July 23, 2004
5 months is the magic number
OK so far we have talked about the total hip replacement (THR) in Nov. 2002, 5 month later I had the core decompressions (CD'S) on both knees and the right hip that was April 2003.
Now 5 months later Sept. 2003 I am going back into surgery. The left femur that we had been watching is finally shot. The pain has been off the charts. The leg has been freezing up with spasms and when this happens all I can do is scream. This is happening more and more and lasting longer each time. I got to the hospital and back into pre-op where the doctor talked to me about all the possible things he could find. The next thing I knew I was waking up in the recovery room. This was scheduled as an out patient, so in about 2 hours time I was getting ready to go home. My leg was bandaged from toe to hip, and I was instructed only 30% weight bearing for 6 weeks. The pain was there but it was 100% better than the AVN pain. About a week after I was home therapy started again. I did well but was having problems with the crutches since my shoulders are in stage 1 of AVN/ON. We switched to the forearm crutches, but believe me they are tricky when getting used to them.
I kid you not about 4 weeks after the operation the AVN/ON pain was back and full force. I cried the entire day and just asked why? I had gone through all of this for nothing. I got very depressed. I called the doctor and he said it was still to soon to know if the CD had worked, we would just have to watch and wait and stay on the pain medicine.
There is no way I can explain to anyone what it is like to wake up in pain everyday. You start not wanting to go to sleep at night, because you know what the morning will bring. Well this is what happened to me. I stopped sleeping and cried all the time. I just wanted one day with no pain. Remember not only is this femur hurting but so are both knees and the right hip. I can take the achey ankles and shoulders. Depression really set in, my parents and husband became wrorried. First I will tell you like I told them. I am not shelfish enough to hurt myself. I love my family way too much for that, but wanted to be out of pain. Through the help of my husband, family and Pastor we worked through this and I started coming around. Knowing I still had many operations ahead of me. What a life, waiting to heal to be cut on again.
Posted by Karen on July 23, 2004 08:27 PM