Posted 11/15/2009 1:46 AM (GMT 0)
I saw a new orthopedist Friday, and he is wonderful. I brought with me the xrays from the summer and my horrible experience with the very terse doctor (see my entry somewhere below). This new doctor had me look at them with him, explained everything, compared the healthy left hip with the unhealthy right hip and showed me the messy "ball" of the joint, the bone spurs and bone cysts.
So, I'm likely headed toward surgery, but he said there's no hurry - do it when I can't stand the pain and impingements on my lifestyle and - and when I can deal with it, family and schedule-wise.
In the meantime, he offered as an option that I go to a pain management/medical acupuncturist place to try an injection into the hip, guided by some kind of imaging It might help, it won't make me any worse, and - I can't deal with surgery until Spring at the earliest, anyway.
This guy also said (drum roll, please!) that yes, these changes looked consistent with avuscular necrosis (sp?) from my 2 years of pred. more than 20 years ago.
This doc also said that if I got home and thought of more questions to ask, to please call him. I am so accustomed to working with a doctor in a partnership, and this guy seems to welcome that! Yay!
My new PCP put me on Ryzolt, a time-release Ultram, several weeks ago and it takes the pain down several notches - and I can sleep through the night without being wakened by pain!