Dr A! Part One...

Me patiently waiting in the Land Of Limbo!

Still waiting patiently in the land of limbo, o.k. maybe not so patiently, but it sounded good ;). 3rd Time is a charm????!!! Hope so! Went to see another surgeon for my 3rd opinion on my right hip to discuss my hip replacement. I wonder how many hip surgeons it will take to fix my hip for good? Look forward to finding out that answer soon! In the meantime I had another face to face meeting with a surgeon that my father recommended to me, by talking to a friend of his who is a Dr. in Boston (thanks Dad xo).
Dr. A is at BI Hospital in Boston. I am really making the hip surgeon rounds, I realize it is a very small circle though every time I am in an apt with one Dr. he talks about how he is friends with all my other surgeons...tight little community..oh o ;)!


  Like most of my hip surgeon apts. I get a little anxious prior to the meeting, thought my jitters would be under control at this point, but that does not seem to be the case. They only seem to come on the morning of an apt. Not the fun butterflies in your stomach you get before a first date jitters, more like how I feel before surgery jitters. Maybe it's because I feel there is so much riding on every meeting I have with these Dr's. There is a lot a pressure on a "hipster" when trying to find the surgeon who hopefully will bring you a pain free hip/life.
Like most of my surgeon apts. Dr A. was running late, so 2 hours later I was called in. I always find it funny how they ask you to arrive 15 minutes early when most likely they are going to make you wait a few hours (is the 15 minutes early request a test to see how bad I want to see this Dr, since you know you are going to wait and wait and wait!) O.k. I will stop the sarcasm now...well I will try my best ;)

Once I was brought into the room Dr. A made a quite prompt entrance. Immediately I felt a sense of comfort with him. He wasn't as warm and fuzzy as Dr. M, but he was serious, interested in my whole story, and had a decent bed side manner which made the apt go very smoothly. He even complimented me on how well I gave him a play by play story on my hip in  a quick but clear manner if he only knew how many times I have repeated that story that I could tell it in my sleep he probably wouldn't have been as impressed. ;)
So the break down of my appointment with Dr. A!
1. I tell my hip story (the very brief concise version)
2. He looks at my photos from my SDD surgery and points out all my cartilage damage on them. I never even knew what I was looking at when I looked at those photos, I just saw some gory pics, but now I see the anatomy of my hip destruction, so pretty much I see the same thing, but know what I am looking at now....cool!
3.He photocopied my records from all 4 of my surgeries and my notes from my apts. with Dr. R and Dr. W as well as made a copy of my MRI's I had done in February. I made sure I got back all my originals I know if they stay with the Dr. once he leaves the room they will never be seen from again.
4. We discussed my two different opinions from Dr. R and DR. W.   Dr. A felt that I do need a replacement that is the only surgery I should be having. He felt there would not be an issue with putting one in me. He talked about if he did it he would do it laterally instead of interior or posterior ( he feels why "destroy" new sections of my body)
5. He explained to me why my hip is caving in. It is due to muscle atrophy and my surgeries that kept cutting away little by little of that muscle.
6. He said that my psoas tendon and IT band can not be fixed from this surgery, and that there is no guarantee with those parts (but I pray they will get better once the hip is solid..fingers and toes crossed)
7. He said we would need to meet again before he discusses doing surgery on me. He wanted to call Dr. M. and get the scoop from him about me and my hip. He wanted to examine my MRI's more closely, as well as read all the Dr's notes he photocopied. He then said we will meet again in 3 weeks to discuss my case further.
8. He then sent me down to radiology to do weight bearing X-rays which we would look at/discuss at my next visit in August!

So I will update Part 2 with Dr A after my August 8th visit. I really hope he is the one that is going to fix my hip once and for all! Peace out for now! xxoo