Something to think about....

I am in the middle of my third week back at work and am doing really well. I think that my muscles are more sore than the first week, but I'm doing more and using muscles that haven't been used in 3 months. My co-workers are being awesome and easing me into the call schedule slowly. So this means I won't be at the risk of putting in a 12 or 16 hour day which we have been known to do often when on call. I really am lucky when I think about my work:) I have been able to do all my 8 hour shifts though and only had one really, really bad, painful day out of the 2 and a half weeks I've worked, so that's pretty awesome, I think!

The issue I brought up in my 3 month follow up post about my right hip catching still and having pain was revisited with Dr. Z tonight. I called his nurse on Friday, which was the end of the 2 week ibuprofen trial to see if it would calm down any inflammation, to let her know that it did not help. It hasn't gotten worse, but it hasn't gotten better. Dr. Z called me today to discuss with me how I'm currently feeling and I described my symptoms to him that the catching pain happens almost daily and with turning or side stepping, but that I can't really pin point it.
He feels it could be one of two things.
1) It could be that the femoral head scarring didn't lay down right after the hip scope and the open surgery disturbed it causing it to catch

or

2) There was a soft, unstable piece of cartilage in my hip that he cut away and debrided but he said that to the naked eye it is sometimes hard to see if you are able to get it all and the cartilage could have been more unstable than he was able to see at the time and may have loosened again.

If either is the case, then he said a scope would be an option to go in and suture the loose cartilage or debride the scar tissue.

However, he doesn't want to do anything right now. He feels that it will be approximately 6 months before I would "plateau" from healing and he wants to see how I feel at that point. So I have a 6 month follow up with him at the end of June and that's when we'll revisit how the hip feels. He did offer a cortisone injection into the hip if I wanted it and I can arrange that at anytime if need be. He also said I don't have to worry about damaging the joint anymore because he said the femoral head is smooth and round now whereas before it definately was not. I am pleased as punch that he isn't diving into surgery again on that hip! At least not anytime soon. I just want to know that I'm good to go on activity of my choice and that I'm not going to hurt anything. I want to get strong for my other hip surgery without compromising the right hip.

I'm still not able to sleep on my right side totally yet. I can sleep modified on the right, more like on my stomach but the screw heads are way too tender still. This is also something to think about come June when I see Dr. Z again and see if it would be an option to have them removed when I have my LPAO. If I can't sleep on my side (and it does wake me up or keeps me tossing and turning everynight) then I'm going to go crazy!!!!!