At least my toes look good!

Since the hip was injected, I've had moderate relief of my two main symptoms that led me to get the injection. I'm able to flex my hip without as much pain, still restricted to less than 90 degrees though, and can stand on it without the wincing pain afterwards (biggest thing is I can reach my toes to cut and paint my nails now! Hence the title of this post). However, I ended up with a really painful internal bruise, my right thigh was an inch bigger than my left, and I have sensation changes to my hip that are just bizarre. Nothing concerning though. I did have to drive back down to Detroit to be reviewed by Dr. Z two weeks after the injection to rule out hip infection from the injection and while I was there, he did say the possibility of heterotopic ossification (HO) could be what's causing my right hip to have the symptoms it does. If it's not HO, then it's adhesive capsulitis. There's a fix for the HO (scope) but if it's adhesions, then we'll just leave it alone. I had him take a look at my right hip muscles on the outer side (where my fat/muscle hernia is, and where the muscles around the incision look like they "cave in") to get his take on it. He said that is really common due to the density of soft tissue/adipose tissue/fascia there (especially if a person has weight loss after surgery) and that when we're all done with fixing my hip, he could refer me to a plastic surgeon to lipo out the irregularity and smooth down my leg muscles. Bonus!

Since the injection (which is also about the time I started my new position at work), I've had a slow return of the offending pain (my flexion is still limited), but the pressure from the bruise is getting a lot better. My new job is certainly easier on my body physically but I am learning that sitting isn't going to be the best thing either. Too much sitting causes the front of my hips to feel pain (the right hip feels the pinching pain and the left hip feels the "out of place" pain). I also participated in a snow shoe 5k (3 ish miles) last weekend and really had fun! I didn't fare so well physically (fell once during the walk and had some tracking issues with my knees) but it felt good to DO something. Of course, same old, same old with the right hip and left knee pain that plague me. I still continue to ice/heat, wear my knee brace, and consume pills to keep me functioning. I can't wait for the day when I can just go do something physically active and not pay for it for the next few days (like how my left hip feels!!).
I still wake up tired and unrefreshed even though I'm taking Lunesta to help me sleep through the night. My knees feel stiff and achy first thing but then calm down once I'm up and moving and the right hip is always sore upon waking. I definately shouldn't feel like I've run a 5k after light/moderate house chores either, but yet that is how my right hip/left knee react. I'm pretty confident that my right hip will be about as good as the left side once we know what we're facing, because then I can get the correct treatment for it, whether it be the scope or just continue strengthening/injections. I did schedule a 2nd opinion consultation with a patello-femoral specialist (Dr. Teitge) for my left knee however. I'll be seeing him in April and getting a rotational 3D CT scan of my lower body to see how bad my malalignment really is. I want to know what his thoughts are on treating my alignment, see if knee injections would be something I could do, and if surgery really is the only option (other than doing nothing) to getting rid of the knee pain/instability. Then I'll just digest what he says and sit on it awhile before deciding what to do if anything needs to be done. Ultimately, I want to stay under the care of Dr. Z as he has been through the majority of all this. It's always good to have an extra set of expert eyes look at you in my opinion, as different view points can shed light on things. Plus it'll be interesting to hear what Dr. T thinks of my dysplasia in relation to the miserable malalignment, if one caused the other or if they just typically go hand in hand.