Hello again! I just wanted to catch you up on a few things. On February
28, I had a follow-up appointment with Dr. S. regarding my PAO surgery. This
was my 18 week appointment! Woohoo! I had been up and walking for weeks (I wasn’t
winning any races…but I felt okay). Physical therapy was going so well, and I
was kicking butt. The appointment with Dr. S. went very well; he was pleased
with my progress. At this appointment we decided to go ahead and schedule the
second procedure (arthroscopic hip scope). The most important thing I took away
from that appointment was that I had literally no idea what to expect from the
second procedure. Unfortunately, when it comes to cartilage and the labrum, he
couldn’t know what he was going to find until he got in there. This means that
he may only have to fix a couple small things on the labrum…or maybe just clean
up some scar tissue. Or, worst case scenario, there’s a lot of cartilage damage
and he needs to do what’s called micro-fracturing. This is where he picks at
the femoral head with a little ice pick-like tool and makes it bleed. This
blood then heals and turns into a type of cartilage called fibro0cartilage. Really
what mattered to me in all of this information is healing time. I wanted him to
do whatever he needed to do to get me into tip-top shape. So it came down to
this: if he only had to fix labral tears? That’s about 2-3 weeks on crutches.
If he has to micro-fracture quite a bit? That’s 12 weeks on crutches. That made
me crazy…the not knowing. There’s a big difference between 3 weeks and 12 weeks
on crutches. Anyway, I digress.
Dr. S said I’d have to
call Hilda (his assistant…who has probably made it onto our Christmas card list
by now) the next week and make the final call on what day to do it. We were all
on the same page that the last week of March, first week of April time frame
was best. My family and I have a lot of exciting things going on this year…and
I wanted to be sure I’d be up and running before them so I don’t seem like such
a party pooper. When I called Hilda the next Monday, she told me that Dr. S
didn’t have an opening until April 26th. I almost fainted. That’s a
whole month after what I thought it was going to be. Hilda and I talked about
what I had going on this year, and why the timing was so important. She said
that she was going to try and figure some things out and call me back. She
called me back a couple days later and told me she had finagled some operating
room time for March 18th. This was less than two weeks from when we
were talking…but I immediately said it was fine and booked it.
So the surgery day came, and everything felt like a scene from
the movie “Groundhog Day.” We recognized a lot of people at the hospital, and
they recognized us. I had the same exact surgical team as the first surgery,
and it was nice to see some of those faces again. The thing that was different
this time was the atmosphere. Everything was far more relaxed, including
myself. After getting everything all set and I was wheeled into the operating room, I got to look
around for a few minutes and really take it all in. Last time they gave me
loopy juice BEFORE going to the OR…so by the time I got into the operating room
I was high as a kite. This time I got to see everything. What a fascinating
thing…it’s really crazy to me. They wheeled me right next to what looked like
some kind of torture device. It was the device the surgeon uses to create space
between your hip joint ( I won’t describe it here….let’s hope you never have to
see it!). I saw all the giant tool chests with my doctors’ name on them, and
all the crazy lighting. It was pretty neat. Then I had to sniff the funny gas
and about 30 seconds later I was in la-la land.
After the surgery, I woke up feeling pretty nauseous again. However
my wonderful anesthesiologist Lexi made sure to give me a great cocktail of
drugs so I didn’t feel a thing. Except tired. I got out of surgery around 11,
and I slept until 2. I was WIPED. After that I started to come out of it and I
recognized Sarah who was my recovery nurse from the first surgery. I loved her
last time. She was so amazing. The nurse I had this time, Dina, she was great,
too. But it was so nice to see Sarah and have the opportunity to tell her how
much I appreciated her help the last time. After a while they got me up and
moving, Matt came to see me and before I knew it I was in the car heading home.
I slept most of the day.
So, the outcome of the surgery was pretty good. Dr. S. did a
fantastic job with everything (obviously…he’s amazing). I had a couple really
big tears in my labrum…they were so big that he ended up just having to cut
part of it right off. That wasn’t a huge deal; he assumed I would have some
pretty significant tears. There was some softness and wearing in my cartilage…and
some areas where there was very little bit of cartilage left. So in these spots
he did some micro-fracturing. Not a whole lot, though. The issue was that a
part of my femoral head was slightly pointed…causing extra wearing on the
cartilage against it. To fix this problem, Dr. S. had to shave down and smooth
out that part and create bleeding to fill in the area with the fibro-cartilage.
The last and most important thing we took out of this procedure was the
discovery that there is only a small amount of arthritis in the joint. That is
huge news. Because there’s so little arthritis, Dr. S thinks I may be able to
put off hip replacement surgery until my late 60’s or even 70’s (if I treat my
new hip well). In contrast…my hip was so crappy before all this that Dr. S.
said he’s sure I would have needed total hip replacement in my 50’s (if I could
make it that long).
So…all in all, it was a great outcome. However, because of the
work he had to do with the femoral head, he wants me on the crutches for about
7 weeks. This is a bummer because I’m super sick of the crutches…especially as
I was just on them for so long prior. However, I can’t tell you how happy I am
to be DONE with surgeries. This has been such an interesting few months…I’m so
tired from all the rehab. But, I feel so good to be moving forward with this
chapter of my life. I’ve put if off for about 10 years now…it’s nice to not
have it hanging over my head anymore.
I start physical therapy back up tonight, and I will have to keep
going until probably mid-July. It is the best feeling knowing it’s only going
to go up from here!
Ready, set, go!
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