PVNS

PVNS~The new bane of my existence.

My story begins like this... I began to have problems with my joints when I was pregnant with my oldest son, Andy is now 24 and I have had pain in both hips off and on all this time. I have also had issues with my right shoulder ever since I torqued it while sledding with my boys in the winter of 94 or 95. 

Dan age 21

Andy age 24

Three years ago on August 15 2008 I had gone to dinner with a friend in the Village of Yellow Springs Ohio http://www.yellowspringsohio.org/ Dinner and cocktails were quickly followed by a walk through the shops and checking out the end of summer activities. We had decided to walk across the street to see one of the performers, who was spinning fire on the corner and I was half way across the street when I was struck by a car. I flew up into the air and landed on my right shoulder. 

The car had clipped my right hip and tossed me, luckily the driver was going only about 15 miles per hour and I ended up with no broken bones or bruises . . . my sandals never even flew off of my feet. What I did get out of the incident was a traffic ticket for jay walking and a court appearance.  And the driver got nothing since the cops said she was not at fault since I was not in the cross walk. What saved me at court was that the village had not repainted the cross walk on the street and there was no designated walk zone. . . so I did not have to pay a fine or repair her vehicle. Lucky me . . . or so I thought until recently. 

Around the same time frame as this accident the company that I work for http://www.mindray.com/na/homepage/home.html  changed the vehicle that we drive. So when I began to have pain in my left hip, lower back and swelling in my left leg, I attributed it to the change in vehicle and the long hours in the car. The swelling and pain would go away when I would get out of the car and walk. And I found that exercise always helped so I generally felt better in the summer months when I was most active and much worse in the winter when the weather was cold and all I want to do is hibernate.

About a year ago I had an appointment at my Chiropractor and he was adjusted my SI joint caused me to have severe pain in the left hip. I honestly thought that I had a broken hip but I did not go to the doctor or have x-rays at the time and after about 6 weeks the pain went away. Then this last August 2011 I had a repeat experience at the Chiropractor and even mentioned to him ahead of the adjustment that had had an issue with the prior adjustment and he said he would try not to do the same thing. Unfortunately the exact same pain occurred.This time I made sure I went to the doctor and had an MRI and Xrays. 

At my follow up appointment with my family doctor I was told that I had "femoral thickening" and he was referring me to a local Orthopedic doctor who was a hip specialist. I immediately went home and did an internet search on what the heck "femoral thickening" was. . . all of my research indicated that it was a cancer issue. 

Three weeks later, after getting my self completely worked up and terrified that I had cancer I finally saw the Orthopedic doctor. I had had a dream the night before this appointment in which I was going to have to have my entire leg amputated because of cancer and I was worried about how I was going to make a living. The first thing out of the doctors mouth was that he did not think it was cancer. . . but to be safe he wanted to refer me to an Orthopedic Oncologist at The Ohio State University Hospital to confirm that it was not cancer. 

This was another worry ...so the Ortho guy did not think it was cancer but he did not know ... I finally got in to see the Dr. Joel Mayerson http://ortho.osu.edu/directories/faculty/joelmayerson/ the Orthopedic Oncologist and he is the one who said that it was not cancer but PVNS. 

He said it so quickly that I missed it and had to have him repeat it for me. The MRI showed a distinct nodule in the joint that he felt could be removed via a hip arthroscopy so he referred me to a colleague of his that specializes in hip scopes. Dr Thomas Ellis http://sportsmedicine.osu.edu/ourteam/physicians/thomas_ellis/ has been perfecting the procedure and has become very proficient doing the hip scope so that patients would not have to have their hips opened completely up. I met with him for the first time on Dec 4, 2011 and I was very impressed. We scheduled my scope for Jan 24th and at that time they will do a biopsy to confirm the PVNS diagnosis.