Objectives Vs. Subjectives

I can't believe no one 'de-lurked'. I am very disappointed. I was going to go on a blogging strike until you did, but this is killing me.
I am going out of my mind. I have been having so many doubts about whether I am making the right decision or not with revision surgery. I think L sees that I am losing it. I went out tonight, to Target (needed milk, light bulbs and undershirts), as I was leaving, she said to me: "Mommy, be careful, don't step into cars, wait for the walking man and if a car comes, stop." How adorable is that, L is only 3!

So here is my dilemma. I went through this with my first surgery as well. I always have good days and bad days. On the good days, I wonder if I am going crazy. What would calm my fears was that I had an MRI which showed pathology, it disproved my theory that I was crazy (at least in this sense) . This time, I have inconclusive scans. But, there is the cam impingement. Do you see where I am going with this? Yes, straight into the psych ward!!!

My intra-articular injection got rid of all of my pain, the psoas injection helped with some of the pain but the joint injection was a million times better. I really don't want my psoas released, and Dr. Kelly knows that (maybe bc I repeated it like a million times!). But what if I am wrong? What if he is right? But none of my imaging revealed a problem with the psoas, but then again, it didn't reveal a problem with much of anything. But he has never touched, stretched or looked at my psoas, much of our discussions have been over the phone. So really he is going on all of my subjective complaints. It is scary. So that is why I have been freaking out.

On a different note, I ordered a spinning bike. I am so excited, it should arrive tomorrow. I used to be a maniac spinner, nothing in the world gives me the same high as spinning. I don't see any reason why I can't go back to spinning, I desperately need to exercise and this is perfect for me and my lifestyle since I don't have time to go to the gym! Hopefully by tomorrow night I will be able to go for my first ride!!

Always a Party at Casa de Susie

My psoas is a lot less sore today, it doesn't hurt unless I try to really abuse it, like lifting my leg onto the bed, or try a SLR, but it is still weak. The joint hurts, so where does that put me with this injection? What a mess.

To make things more interesting, I had doctor appt #3 today (warning- not hip related). My stomach has been funky the last few weeks, so after countless emails back and forth with my GI doc, he finally told me to come in and see him. After discussing what is going on and trying to piece everything together, he didn't think my last CT scan (in June) made sense based on his exam and my symptoms, so while I waited, he called the radiologist. He re-read the films and changed the diagnosis. So once again, different body part but same issue- everyone reads scans differently. Hopefully, the re-read will work to my benefit, he changed all my meds. It also helped that I was in the office and we were actually having a live conversation as opposed to back and forth over the Internet. So we will see what happens, of course the pharmacy was out of my meds!

The Joy of Scheduling

In my craziness over the last few days, I neglected to let you in on the fun time I had scheduling my injection. After I was called on Friday to find out when would be good for me, I, of course, never heard back from anyone. I called again on Monday, spoke with J, who said A would call me, but she would let her know that I had called. Wednesday, no one had called me yet (and then you wonder why I have had pain for 3 months and am finally starting to get it resolved now), I called again. J answered. I told her no one had called me yet to let me know when my appointment would be. She put A on the phone. A: J told me she called and told you the appt would be on the 16th. sigh. Me: No, she didn't call me. And...after I initially spoke with J, I called her back and told her I had given her the wrong date, I need the week before, followed by an appt with Dr. Kelly. A: Oh, so J never called you? Me: No.
She was going to have to call me back to reschedule this, but the problem was that Dr. Kelly was only going to be in the office for half a day the next day. Screw it, I will leave work early, this is always soooooo complicated. It doesn't help that someone else is making appts for me. So while I was away, A called and left me a message with the appt time. I have to call and confirm it, wouldn't it be 'funny' if she gave away the appt bc I didn't call back soon enough!!!

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!!!!!!

Time to Schedule Injection

If things have been comical up until now, this mornings incident will just add more fun! Maybe as a reader, you don't find things so funny, but from my point of view, if I don't laugh at all of this then I will cry, and it is really not something I want to cry about all the time!!
At 8:45 this morning, my cel phone rings, Dr. Kelly's office. It is his office manager, and she says "Hi, how can I help you?". Well, she really can't, unless she can magically fix this problem, decide I can have an injection, or do a total hip replacement on me (ok, bad idea..). She said "well, I have a message here that you called". yes, but not her...this is weird. "Oh, ok, what's your first name again?", didn't you just call me???? "What message did you want to leave for Dr. Kelly?", isn't it on the piece of paper where you got my number? The original message? "I want an injection, do you think you can get him that message today?", "well, I don't know if you can have the injection today, someone else makes the appointments and she has to call your insurance company", AHHHHHHHHHH that is not my question.....just please give him my message. This is going to have to be added to a previous post Incompetencies

He did just call me back, so I will call his office in a few minutes and schedule it!!!

I Gave In

My 'game plan' lasted exactly 3 days, meaning, waiting as long as possible to get an injection. Today my pain was so awful I called to schedule an injection. Now I have to wait for Dr. Kelly's office to call me back....so hopefully by next month:-) Seriously, I hope to hear no later than Monday so I can proceed with this!

We just uploaded some more pics from our trip!!!

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!!