The Beauty of huge Needles in Small Spaces

Yes, I had my injection today (#3 for me, I think I can start doing them myself). I had a different radiologist today than the previous times, apparently, I was supposed to have him every time, but someone (hmm, who can that be) screwed it up.

What was different this time was the doctor brought my hip through some ROM pre-injection, documented my pain levels with certain motions (hyperflexion, flexion with IR, flexion with ER), then injected, and then ranged the hip again. I went from a 7/10, 10/10, 0/10 to a 0/10 for all motions. So I got up and was pain free.

There were 3 or 4 good hours, the injection was around 10:30, 11:00, by 3:30, the anesthetic wore off and the joint felt irritated. In the past, I have had a huge flare up the night of the injection, but the radiologist told me things may be different because the hip has been operated on. He also said, before he started, that it may be a little bit more difficult and uncomfortable to inject because of scar tissue, but once he was in the joint space, he told me he felt no resistance.
So far, my pain has returned, slightly increased than pre-injection levels, I am waiting for the flare up but it doesn't seem to be happening.

In terms of the right side, it has been better since P mob'd it on Monday, s I am writing this, it just tightened up nightmarishly, I am typing on my stomach, with my body pillow folded in half under my thigh near my knee to get some hip extension and stress the anerior capsule.

Tomorrow I see Dr. Kelly. When I was in today, I was given my entire chart, photocopied. Interestingly, my first X-ray of the right hip showed a synovial herniation pit in the head neck junction, and the MRI's (both of the right) showed mild cam impingement (on a side note, the left MRI showed no cam impingement but it was found on visual inspection with the arthroscope). Clearly, this is a huge issue and I somehow have to bring it up delicately, but firmly. Any ideas?????

Injection Scheduled

Sigh of relief!!!!! But the appointment is for next Tuesday, one week from today, but at least it is before I actually go in and see Dr. Kelly! So we can talk about it. It only took his office 24 hours to schedule this for me, do you think I am being unreasonable with all of my complaining?
Also, this injection is in a different location (not anatomical location, physical location, different office) than all my other ones have been, further leading me to believe that his office staff screwed up in the past when scheduling them.
My only concern is that I have theater tickets for that night, so I will not make a fun date (sorry Amy!!!), but the receptionist became edgy when I asked if there was an earlier appointment time available "You said Tuesdays and Thursdays are good for you", ok, I'll take it, I'll stop complaining!!!!!!

You Never Appreciate Something Until it is Gone

Today it really hit me...I love cortisone! I know it is really bad for your joints, but it has afforded me so much relief, none of which I really appreciated until now.

I don't mean to complain, well, maybe just a little, especially because I tried complaining to my husband, J, and he answered me "which side hurts?..oh, the un-operated, who cares, is going to be fixed next week".

This is not a good answer to me, especially since I have been a lot better since my injection. I had the injection on May 1, I had one great week, basically pain free. After one week, I decided the injection wore off, but really, it didn't. I was no longer pain free, but nowhere near as bad as I was pre-injection (I guess a painscale would help here).

I had a slow increase in pain after the injection, but one day, I do remember thinking it was less pain than pre-injection. So I decided it did work.
I also began thinking about my first injection, and I had 2 good weeks, almost no pain, but then some pain, looking back, the pain never reached the pre-injection level again (surgery was about 1 month later).
So now, 8 days before my surgery, I long for another injection. I know, getting one now would be just plain stupid, but the pain is aggravating the hell out of me.

I understand now why I get patients with chronic pain, also on anti-depressants. No, I did not reach this level in a few days with pain, but I can see that I could reach this level quite easily if this was a long term thing.
I am also glad that I listened to myself, and pushed for an MRI and injection when this began, and that I continued to listen to myself and scheduled surgery.
I admit, there were days when I felt so good, I contemplated cancelling the surgery (don't tell J), but now I see that it was the cortisone talking!!!

Life After the Dreaded Injection

My surgeon follows a specific protocol. Hip pain -> MRI -> trial of PT -> diagnostic injection -> surgery. The injection can be a scary sounding thing. They inject a numbing agent (marcaine) into the joint, followed by some steroids (kenalog and cortisone), if you get relief, your pain is indeed coming from the labral tear in your hip. My doctor tried to reassure me by saying he sends all his patients to one particular radiologist, he is "the best", he has heard horror stories of other radiologists, but never from a patient using this guy.
So I sucked it up and went to have it done. The radiology tech was excellent, he was very reassuring and helped calm me down. After I had changed, he took me to the room where the injection would be done, "Dr. X will be in soon"....wait a second, that's not who I was supposed to have....ok, stay calm, he must be just as good, right??? Turns out he was a fellow...oh no, how many of these could he have done?
He was AMAZING!!! Ok, yes, he did stick a gigantic needle into my hip, but I barely felt it, and he spoke to me the whole time, kept me calm, and best of all...it worked!!
I did put a lot of pressure on him! I said I have to be in good shape for next week, I am taking my kids to Disney World! He finished injecting everything, I stood up, and I had no pain, zero!!!! Wow!! I practically skipped home! I was so happy to finally not have pain!
About 3 or 4 hours later, the numbing agent wore off, pain again, but it did not return to the baseline level of pain I was having pre-injection, it kept going up and up... This was not good! That night, I experienced pain like I never had before, Now I was getting scared, how would I manage in Disney like this?
Luckily, the next morning, the pain had gone away and I was back to being painfree!!
The injection worked so well in fact, that my my plan for avoiding surgery on the second side was to just have it constantly injected! My surgeon was not in favor :-(
He said the steroids would cause too much damage over time!!! So I write this 3 weeks before my second surgery is scheduled!
Disney World was great! I walked non-stop for 3 days!!