I waited about an hour in the waiting room (this seems to be the average wait time in a surgeon's office..my longest wait time was 4 hours!) Name called:
First up was another Dr who introduced himself, but I forgot his name..oops! He wanted to get all my basic info down, took my MRI and x-ray cd's and loaded them into the computer, and did a physical exam of me. Then took all the papers from my hip book he needed and left the room. About 5 minutes later him and Dr. R came in.
My first impression of Dr. R is that he seemed very nice and put together, he was older than Dr. M, and he was a guy who wanted to get to the point...no hour visits like I had with Dr. M (and I don't think there will be hugs either ;)) Dr R and the Dr whose name I don't remember (sorry doc) started looking at my MRI's together like I wasn't even in the room... discussing my hip and all the problems they saw..I didn't completely grasped the whole converstion..they were having fun using real high level medical jargin ;) I really wanted in on this conversation....I should have went to medical school!
Then Dr. R said to me "I know all your hip surgeons, we actually have all been on my boat together" I wanted to say..well that's nice ..it's good you all keep operating on me, so you can afford to go sailing around together...oh snap! ...but I kept my big mouth shut and said something like.."that's cool". ;) He then proceeded to do a physical exam on me pointing things out to Dr "I don't know his name". At that point he asked to see my surgical incision, and then told me to have a seat. He told me he had a long conversation with Dr. M about me and my hip which I thought was good...he got right to the source!
Dr. R then opened up his brief case which I though was just a regular briefcase, but the surprise was on me...it was filled with hip parts! He then put a fake hip in my right hand and then went on to say...." You are a tall girl so you could handle this size metal ball, but you are also still in child bearing age, so we will go with a ceramic ball. I don't think we should go with a ceramic pocket, because it could actually squeak at times, and then you couldn't sneak up on people...so we can put a plastic cup into the metal socket instead which will give you a chance to do a lot of weight bearing on this hip, and still also be able to have children if you choose to do so...but if you do you may have to have a c-section instead of natural. I just looked at him with the fake hip in my hand and a few tears rolling down my cheek and said, "Are you saying that my hip is definitely damage to the point that I have to have a hip replacement. That all three surgeries to fix my hip didn't do anything...at all!" He said, .."Yes!"
Even though I thought this would be the outcome I didn't think it would be so clear and definite..especially because of my age and all the surgeries I did to fix my hip. I wasn't expecting my reaction ....which was a mixture of sadness, anger, and panic! All the questions I had for him started slipping out of my head into an abyss somewhere, and for the first time I had nothing to say. Eventually I came up with a few questions mostly about recovery. He said the average stay in the hospital is 3 days, they put the hip in using a minimally invasive hip replacement procedure through your posterior region, so he wouldn't being going through the same area that has been operated on before. He did say I was at a disadvantage with 4 surgeries done in my hip (well I guess the screw removal was a waste of time since now I am removing the whole damn hip...ok I am still a bit angry ;)), but he has worked on many people in their 20's and 30's with similar situations. He said after that I would be home for a month with visiting nurses and PT and then within 3 months I should be walking on my own, but it could take 6 months or longer to fully recover. The goal would be that I would have a full functioning hip that could do all the things that I can't do now...pretty much the hope is that I can have my life (and hip ) back!..and that would be amazing!!! I don't remember what life was like with out this pain anymore.
At this point my body feels very weak ....it has been through hell to put it mildly this past year. I have huge muscle loss in my right side along with the other issues (tendons, IT bands, bursitis, sciatic nerve, etc), so I have a lot to think about when choosing when I should do this. My physical therapist said to me that he feels this will be great for me, but he would like me to get a little stronger first so I have the best chance for this surgery to be a huge success. I also have a call into Dr. M. to discuss my visit w/ Dr. R. So to conclude this very long new chapter: Going to get myself a new hip! When :TBD ....will get back to you on that :)
