Second Opinion (A good place to start if you have just joined me on my adventure)

Here is what I wrote in the letter for my second opinion:

Thank you for taking the time to review my films/ reports. Enclosed you will find radiology reports, operative reports and office notes from Dr. Kelly, as well as my MRI’s, x-rays and CT scan on CD. I would like to consult with you regarding my right hip. Below is a brief history of my problem.

I am a 27 year old physical therapist, mother of 2. I began having right hip pain in November 2006. At the time, physical therapy did not help and I decided to consult with Bryan Kelly at HSS in January 2007. I had positive impingement signs and clicking in the hip, as well as pain with resisted hip flexion. Dr. Kelly ordered an MRI which showed cam impingement and a labral tear. An intra-articular injection of marcaine/ kenalog/ cortisone initially relieved all of my pain. We decided to do an arthroscopy to address these issues, on March 5, 2007. The scope addressed pincer impingement and debrided the labral tear.

I was doing very well after that surgery, with the exception of some residual pain at end range hip flexion, and flexion with adduction and internal rotation. Additionally, my left hip began bothering me during the period of time that I was partial weight bearing, and I had identical symptoms on the left as I had pre-op on the right. We decided on another scope, July 2, 2007. Four days before the surgery on the left, I had a twisting injury on the right side, I was weight bearing on the right and turned to the left, at that time, I heard and felt a pop, and had severe pain. The pain persisted for the entire day and subsided slightly over the next few days.

On July 2, I had the left hip scoped. The scope addressed cam and pincer impingement and debrided the labral tear. The left side is doing well. The right side continued to bother me after the left scope, being on crutches exacerbated that side and all of my pre-op symptoms returned.

Towards the end of July, I contacted Dr. Kelly regarding my symptoms as I was extremely concerned that I had possibly re-torn my labrum. He ordered an MRI, followed by an intra-articular injection which gave me complete pain relief. I have been very concerned about the cam impingement remaining in my right hip. He also ordered a CT scan. At this point, Dr. Kelly has suggested a revision arthroscopy to address the cam bump, and possibly address the psoas, as he feels I injured it when I twisted that hip. I will be having the psoas injected in the coming weeks to determine if it truly is an issue or not.

At this point, I am unsure of how to proceed. I am skeptical of having another arthroscopy since the first one was not able to fully address my impingement. I am writing to you to see if you think my impingement would be better treated via an open procedure, and to see whether you think I should make an appointment to see you in person.

Again, thank you for the taking the time to read this and review my file.
If you have any question, please feel free to contact me at (phone #), or via email (email address)

Sincerely,

Susie

My So-Called Life

This is an email J sent me this morning, after I freaked out when I couldn't find my i-pod (It was in the car)

Firstly - u could have called and told me u found it. U knew I was up
Secondly - you need to chill out and get a grip on things
Third - you need to stop losing things

I am definitely losing objects left and right, maybe bc I am so scatter brained, and I do need to chill out a little! I am so edgy lately, I feel like any second I will snap.

Anyway, this is my current 'hip' status. Dr. Kelly's office called me Friday morning to set up the psoas injection, so they have to call the radiologist and set it up with him (sigh), so I am waiting to hear back from them (I did call today to see what the deal was, no call back yet). I also received my x-rays on CD today, so I have organized all of my office notes, scan reports and op-reports, and will now type up the letter to go with it. It will go out tomorrow, overnight!

Today's accomplishments

I sit in front of my computer with a CT scan report and Dr. Millis' address!
Here's what happenned:
I forgot that I was pissed off at Dr. Kelly's office staff and I called them to get the report. It worked, they had 'just received it' and she was going to 'put it on his desk'. I asked her to fax me the report and leave him a note to call me.
I have the report, but no phone call as of today (we know how this goes).
So....here are some lovely excerpts from the report:
-Evaluation of the osseous structures demonstrates a deformity in the anterior aspect of the head-neck junction of the right hip. This may represent a postsurgical site for a femoral dysplastic bump and correlation with the clinical history is requested.
-Findings suggestive of postoperative change in the anterior aspect of the head-neck junction of the right hip presumably representing resection of the dysplastic bump. There is irregularity to the cortex in this location, however, this does not appear to represent subchondral cystic change.

Are you still with me? Did you notice anything funny? If you are a die-hard "Goodnight Nobody" fan, you should have. Ready....WHY THE HELL ARE THEY SEEING POST-OP CHANGES ON THE FEMORAL HEAD NECK JUNCTION WHEN THERE WAS NO SURGERY THERE. AHHHHHHHHHH
Ok, glad to get that off my chest! The report is dated the day of my scan at 3:32pm, my appt was at 2pm, that is pretty good. The friggin' radiologist could have called me to find out what exactly was done during surgery, or called Kelly's office.

So I am waiting to speak to Dr. Kelly on that!
I called Dr. Millis' office to find out what to do. I left a message, on a machine, and got a call back on the same day from a real live person who was actually helpful. Maryanne was super nice, took my information and told me to send my stuff (x-rays, MRI's, CT scan, office notes and op-reports), Dr. Millis will look at them and determine if I should come in or not. The only problem is that I do not have the x-rays, I will have to call for them tomorrow, and I anticipate a headache. I hope they will come as quickly as the MRI CD did so I can send off my package!
I will also write an intro letter at some point tomorrow and post it here, so my story can be clear here from beginning to end.
So...did you catch that 'femoral head-neck' thing or am I just the queen of anal/crazy/neurotic!!

add on- I just remembered that I also asked for a copy of my last office visit note. That was when we had our discussion about the cam impingement and the possibility for a revision. Here is what the note says:
"She is here regarding bilateral hips, left side is 8 weeks out. She is doing well from the left side. On the right side she did have this twisting injury and had developed increasing pain on the right side. It really has not gone away.
At this time we are going to see how she does with the injection. She is going to call us in one week and let us know."
Hmmmm, is that really what happened????????