One Boomer At Large
discovered last year that my I discovered last year that my hips were “wearing out” according to the osteo surgeon.
This I discovered when an activity I was undertaking required my legs to be angled out. And to lift my legs from that angled out position. The pain was pretty excruciating. Oddly enough, as long as I kept my legs and feet aligned forward and rearword, it didn’t bother me — I can walk, right a bike, no worries.
But, to angle them outward hurt like hell. Think of straddling a chair facing the back.
Back then we tried a couple of stopgap measures — physical therapy (which I actually enjoyed rather immensely), and steroid injections straight into the hip joint (enjoyed that less.)
Between the PT, home exercises and stretches, occasional steroid injection, and less occasionally an NSAID in the form of 200mg of ibuprofen.
That got me through last summer and fall and I thought, “Ok, I think I can manage this for the interim.” But the reality is the only real fix is going to be to have a “bilateral hip replacement” procedure performed.
Surgery.
How soon? Due to schedule conflicts, the soonest I could commit to is July 18.
I reinforced my thought: “Ok, I think I can manage this for the interim.”
Then winter came. I don’t know if the cold is responsible for accelerating the deterioration, or the time factor has just gotten to the point where the deterioration is self-feeding, but it hurts. More.
A lot more.
I’ve tried to up the exercise level, but they (the hips) aren’t cooperating.
I called the scheduler with the osteo department and checked to see if perhaps there was a cancellation and the hospital might have an opening available earlier?
Yes, she informed me, she could do May 21st, but they wouldn’t be able to do the injections (there’s a required waiting period after the injection — if we stuck with the June 18 date, we’re just under the wire.)
No-go — Rose will be in the middle of her trip, then. Let’s stick with the original date and do the injections, both hips.
This we scheduled — today, 11:00
In the waiting room, they took down the usual information and the Surgeon entered. X-Rays were over a year old, let’s redo them.
On receiving the images, he looked them over: “Mmm-hmmm. Well, you’ve got severe arthritis in both hips, bone on bone, some bone spurs and cysts.”
“Really?” I asked, somewhat incredulously. “Just last year we called it “moderate” arthritis. Has the deterioration accelerated that badly over the winter?”
“Yeah,” he responded. “Once you’re at this stage, things go bad pretty quickly.”
How to process that? What does that mean? If left untreated will I be in a wheel-chair this next year or so for the rest of my life? In the next couple of months or so before the surgery?
Don’t know.
We went ahead with the steroid injections. This involves a syringe with a long needle — looked to be about five inches. I dropped my drawers and pulled up the the of my underware to expose the left hip joint. He monitored the area with an ultrasound probe, and then staged the needle.
“A little poke”, he said.
The needle goes right into the joint to deliver the payload. Breaking the skin wasnt a big deal, but as he went deeper, it felt pretty uncomfortable. I started to squirm a bit. I get into deep breathing exercises in these kinds of things, trying to lay still as possible, repeating to myself, “I am a machine, I am a machine…”
In just a couple of minutes, he withdrew the needle and did the same procedure on the right side. More deep breathing and chants — less squirming, though. Judging by the discomfort, the left side must have been more badly deteriorated, although this is the side I feel the more persistent pain. Interesting.
So, the surgery is scheduled for the original date — June 18, barring any other issues. A bilateral (both hips) will have to be done at the hospital, not the surgery center, which is why we have to schedule so far ahead.
It’s still considered an outpatient procedure, interestingly enough.
I asked the surgeon a few questions during this visit and am satisfied he’ll using the latest materials and procedures — everything correlates with my research on the topic. I’ll probably have a few more questions as the day gets closer.
Meanwhile, I’m going to have to scrape my pennies together to cover my part of the cost. Medicare will cover most of it, but I’ll still be liable for my 20%, which I figure will be around $6000 to $8000.
I’ll be chronicling the progress here, right up to the surgery and beyond, including the recovery process. It will initially show up here as blog entries, but eventually get archived into to the “Medical” topic as a series.
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