached for the trash can and sat down. I was dry-heaving and getting no better. All of a sudden I began to sweat prefusly. Trying to escape from my sweatshirt, a nurse passing by say the painic and asked if I was ok. I just shook my head "no". She then called for back up and they brought in the crash cart, and cold compresses. As they laid me on the bench and applied the cold compresses, they began attaching wires to me, everywhere. My heart rate had dropped to the low 50's, and my temprature had risen significantly. After about 25 minutes of this caoticness, my tempature had come down and my heart rate reached a normal level. I was finally able to sit up and drink some juice.
The following morning I had an appointment with my ortho doctor. He went over the MRI's with me and explained that I have a tear in my Labrum (the labrum is basically a thin layer of cartiledge that keeps your femur from coming out of socket). He then told me I needed to have another hip injection to insure that the pain I was experiencing was really from this tear.
So the following week I returned to the hospital where I had my MRI. As soon as I walked into the waiting/changing area, one of the nurses said, "Oh, you're the girl who passed out last week". Why yes, yes I am. LOL. (Even the doctor doing the injection knew me by that!) They took me back to the same room where I had the first injection. This time the needles were bigger and there were four, not two. The third needle injection went straight into my hip joint, and as soon as he pushed the medication through the tears began to roll. It was as if someone was playing tug-of-war with my thigh muscle while someone else lit it on fire! The fourth injection was no better than the first.
Within days I was feeling like my old self again. This painful procedure actually worked! But this just meant that the pain was actually coming from my hip joint and I would actually need surgery to fix the problem. It was a wonderful pain free week though! (To bad it had to come to an end! :\)
The following week I was sent to yet another doctor; this time it was the surgeon. After he looked at my MRI, he continued to explain the surgery and the recovery process to me. This information was more in detail than what I had read on the internet, and he actually began to scare me. I had to take a few deep breaths to keep from getting a panic attack. He sent me for more xrays, which did not reveal anything good. He then pointed out that one of my bones was too big and while he was in there he would need to grind some of it down. Once I left the doctors office, and sat in my car, I began to cry. I was offically scared at this point. It was so much information at one time, I felt extremly overwhelmed.
I did not schedule the surgery that day, I decided to wait. I needed to calm down, talk to some people and get my thoughts together. After creating a very detailed list of questions I called the surgical coordinator at the doctors office. She then instructed me that I needed to come in one more time for a presurgical appointment with the doctor. Apparently he is a very busy man and I was unable to get in until this Wednesday (two weeks later).
Since September I have been experiencing this pain. Somedays are better than others, but nights prove to be the worst. I can be fine one minute and the next be doing something as simple as putting on my shoe and have pain shoot through my hip. Its as if there is a knife stuck inside me, and one small motion digs it in deeper, and deeper. The pain has spread through to the side of my hip so much so that I cannot lay on my left side without pain. If I so much as get my foot caught in the sheets I feel the need to scream in agony. There is clicking and popping, as if my femur wants to escape its home in my socket. The sharp, burning sensation pentitrates so deep nothing can "touch" the pain. The pain comes and goes as it pleases. I never know when it will rear its ugly head. This is why I cannot wait until I am able to have this tear fixed. Then maybe I will be able to return to my normal daily activities, and not be stuck wearing the same shoes day in and day out.
