The saga of my hip....

So, long story short, I've had torn cartilage in my hip for the past 8 months. It happened when I had GYN surgery and was under anesthesia. It's painful as all get out. It catches when I sit, but is especially painful when I get out of a sitting position as the frayed end of the cartilage gets caught between the socket and the hip bone.

I saw a specialist at Stanford last week, who does arthroscopic hip surgery. (There are not many docs who do this...only like 11 in the nation). He said I was not a good candidate for the arthroscopic hip surgery, less than 20% chance of success. He recommended a total hip replacement.

Now, I knew I had arthritis in that hip ... I found out after the cartilage tear. It was totally asymptomatic before the tear. But, according to my orthopedist, it's not that bad. He doesn't think a total hip replacement is necessary. He wants to save the hip. I'm all for the least invasive method possible. But...

So, what do we do? The pain is horrid...often debilitating at times. There are times I literally have to lie down for an hour or more, even on pain pills, to get the pain to subside enough for me to be able to walk. It's affecting every area of my life. I'm not a whiner. I have a high tolerance for pain but this thing is knocking me out.

So, today, the ortho and I decided to try a cortisone injection into the hip. If it works, it relieves the pain and buys me time. If it doesn't, well, then we'll figure out a plan B. The injection has to be done at an outpatient surgery center because it's guided by fluoroscope. We'll set it up for early next month.

Wish me luck.....

So a little about me

Ever since I had my Gyn surgery, about 6 weeks ago, I've had hip pain. They put me in the stirrups while I was out under anesthesia and when I woke up and they had me get up in the recovery room, I had groin pain. I thought that they must have pulled my groin muscle while putting me in or taking me out of the stirrups.

After a couple of weeks of pretty good pain, I went to see the orthopedist. He said that the xrays showed that I had arthritis in that hip. He also said that if you xray just about anybody over the age of 50, they probably have some arthritic changes, but the fact that it's symptomatic is what we had to address. Ok. So, I went on NSAIDS and steroid pills and waited for things to get better. But they didn't...my hip pain actually increased.

It would be pretty good for a couple of hours and then I'd take a step and ouch! the pain would be sharp like a knife. But the worst would be getting up from a chair. I'd get up fine, maybe 7 out of 10 times but the other 3 times, it was like something was stuck, I couldn't straighten my leg or bear weight, it felt like something was in the hip between the bones. And let me tell you, it is unbelievably painful.

So, I went back yesterday to the orthopedist and he thinks that I might have a tear in the labrum, the cartilage that surrounds the hip. I go tomorrow for a contrast MRI to see what it shows. In the meantime, I'm still on the meds and hope that the pain will subside.