livendive's journey

[MattJersey]

Livendive, good to read your exploits and recovery as you get ready for number two (and other stuff too, sounds like a 200,000 mile engine rebuild you're having!). I hope it goes well for you and you're able to hit your targets this summer.

Looking at your X-ray, it looks like a reasonable joint space there at that angle, but I'm no expert. It looks very similar to mine, presumably patchy coverage of cartilage, so I guess you're not in full time pain, just when you want to do something you enjoy. Is that about right? I'm in process of organising my op, hoping to be pain free in May ...

Best wishes.

Matt

[livendive]

Yeah, I agree that the problem on the left isn't strictly lack of cartilage, as there still looks to be a fair amount. The impingements aren't fun and I think there are one or more loose bodies floating around in there. Like you figured, the pain in that hip isn't daily. It comes in three flavors, low back after doing stuff I enjoy, occasional burning on the front (not common, but lasts for weeks when it happens), and occasional severe pain on weight bearing (what I assume is loose bodies stuck in joint space). The cortisone shot actually helped on that side too. Still, I had three different orthos decline to try arthroscopic repairs as a conservative first measure, the first two suggesting replacement and Pritchett recommending resurfacing. I think I could probably get away with my natural hip for a couple more years, but since this year is already cursed with "no high impact sports" and I don't want another such year in the near future, now makes sense for me. Plus, the right met my annual out of pocket limit, so it's basically "buy one get one free" if I do it now, saving me a few thousand dollars.

Not sure what's going on in the xray at the bottom of the left socket, but it kinda looks like a mess to my untrained eye. Also Pritchett pointed out a couple areas on MRI where I'm losing bone density or something like that.

[livendive]

I'm now about 30 hours on the other side of my left hip, and it's been a very different experience from the first. I was able to easily lift my leg off the bed yesterday, but found swelling in the glut and hip flexor area much more pronounced, so thought the general pain was much lower, but now I think there was a local nerve block in play that worked better because I'm now in more pain than I recall the first time around. Also, the epidural seemed to take longer to take full effect and I vaguely recall waking up twice during the procedure...or perhaps the first time I simply hadn't gotten all the way under yet. In any case, neither instance was alarming in the least, just oddly interesting. I did have a lot more bleeding this time around. After the first surgery, we changed the dressing twice, once on day 4, the other day 11. This time I left the hospital with my 8th dressing on and about as many clothing and bedding changes doe to my bleeding everwhere. Dr Pritchett worked the incision a bit more right before I was discharged, and added some glue, and that seems to have done the trick. We had to stop by another hospital to get some more bloodwork done prior to my neck surgery tomorrow morning and that proved challenging and I got a bit behind the pain curve in the process. Price I pay for wanting to combine two recoveries into one period of being miserable. We're now at a hotel for the night and I'm caught back up. A round of PT has my ROM back to where I remember the first hip being, and bleeding still looks under control. Time for some sleep...another update to follow either tomorrow night or Thursday, depending on how I'm feeling.

[Daytona Dave]

Hang in there mate. Hopefully the worst is now over. How come you change dressing so often? When I had mine they used one dressing that had to stay on for about 10 days and was not to be changed under any circumstances. It was good though as I was allowed to shower etc. and get the dressing wet.
Dave

[hernanu]

Hang in there mate. Hopefully the worst is now over. How come you change dressing so often? When I had mine they used one dressing that had to stay on for about 10 days and was not to be changed under any circumstances. It was good though as I was allowed to shower etc. and get the dressing wet.
Dave

I had two different types of dressings, the first (my first surgery was more problematic) was a traditional dressing which had to be changed daily, I also had a drain that had to heal, since they had had to use that during surgery.

The second time, it went much more smoothly, so I woke up with a silver based bandage that I had to keep on, take showers with, was much thinner. Overall a great experience.

Different strokes for different hips, I guess.

[livendive]

Hang in there mate. Hopefully the worst is now over. How come you change dressing so often? When I had mine they used one dressing that had to stay on for about 10 days and was not to be changed under any circumstances. It was good though as I was allowed to shower etc. and get the dressing wet.
Dave

First 8 dressings were at the hospital due to me leaking blood all over the place. Both times I got the same silver bandages. The last one Pritchett put on right before discharge included some extra glue and held till this morning. Today I've been thru a few more, again due to substantial leaking, but now a clear yellowish odorless serum instead of blood.  Still on oral antibiotics, plus I had more IV antibiotics Wednesday for neck surgery. We're going to clean it up again later tonight and send pics to Pritchett as its red, much warmer, and swelling is drum tight with pitting edema. Pain is about the same as 1st hip, so I'm not terribly concerned, especially since I've been on anylti-b's non-stop. Still, doesn't hurt to ask when other warning signs are there.

[OtterDriver]

Hello Livendive -

Now I know why I was discharged from Swedish on Wednesday with just Band-Aids holding my left hip together...they used up all the Gucci ones on you!

Just kidding...I've got a "silver" dressing as well, but fortunately have only needed one so far.  I'm pretty sure we were neighbors for a short time!?  I was in room 323 and meant to look for you during my PT/walk outing.

Hope things only get better for you and that your neck procedure went well.

Take care, Bruce

[livendive]

We may very well have been neighbors for a short time.  I was in 325 till around 2 or 3 on Tuesday, probably right around the time you came up from surgery.  Checking into Evergreen the following morning, my wife and I repeatedly commented on feeling spoiled coming out of Swedish.  I can't think of a single thing done better at Evergreen, but there were several things we liked more at Swedish.

Things are improving here, it feels like I've turned the corner.  I finally got some sleep last night, and my difficulty swalllowing has eased today...still painful, but I don't choke every time.  Today I put a mile on the crutches walking around my cul de sac (0.6 this morning and 0.4 this afternoon).  My incision is still draining, but it's definitely slowing down.  We've just been using gauze and tape the last couple days for their increased absorption.  I think tonight we're going to throw some glue in the hole in the bottom of the incision and put the last silver bandage we have on it.

[livendive]

Still going through ups & downs, mostly unrelated (2 for 2 on gout attacks post hip resurfacing, both times in the ankle on the operated side).  I had my follow-up with Dr Pritchett today and he did some more work to help me stop leaking, as I was still going through multiple dressings a day.  Some aspiration, glue, and a couple staples and it seems to be holding now.  Attached is a picture of my now matching pair.  I didn't notice it in his office, but the angles look kind of weird to me on the left side.  The socket angle seems to closely match the right side.  However the ball side seems kind of out of whack, both with the angle the stem takes through my femoral neck and with the way it's sitting in the socket. Hopefully that's nothing, just positioning or something, and I'm just seeing things through uneducated eyes.

[livendive]

Just another update: Yesterday marked 7 weeks since my left BHR, and it's definitely not keeping pace with the right side.  I've had persistent groin pain on the left side, much more difficult with adduction (still limping, sleeping with a pillow between my legs, difficulty balancing on just left leg, having to sit and struggle a bit to put on pants, shorts).  At this point the first time around, I was doing great, and only a few days away from my recently repaired hip taking a primary role as the other hip got resurfaced.  My right hip did fantastic at carrying the load when my left went out of commission.  My left is nowhere near ready to do the same if my right were about to go down. 

Last week also saw an unexpected return to medical care, as Tuesday evening my left hip began stiffening up, with pain also in my lower back and abdomen on the left side.  Eventually the pain got to the point that I nearly passed out, and I though perhaps I'd dislocated it or somehow otherwise really screwed it up, so my wife took me to the ER.  Morphine did the trick and a CT scan revealed a hematoma of the iliopsoas and accumulation of fluid/blood in my abdomen.  We went back to see my surgeon the next day and he said it was possible that this was "old" blood that had been sitting in the muscle since surgery, blocked by a clot that had just decided to liquefy, releasing it, but either way the best approach was a simple wait and see.  The abdominal pain stayed pretty intense for a couple of days but has since abated and is now quite minor.  Based on what reading I've done, it sounds like trouble with the iliopsoas post resurfacing is fairly common, and my hope is that it is simply a healing process from surgical trauma rather than something more persistent such as a socket not countersunk into the bone, resulting in abrasion of the muscle.  I always expected that one of the hips would heal more easily and quickly than the other, and this certainly seems to be the case.

[ecchastang]

Good luck with getting all of that sorted out.