EKG

So, I had my EKG yesterday and it came back "not normal." My Dr. said that it looked like it was not a big deal but the cardiology dept said I need to get an ultrasound of my heart. So I hope I can get the appt. really soon and get the testing over with. I just want to start this program and be on the way with loss. I was a little worried but I have never had any health issues with my heart and no high blood pressure etc. However when I did get the EKG my 5y.o. was with me and when they started putting all the little stickies on me and hooking the cords up she started freaking out and crying and she was in the seat across the room from me so I couldn't hold her and also not speak. I think that any mother in the same situation would not have a "steady" heartbeat when their child is having a hard time like she was. I really don't think I have any issues but just to be sure my Dr. needs to have an OK by a cardiologist before we go ahead and start me on Phentermine. She went over dangers, risks, info that she has within her reach and basically there was not any direct heart concerns from taking Phentermine alone but because of its history with fen-phen Dr.s just need to make sure the recipient is "healthy."

Here we go to wait again.....

Whoohoo!

So I Saw Dr. Downer yesterday and it is official. I like him and I want hm to do my surgery. He said what it looks like inside is pretty "typical" and can be fixed. Though we did talk about losing weight first. So  my plan as of now is to lose as much as I can and as close to 75lbs before surgery as possible. So If I can lose at least 50 then that will make me a lot less likely to have many issues after surgery. Like infection, incision not healing properly because the fat is pushing on the scar and the incision point. Also the weight in that area will affect the healing of the bones and can cause issues when I am trying to do PT and moving it again. So I am motivated. Dr. Downer was patient, very informative, made me feel very comfortable, answered all my questions and basically was very polite and respectful when talking about my weight. We decided that we will be working to get the weight off.

So immediately after  my appointment with Dr. D. I got an appointment for my nutritionist to set up meal plans to follow for a month. It is not like I don't know how to eat healthy, because I do. But I want to follow exactly what is setup so I will maximize weight loss before the surgery. Also, I emailed my doc about the possibility of using weight loss medicines to aid in the weight lost. For temp use only until I get the surgery and then therefore can work out and lose the rest. So she said 3 kinds:
Phentermine-most risks (heart) about 15lbs/mo
Orlistat-6-10lbs/mo
Metformin-5lbs/mo

I am generally healthy but will need to have an EKG first to check my heart. I don't have any history in my family of heart issues either. So I think I will go with phentermine. But still need to talk further with my doc. She is doing more research about recent info and news about it before we just go with it and also need the EKG first. I have taken Metformin for pcos but it did not provide weight loss. I am also starting to go swimming lightly to get cardio in without bearing weight on my hip.

I have been researching weight loss from Phen and the results are pretty good. Just a temp fix to a long term issue. Which is what I need right now. I know after my surgery I will do it myself but eating right and losing weight and learning the lifestyle now will help in the long run. I can wait to show off some progress!!!

I love good news!

So I had not heard back from Dr Mayo's office yet so I called and I got the very last spot open until january! Omg wow I'm so happy :) The appt is on Oct 27th so about 2 months away but I'm so happy I get to meet with him before january. I want to see how I like these guys and see what they say about my case :)  I totally wish I had someone to HIGH FIVE right now!! I feel like things are looking up.
A little bad news, I went to the gym today for the first time in over ten days. My primary said to take it very easy. Do not stress the hip or legs right now. No running lol of course, squats, leg struts or lunges, basically nothing on the legs. Cycling or elliptical is ok but do not over do it. my pt said ask my orthopedic surgeon. Since I don't have one yet I decided to just go to the gym. I increased my upper exercises and did 2 days in one and tried to do ten mins on the bike. Well now  I'm in so much pain. I am feeling the dysplasia pain right now. One good thing is I can differentiate between labral tear pain and the dysplasia pain now.  And I am not feeling good physically. This is a bummer because not being able to burn calories in there makes me feel like I am losing all the progress I was making and I dont want to gain the wait back :(

Some ramblings...

Oh I am so excited! I can not wait to meet with the new surgeon Dr. Phil Downer. I have heard great things from him. 3 more days until i have my second opinion. I was talking with an old friend a few days ago about learning of the labral tear and what will be some fixes. And she asked me, "Aren't you excited?" My first reaction was "Emm, NO" But after thinking about it I am excited to know what is going on in there and knowing what is causing me pain is awesome. Not excited about having to go through all this, and truly I am just done. Done with pain, done with aching, clicking, catching, twanging, crying, nerve pain. Done with limited mobility, weight gain, inability to move when I want, how I want, where I want and for as long as I want to. Done with not being able to run, ride a bike, roller blade, walk a mile with my family, stand for a while, sight see, walk in the park or the zoo. Crawl on the floor with my daughter, run around with her, play with her the way she wants to do it.

So yes, I am excited to finally know the truth of what is going on and to know that someday very soon this quite possibly will be over and I will be able to do everything and thousands more of what I mentioned above. I have remembered one thing from reading blogs and that is "Tomorrow will be better than today." So I will need to keep that in mind because that simple phrase has so much meaning and can be so powerful to someone going through something like this.

I wish my husband was going with me but he cannot miss work right now due to his job. So again I will be alone. Though I may need to just drag someone along with me for support. I have also read that bringing someone along with you preferably a male, will soften the doctor you're meeting with but either way I will ok. I am noticing I am having way too high hopes for this meeting with him and I am expecting him to be my saviour! Gosh, I really hope he is :) But if it does not turn out the way I want, there is another person still and the only thing I need to do is wait to meet him. So count down to Friday :D

Last week I went to my health care team and got all my records regarding my hip and I went through everything. It was very empowering to learn what the doctors have said about my hip, what their feelings are, and the "doctor-speak" for what is going on in there. I also googled everything I did not understand so I can be more prepared for my next appointment. I encourage anyone to do the same. Why not get your info and read up on it, it is very helpful even if you never look at it at least you have it there. I swear since I have read the notes by the doctor analyzing my MRI that I can feel exactly where the tear is. I know where I have been feeling the tear pain prior but now when it happens I know what it is and I can feel when it will happen. I can even make it do it purposefully, though probably not the best thing. I have been trying to prepare my hubby for all the possibilities of any type of surgery that I may have and he is not taking it well. I hope he can be my strength support because I am going to need it, BIG TIME :)

Xrays & MRI

These are some of the images I have.
#1 is the list of stuff they put into the hip when they did the fluoroscope injection before the MRI.
#2 is an image of the needle inside or right before going into the hip joint. OUCH.
#3 is just a pic of my right hip which shows deterioration on the pelvic bone where there should be a point above the femur. Also it shows a shallow socket and the femoral head is outside the socket. There is also a smoothness to the femoral head which differs from the left side which is not smooth. June 2010
#4 May 2011. This one shows both hips and you can compare each of them together. You can also see the difference a year made to the right hip. The deterioration on the pelvic bone above the femur head is much more present.
#5 is an image of an MRI scan. I have this on a disk and am able to scroll the scan to find the best pic. Its pretty cool to use though once you know what to look for. The arrows are where i am guessing the labral tear is, or places anyway if there are more than one.
#6, same thing.

So I contacted my primary yesterday and asked her to look into the results of my MRI because I was not sure when or how I would be getting any info about this. The surgeon that requested this MRI is half-retired and honestly I do not really want to see him again. I think he is a lazy doctor and he will not be doing my surgery. So She got back to me and informed me that 1: Yes I do have dysplasia, DUH. LOL and 2: I have a labral tear of the cartilage, or soft tissue, that lines the joint. The white part around the femoral head in the pics is the labrum. From what I have read online on many sights, it can be damaged fairly easily and people with dysplasia often have this going on too. Basically from I gathered at http://www.mayoclinic.com, A hip labral tear involves the ring of soft elastic tissue, called the labrum, that follows the outside rim of the socket of your hip joint. The labrum acts like a socket to hold the ball at the top of your thighbone (femur) in place. Symptoms include hip pain or a "catching" sensation in your hip joint. Initial treatment may include pain relievers and physical therapy. Using arthroscopic techniques, surgeons can remove loose fragments from within the joint and trim or repair the hip labral tear.

This "catching" and "clicking" sensation are things I feel every day and they are becoming more often and more painful. Pain killers do nothing for it unless I take so much which I do not like doing. Also I don't believe PT is helpful because honestly the LAST thing I want to do is move it and stress it when it hurts so bad. The catching and impingement feeling is very painful for me and often times if I step wrong I almost fall down because I feel there is no support for my step. Here is what mayoclinic.com said about the surgery: If you have a hip labral tear and experience hip pain for more than four to 12 weeks despite physical therapy, or if you have mechanical symptoms of your hip locking, your doctor may recommend arthroscopic surgery — in which a fiber-optic camera and surgical tools are inserted via small incisions in your skin.
Depending on the cause and extent of the tear, the surgeon may cut out and remove the torn piece of labrum or repair the torn tissue by sewing it back together.

I happened across another youtube video (why do I keep "happening" across these things and then KEEP watching?) on a labral tear fix. The doctor is showing a real-time, inside the joint, video and giving commentary on a late 40's woman. The first part was of the tool kind of shaving and sucking out the excess labrum and then the next part which I did not end up watching was starting to drive an anchor (a screw of sorts) into the labrum to keep in place. I stopped there.

I can't wait to see the surgeon Dr. Downer next week and see what he has to say. I am hoping his attitude is more hopeful and helpful than the last guy. I mean really, I know my weight has a big impact on everything but seriously, there are people bigger than I am who have gotten this fixed so just HELP ME :)

Ok off for now :D

WHOOHOO! :)

So I have been waiting for 2 referrals to Dr. Downer and Dr. Keith Mayo to get second/third opinions from them. My doctor's office assistant emailed me and said both Mayo and Downer's offices would send a letter to me via mail. They did not so I just called Dr. downers office and they said they do not call or mail after they receive a referral so if you are expecting your call-back please don't wait. Be proactive because it will cut down waiting time. Also you will want to personally bring in your medical records, x-rays, MRI disk and whatever else pertaining to your issue because they just told me that any files sent over via computer are scanned and shredded and there usually is not any paper work sent. So my advice be prepared. I also just talked to Dr. Keith's office and they were surprised that my insurance "let" me venture out and explore other surgeons. She said usually my specific health insurance does not do that. well if that happened to me I would be seriously P'd off. I am not happy with my insurance's surgeon. My insurance is also their own doctors so it is a little different. Good thing I am double covered. And good news is both places take both my insurances. When I go to PT today I will stop by the business office and find out what they will cover. Bad news: Mayo will be out of office all of November and December. She told me he has 2 or 3 spots open til the end of the year. WOW. Busy guy. Ok off for now, I'll post what I find out from my insurance office :D

EH MRI

So I just had my MRI today. Not awesome. In fact I freaked out and started to have a mild panic attack. My hip is hyper sensitive right now and the thought of having anything put into that joint scared me a lot. So I was crying and having shortness of breath. The nurse held me down and they strapped my legs down. BTW IT DID HURT! If you have ever had a root canal or a shot in your mouth to numb it and the shot went through a nerve and that TWANG feeling, then that is what it feels like. They numbed the skin with lidocain but its only topical. At first it was a tiny prick where the needle went in. Then when he put the needle in it was mild discomfort and a kind of vibration feeling but I have no idea what that would be from since I could not see what was going on. So it was in the flouroscopy/x-ray room where the physicians use an imaging technique to get real-time moving images of the inside of the body and this is called flouroscopy.  So he kept looking at the screen and then moving the needle a little deeper. This is when it started to hurt. About 5 times I was experiencing the TWANG of nerves. The doc said it was the pain of entering the inflamed joint cavity. Well DUH! lol yeah it is very much inflamed and angry at me. And that was the reason I was freaking out to begin with. Then he said we were done, told me to take a deep breath and blow out and he pulled out the needle while spraying the dye all over my bare legs. Yay!!

So then very carefully I moved onto another non-magnetic stretcher and wheeled down to MRI. This bed is very unstable and wiggles around while rolling so we crashed into 2 things lol. COMFORTING :) So I am experiencing extreme discomfort and just want to MOVE but moving disrupts the dye and that is not what we want. The MRI machine is huge and the table you lay on is so skinny. So they put pillows under my head and knees, gave me some headphones. Wrapped some foam "antennae/sensors" around both hips and strapped them down and then taped my feet together. And then we began.

My appointment was at 11:20. Called back at 11:40. Made me take a pregnancy test and got changed at 11:56. Then at 12:00 they started the dye injection. This ended at 12:25 25 mins!! And MRI started at 12:30.  The MRI process part lasted 45 minutes. There were several different scans that lasted anywhere from 1.5 mins to 5.5 mins and during the breaks is when I moved lol. While i was in there i was having muscle spasms and thought I was ruining it but after, I asked them about it and I guess many people do not feel the spasms but the MRI machine does that. It makes your muscles spasm and twitch. My left leg, fingers and face was twitching mildly. I guess the hardest part about the MRI part would be the part where my hip and knee were in pain and I could not move to alleviate the pain. The MRI machine was pretty relaxing actually. The sound of the scan I could hear over the music in the headphones was soothing and everything vibrated with the sound so it was soothing actually. I wanted to sleep but I was twitching and thought I was messing up so I didn't fall asleep.

Now home, 8 hours later I am still feeling pain when I step and move my hip joint. I cant take a full stride and hopefully it goes away soon. The MRI techs said it would be about 8 hours and should be fine. Took a few pain meds earlier and it did not help. I will just have to ride it out.

That is my experience with my first MRI and I REALLY hope it ends up being wonderful scans and we can see everything :D

Whered this pain come from?

So I have been in excruciating pain resulting in  crying and these last few days have been rough. I finally figured out why. I am the manager at my store and had to cover a graveyard shift for my store. Well I stayed up 24hr and managed to rearrange my entire office that night and it has been all out since.pain so bad I'm crying is awful and I have my arthrogram mri to look forward to in les than 2 days. I'm mostly worried about the pain caused by the needle in my joint that is inflamed right now but I'm sure I will be fine. I have been using my cane like crazy though so I'm really learning that thing!

MRI.....

Forgot to post this yesterday, but....I have my Arthrogram MRI in 6 days and now I am getting nervous!! Yikes! I know I shouldn't be and I just need to relax but of course i watched a couple You tube videos on how it looks. I DO NOT RECOMMEND EVER WATCHING ANY VIDEOS BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING MEDICAL!! NOT GOOD.

Yeah so I am a little nervous but I am sure everything will be fine. I will schedule myself off for 2 days so I? wont have to worry about being in a little pain afterwords. I have seen many different opinions an experiences on this. some people returned to work and drove the same day, some people hurt immediately and up to 24 hours after. So who knows how mine will go? Not me. Anyway a quick check in, lost a little weight, should have been more but losing is losing and anything small counts! Now has been a month almost and I have lost 8 lbs. Which is healthy weight loss but as far as I am working my butt off and pushing it should be waaay more LOL haha anyway talk soon!

First hand experience

Hi! So I have not written much lately which is probably good. Means nothing bad is happening right? Well in my case yes, but I have other issues going on. I have been having hands-on experience dealing with someone who was recovering much the same way I will be when I have my PAO.

So on the 23rd My sis-in-law was a victim in a shooting. She was shot in her knee and shattered her tibia in several places. When they did the surgery, they screwed the tibia back together, put in several metal plates and then sewed her back up. She has several incisions and a super long one. Her instructions are very much what I assume would be the same as mine post-op. Only toe-touch weight bearing, do movement exercises per day, and rest, along with a ton of pain meds. So she came home to our house 2 after surgery (4 days after she was shot) and I instantly became a home nurse. She was given a walker and moved around clumsily. A couple times she even fell down. Her arms and hands were hurting from the walker and she was trying new ways to use the walker and lost her balance. Not something I want to do. So we picked up some crutches for her and things were instantly better. One week post-op she was using crutches. I was giving her round the clock meds for a few days and at first we decided the laxative and stool softeners were not really needed but then after a week of not having a B.M. we decided to start giving her the 5 "pooper" meds they gave her and she pooped 2 days later. FINALLY! I was getting worried. Another tricky issue was getting into our truck. We have 2 cars but our car was in the shop when she got to our house so at first it was the truck. When thinking about my post-op transportation, the truck seemed like a great idea, just about at butt height to just slide into the seat. But when she was getting into it, we needed to lift her up and put her in there. She and I are the same height, so this will be an issue. When we got the car back, it was much easier for her to get in and out of the car. She has a knee issue, and mine is a hip, so we will just have to see how this will play out once we get there. She also needed a lot of help showering. From the blogs Ive read about PAO, stepping backwards into the shower is the best option. Though I don't know the differences between knee/hip surgeries and doing the shower thing. What we did at first was put the commode into the shower, i lifted her into the shower and slowly maneuvered her leg into the shower. Then we tried putting the commode half in/out of the shower and she sat down on it then stood up in the shower using her good leg. then we moved the commode into the shower fully. After 2 weeks she was showering herself and getting in and out of the shower alone.
Some things Ive learned:
1. use walker/crutches a month before surgery to strengthen the muscles.
2. As soon as possible use crutches, don't fall!!
3. Take all the laxatives and stool softeners prescribed! LOL
4. Overlap pain meds so you don't wake up crying in pain.
5. Don't go to fast, take it easy and try to rest. If you push too hard things will not heal right.