Terrible Two's

There are two things that constantly sit in the back of my mind, lurking: 

1)      What if I need to have something done to my left hip? This thought really bothers me. We never really investigated very far into lefty. When Dr. S had the very first series of x-rays, he said that it was almost completely normal. Only slightly dysplastic. That’s obviously good news. However I know that before the surgery, I was having pain on both sides. Different kinds of pain on my left…pain I’m not sure could even be described as hip pain…but still pain. I’m also worried because Dr. S didn’t know just HOW bad my right hip was until he did all the additional imaging. What if my left hip is more dysplastic than it appears on the x-ray? I guess only time will tell with that. I just don’t want to end up having pain down the line, after we’ve started a family and moved on with this hip silliness and need to go through similar surgeries again. YUCK. Or worse, I have pain down the line and it turns out that it’s too late for PAO (if even needed). I know, I know…I’m getting WAY ahead of myself…but these are things that dysplastic people think and worry about…I guess.

AND 

2)     I will still have hip pain, after all this. Or, I only get a couple years out of this reconstructed hip before it starts giving me pain again. I’ve been reading other blogs obsessively, seeing what other people have been feeling after a period of time post-surgery. I’m trying to prepare myself for what could be. Some feel fine, some have pain creeping back in. Unfortunately, this PAO surgery is so new (relatively speaking) that there isn’t a whole lot of research and information for what happens years down the road with a PAO-ed patient. I know that before this second surgery, my hip felt pretty good. I really only had labrum pain, occasionally. When we went on vacation in March, I could walk long distances with no actual joint pain. The hip fatigues very, very easily right now, but I have to think that’s expected. But…what if after a few months of being back on it full time, the hip pain comes back? The thought of having gone through all of this for nothing is more than I can handle.

Anyway, that’s just my two cents. I think about these things more and more as I get closer to picking up with the rehab PT. I get off the crutches in two and a half weeks (THANK GOD)…and after that there’s no turning back. It is what it is. I’ve got what I’ve got. They’ve done all they can do for my poor, sad, little hip. I’m so emotionally confused…I can’t figure out if I’m excited, or nervous, or anxious, or what. After the last time I got off the crutches and started using the leg, any time I'd experience any pain I'd tell myself: "well, the second surgery will fix that." With any discomfort I kept telling myself...the journey's not done here...you still have a chance to get rid of that pain. The thing I do kind of hang my hat on here, and hubby helped me realize this, is that after the corticosteriod injection a couple years ago, that right hip felt fan-freaking-tastic. I have not EVER walked as good as I did for the first few days after that procedure. So, the main goal was for this arthroscopic surgery to fix all the banged up, crappy labrum in the joint to help me get that same result as the corticosteriod injection.
I guess all I can do is just wait and see what happens. How awful is that? There’s no way to prepare myself mentally, at all. I just have to wait until I’m out of PT in July/August and see where I stand (haha, pun INTENDED). Dr. S says it will be a year from RPAO before I really can judge the progress….so I’m going to wait until October to really judge the outcome. It’s all just a matter of wait and see!

Thanks for listening,

I’ll check back soon,

D