A Hip Journey Through Photographs

A hip journey in photographs.

Here I am with my brothers Christian and Andrew. This is a good shot of my body cast. It went from my toes to my chest.

Here's me and my brother Jody. I'm young here, as you can tell. Another picture of my body cast. It went from my toes to my chest.

My daddy and I. You can see my body cast in this picture. It went from my toes up to my chest.

X-Ray 12-30-10. Extreme lack of coverage on right side. Center Edge angle is -11.

X-Ray 12-30-10. On X-ray Table, lateral shot.
Findings: Severe right hip dysplasia with uncovering anteriorly and laterally. Loss of joint space superiorly with lateral subluxation of the femoral head.

X-Ray 12-30-10. Standing X-Ray weight bearing.

X-Ray 12-30-10. Frogger position.
Findings: There is severe right hip dysplasia with lateral upsloping of the acetabulum end significant subchondral sclerosis along superolateral margin. There is narrowing of the joint space, early osteophyte formation, and mild later subluxation. Overall Impression: severe right hip dysplasia with early osteoarthritis and lateral subluxation.

3D CT 1-14-12. Top of joint looking down into it.

3D CT 1-14-12. Front of joint looking in.
Overall findings of study: Congenital  severe hip dysplasia. Subchondral sclerosis and cyst formation along superior acetabulum. Mild flattening and irregularity of the right femoral head.

Steriod Injection with contrast for imaging 1-23-12. Notice the needle coming in on the left-hand side. Yikes!

CT with contrast 1-23-12. Labrum images. There were many of these. I'm not a doctor and have no idea what this means! Just thought it was interesting.
Findings: Marked uncovering of superior and anterior femoral head. Posterior labrum normal. Superior labrum is moderately enlarged. Focal detachment of the superior labral base from 11:30 position anteriorly, with maceration of the anterior labrum to approximately 5:00. There is full thickness chondromalacia of the anterior-superior acetabular cartilage with cyst formation. Paralabral ganglion at 12:30 up to 12mm. At least partial tearing in ligamentum teres. 

Arthrographic photo (I think?) directly before surgery 10-26-12. 8:30 AM, right before starting!

X-Ray 10-26-12. 2:50 PM Directly after surgery in the recovery room. 

10-30-12. Enjoying Dunkin' post-RPAO on hospital discharge day. 

10-30-12. Up and ready to go on discharge day!

LOOT of prescriptions when I first came home.

Pillow fort we made so I could try and sleep at night.

X-Ray 11-8-12. Post-op appointment X-Ray.
Findings: 4 screws securing bony fragments. Two screws extend from acetabular roof towards sacroiliac joint and the third long screw appears to extend from anterior iliac crest towards the ischial spine. 

X-Ray 11-8-12. Post-op appointment.

11-20-13. My first real outing, taking my new wheels for a spin!

Thanksgiving 2012, recovering with a glass of wine.

PAO hospital bill

X-Ray 12-6-12 - RPAO-ed hip.
Findings: No hardware failure. Osteotomy defects are healing. 

12-9-12. Oh, the blasted scooter. And yes, we LOVE Target. 

12-12-12. Walking for the first time post-RPAO!

X-Ray 1-17-13.
Findings: Stable fixation screws with no complication. No definite osseous bridging of the right superior pubic rami defect. 

X-Ray 2-28-13.
Findings: Increased bone callus formation to suggest further healing.

3-18-13 Back under the knife! Arthroscopic surgery to fix torn labrum and microfracture to create cartilage.

3-2013. Incisions from Arthroscope.

Hospital bill from Arthroscopic procedure.

Scars from both procedures.

CPM-ing it!

My personal parking spot for recovery. Gotta love the handicap plate.

Relay for Life of Cumberland. Organized this event and had to spend nearly the whole 2 days on my feet coordinating with people and vendors. 5-31-2013

Walking down the aisle as a bridesmaid at my brother's wedding. 6-15-2013

A ~20,000 step day in San Francisco. 8-20-2013

X-Ray 10-31-13. Frogger.
Findings: Stable alignment of previously identified periacetabular osteotomy with intact hardware and no evidence of complication. Improved coverage of the femoral heads bilaterally. No evidence of osseous bridging of the superior pubic rami.

X-Ray 10-31-13. Front of hips.

X-Ray 10-31-13. False profile. 

10-31-13. Dr. Schiller and I at my 1 year appointment! What a difference a year makes!

It's amazing to see the time lapse, for me. I can relive each of these moments as they happened and remember where I was in my journey.

Hope you enjoyed. I'll post later on my 1-Year appointment with Dr. S today.

Thanks,
D

A Brand New Beginning.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I had my appointment with Dr S. this morning and he told me I can start slowly weight bearing on the right leg again! This was the best news of my life, for sure. I can’t tell you how excited I am. Tom (my PT) and I discussed that because I’ve been through this song and dance before (of getting off the crutches gradually), I can start weaning myself off them and I don’t need to wait to see him at my appointment on Monday to do so. Knowing that news, I immediate knew I wanted to walk out of the Dr’s office. I have to say, taking those first few steps (still on the crutches, of course…but weight bearing) felt really amazing. Emotionally, it was such a great moment. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Six months of hard work, surgeries, recoveries, etc were all leading up to this new beginning of starting to walk again. Walking on this hip is so strange because it’s the first time I’ve EVER been on a “good” hip. It’s a good hip! It’s completely, 100% fixed! It is such a foreign feeling to me…thinking that I no longer have that kind of disability. I’m a really looking forward to starting back up with the real PT, and getting back on my feet for good. It will probably take another week or two to get fully off the crutches…and even then I may need the cane for a while. But, that’s okay! I’m no longer restricted and that is just an amazing feeling. 

I am so proud of myself, for going through with it, and for working so hard and being so patient when I really thought I might go absolutely nutty. I am forever thankful to and grateful for my unbelievable husband. Without his absolutely unwavering support over the past 6.5 months, I am positive I wouldn’t have been able to do as well as I have been, if at all. He has been so amazing. I really don’t give him enough credit. I am also thankful for all of the support of my family, and my friends…who have constantly reassured me that I’m doing great and everything was worth it. I’m thankful for every single “It’s just a little while longer” from every person who gave them to me. Most importantly, I’m forever grateful to Dr. S for giving me my life back. He gave me the opportunity to live pain free, and to be happy, and productive, and active, and (this is most important) UNRESTRICTED. I no longer have to worry about doing 4 different errands in the same day because my hip will hurt so much I won’t be able to make it past the first one. I will never have to mentally prepare myself for a shopping trip to Target…thinking that halfway through the store I’ll need to lean all my weight on the cart just to get around. I won’t need to tell myself I should just have groceries delivered, because my hip has been hurting too much to go to the market. I’ll be able to exercise without pain, sleep without pain, sit without pain, play…all without pain! 

Of course, I still have a very long road ahead of me. I will have at least another 3 months of physical therapy. My hip flexor is a mess and needs a ton of work. My muscles have atrophied significantly, and it’ll be a while to get them back. But, these are all such great things to look forward to working towards. All are goals I know I can achieve. What a fantastic day I’m having. I feel so excited, and amazed, and encouraged. A good day, today is a very good day.

Thanks for all the support,

We’ll talk soon,

D

Juiced Up

I got an e-mail today from one of the hip ladies in the support group I recently joined. It was asking specifics on the process (local anesthetic) in which I got my corticosteroid injection a couple years ago. I figured I would write about it here so that anyone considering this would have an idea on what to expect.

To start, I’ll tell you that Dr. S sent me to get the corticosteroid injection as a diagnostic tool. He stated that if the injection helped alleviate my pain, then we would know that the majority of my pain was coming from my crappy labrum. Knowing that, he could then start to determine how much actual joint pain was occurring and determine if PAO was a good option if I needed it. At the time we still only had x-ray images and weren’t exactly sure how bad the hip joint really was. This was the main purpose for me to get the injection. While injecting the corticosteroid mixture, the doctor was also going to be injecting contrast media. This dye was injected so that I could immediately get a CT Scan and MRI after the injection and they could get a better, more detailed look inside the joint.

I had my injection done at the diagnostic imaging center at Rhode Island Hospital. It was an outpatient procedure. When I arrived, they had me change and fill out some of the usual paperwork. After check-in, they sent me in to do the imaging first…which I thought was weird because I was supposed to have contrast with my imaging. I stated this to the nurse who was trying to get me to lie on the sliding bed thingy outside the CT Scan machine. She shrugged me off like I was crazy…but I kept saying “I’m pretty certain I’m supposed to have contrast media before this imaging.” She finally looked into it and low and behold I was correct. This is an example that you ALWAYS need to speak up for yourself when you think something may be wrong.

After hardly apologizing, the nurse instructed me on how to get to the place where I had the injection. When I got there, they called me into this little room. It had crazy machines everywhere with a live x-ray machine hovering over a large metal table. The doctor had 3 or 4 interns (all male) with him and he asked me if it was okay if they stayed and watched what he was doing. I said it was fine, what do I care? Then I realized I had to open my Johnny and slightly regretted that decision. Awkward! 

Anyway, I will tell you that I got pretty nervous when the doc pulled out that needle. It was the LONGEST needle I’ve ever seen in my life. It seemed like it was a foot long. I just kept telling myself not to look at it. First he had me lie on my left side, and he took a smaller but still offensive needle and gave me the local anesthetic. That stung a little, but it wasn’t bad. A few minutes later he got to work with the giant needle. After he started injecting the world’s longest needle, he used the live x-ray machine to keep tabs on his path of injection. So, he’d push the needle in a little, take an x-ray, say a few words to the audience, and go a little farther in. When he got through what seemed to be my entire body, he said he was going to start injecting and that I’d probably feel some “crowding and cramping.” I remember thinking: “what does that even mean!?” Well…as soon as he started injecting the fluid, I totally understood. It didn’t hurt, it was just very awkward feeling. Cramping is a good way to describe it. The whole thing took maybe 20 minutes from start to finish. I think what took the longest is that he spent about 5-10 minutes telling the interns (who looked about 10 years old) to “look at that deformed hip joint.” He then went into a lecture on hip dysplasia, talking about my pain like I wasn’t even in the room. 

After he was done, he had me get up very slowly. He had me take a few steps very carefully because it would feel very crowded. It did feel strange at first, but not painful. After about 5 minutes of walking on it, that feeling went away and I was left with (literally) NO PAIN. It was amazing. After the imaging, I walked out the hospital the best I’ve EVER felt. It was amazing. The next couple days, after the local anesthetic wore off, I had a little soreness. The total relief time from the corticosteroids was probably 2 weeks.

Well, that’s that. Let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks all,

Talk soon,

D