Long time no see everyone...I have been truly delinquent with writing this summer and now it is definitely fall and I need to get caught up.
At our last chat I was informing everyone about a new study being conducted for people with PVNS. I completed the process shortly after the announcement and it was completely pain free and as a bonus they sent an American Express gift card to everyone who participated.
The summer has been fairly low key I did not get to the pool (outdoor) even once this summer as we had a very cool summer; which in OH is very unusual. Then September came and the weather became our normal July temperatures. Any way I am still not very active yet. I started volunteering in June and "work" one day a week at Kettering Medical Center. The nice thing about this gig is that I can sit if I need to and I can stand and rock (makes my hip hurt less) as needed. I am greeting people as they come into the Physician Office Building (POB) and giving directions or answering questions. It is actually kind of fun but there are times where it can get boring with no one walking in the door, that is when I organize the drawers.
I finally got my shoulder repaired after injuring it 18 years ago and then getting it re-injured in 08 when the car hit me. The surgeon was able to repair everything through 4 small incisions and he found that there was a lot to fix once he got in there. It was booked as a Acromioclavicular resection, shoulder decompression and possible rotator cuff tear. What they found was a rotator cuff tear, a laberal tear and a bicep tendon tear along with lots of debris floating around. So they fixed the rotator cuff, resected the Acromioclavicular joint (chopped off a piece of my clavicle) fixed the laberal tear and inserted 2 anchors to hold the bicep tendon in place and cleaned out the debris. I was placed in to an immobilizer for 6-9 weeks and sent on home. Because of all my allergies or sensitivities to narcotics I cannot take what they normally use for surgical recovery and I was sent home with a Prescription for Tylenol#3 for pain management. If you have ever had surgery you know that T#3 does nothing to help with pain management. I had been using pain patches prior to surgery so my family doc called in a refill with a higher dose of the pain patch. That helped a bit but I really am not so sure it was doing much good at all. Several weeks later I ran out of the pain patches (had 2 defective patches that would not stick and fell on the floor .... I was not about to pick them up and put them back on my skin) ... ANYWAY I ended up needing a refill before the RX could be filled and I decided to forget about it and had about a week of withdrawal symptoms (fever and chills) and that was it no big deal getting rid of them. I am now 7 weeks out from shoulder surgery and I am doing really well I got the immobilizer off on Thursday and have just a regular sling to wear now. I am not wearing it much at home but when I go out I am putting it on. Doing loads of exercises to stretch and loosen the shoulder and I am getting back the range of motion but full ROM may take a bit but I am not giving up.
I am now 10 months out from my LTHR and I am once again having hip issues. It feels like there is fluid surrounding my hip joint and it hurts every step I take and my leg is swelling up like crazy. I lay in bed with my legs up all night or in the recliner and while in these positions the swelling recedes, then I stand up and boom the swelling comes back again. I put up with it for about 2 weeks before finally emailing my Orthopedic Surgeon (OS) who did my surgery and his PA called to tell me that he was on vacation and she would get back to me. So now he's back and they chatted and he is throwing in the towel and has asked that I go to see another OS. This one works in the town where I live my OS that did the LTHR is 90 min away. I called and got an appt for the 9th of Oct with the new doc. I was actually surprised that they had an opening so soon and I would not have to wait 6 weeks to get in. In the meantime I am icing elevating and resting my hip in hopes that the fluid will go away and I will stop hurting. I still have problems with the implant, I wonder sometimes if the cup or the rim is wrong and is rubbing on the muscles that run through the groin because I have had groin pain since surgery. It actually feels better if I sit with my leg "cocked" out to the side. I was chatting with a fellow PVNSer and she has the same thing going on with her hip and she was told the reason it feels better to sit that way is it opens up the capsule around the joint and relieves the pressure. I will do an other update once I hear what this other doc has to say; although I am not convinced he is the right person to see since he is a "generalist" and not a "hip specialist" and I don't even know if he has ever dealt with PVNS!
More another day
At our last chat I was informing everyone about a new study being conducted for people with PVNS. I completed the process shortly after the announcement and it was completely pain free and as a bonus they sent an American Express gift card to everyone who participated.
The summer has been fairly low key I did not get to the pool (outdoor) even once this summer as we had a very cool summer; which in OH is very unusual. Then September came and the weather became our normal July temperatures. Any way I am still not very active yet. I started volunteering in June and "work" one day a week at Kettering Medical Center. The nice thing about this gig is that I can sit if I need to and I can stand and rock (makes my hip hurt less) as needed. I am greeting people as they come into the Physician Office Building (POB) and giving directions or answering questions. It is actually kind of fun but there are times where it can get boring with no one walking in the door, that is when I organize the drawers.
I finally got my shoulder repaired after injuring it 18 years ago and then getting it re-injured in 08 when the car hit me. The surgeon was able to repair everything through 4 small incisions and he found that there was a lot to fix once he got in there. It was booked as a Acromioclavicular resection, shoulder decompression and possible rotator cuff tear. What they found was a rotator cuff tear, a laberal tear and a bicep tendon tear along with lots of debris floating around. So they fixed the rotator cuff, resected the Acromioclavicular joint (chopped off a piece of my clavicle) fixed the laberal tear and inserted 2 anchors to hold the bicep tendon in place and cleaned out the debris. I was placed in to an immobilizer for 6-9 weeks and sent on home. Because of all my allergies or sensitivities to narcotics I cannot take what they normally use for surgical recovery and I was sent home with a Prescription for Tylenol#3 for pain management. If you have ever had surgery you know that T#3 does nothing to help with pain management. I had been using pain patches prior to surgery so my family doc called in a refill with a higher dose of the pain patch. That helped a bit but I really am not so sure it was doing much good at all. Several weeks later I ran out of the pain patches (had 2 defective patches that would not stick and fell on the floor .... I was not about to pick them up and put them back on my skin) ... ANYWAY I ended up needing a refill before the RX could be filled and I decided to forget about it and had about a week of withdrawal symptoms (fever and chills) and that was it no big deal getting rid of them. I am now 7 weeks out from shoulder surgery and I am doing really well I got the immobilizer off on Thursday and have just a regular sling to wear now. I am not wearing it much at home but when I go out I am putting it on. Doing loads of exercises to stretch and loosen the shoulder and I am getting back the range of motion but full ROM may take a bit but I am not giving up.
I am now 10 months out from my LTHR and I am once again having hip issues. It feels like there is fluid surrounding my hip joint and it hurts every step I take and my leg is swelling up like crazy. I lay in bed with my legs up all night or in the recliner and while in these positions the swelling recedes, then I stand up and boom the swelling comes back again. I put up with it for about 2 weeks before finally emailing my Orthopedic Surgeon (OS) who did my surgery and his PA called to tell me that he was on vacation and she would get back to me. So now he's back and they chatted and he is throwing in the towel and has asked that I go to see another OS. This one works in the town where I live my OS that did the LTHR is 90 min away. I called and got an appt for the 9th of Oct with the new doc. I was actually surprised that they had an opening so soon and I would not have to wait 6 weeks to get in. In the meantime I am icing elevating and resting my hip in hopes that the fluid will go away and I will stop hurting. I still have problems with the implant, I wonder sometimes if the cup or the rim is wrong and is rubbing on the muscles that run through the groin because I have had groin pain since surgery. It actually feels better if I sit with my leg "cocked" out to the side. I was chatting with a fellow PVNSer and she has the same thing going on with her hip and she was told the reason it feels better to sit that way is it opens up the capsule around the joint and relieves the pressure. I will do an other update once I hear what this other doc has to say; although I am not convinced he is the right person to see since he is a "generalist" and not a "hip specialist" and I don't even know if he has ever dealt with PVNS!
More another day
No comments:
Post a Comment