Wednesday July 1, 2009: Welcome to July

A new month, a new orthopedic problem. Since we were in Boston on June 12-13, my hip has ached a lot, enough to the point that has woken me up and kept me awake. Yesterday I finally gave into the pain and called the ortho office. Dr. Schweitzer is on vacation and wouldn't be available until late next week for appointments. I could get an appointment with another one of the orthos there (after telling the scheduler what the problem is) and got an appointment for this morning. So I went. Xrays were taken immediately (the reason why I chose to go to the ortho office rather than the rheumy office). The doctor came in with them. They show there is something going on in the left hip (ha, just typed knee first--probably after years of typing problems with the knee, lol) but he can't tell without an MRI if it's arthritis in the hip or a labral tear there or both. So one is in the process of being scheduled. He could tell I have hip bursitis but at least my ITB is okay. If the MRI shows arthritis, then I can have a shot of cortisone. He also mentioned a round of Synvisc, which is a off-label use of it. I said I'd only do that if insurance okays and pays for it since I'm sure its cost is similar to Supartz (which was about $400 a pop, including fees for the administration of the shots). If there is a tear, then arthroscopic surgery is done to clean up the debris. He did say I have excellent flexibility (something I've been told by a lot of people) and my bones on the xray look good and strong.
So hopefully tomorrow I'll get a call about the MRI schedule. I'm hoping to have it early next week. After I get the appointment made, I have to call the ortho office to make my follow up (results) appointment.
I would like to thank my parents for inheriting the bad knees gene (thank you, Dad) and the bad shoulders and hips gene (thank you, Mom)!

Wednesday March 18, 2009

Ouch. Got me a real hip ache. Not a bursitis ache. A regular old hip ache. Last night it was very uncomfortable. I'm going to bed shortly and may take a Darvocet (or may not). Today I had to call the rheumatology office for a refill on a prescription and they called back to say I was supposed to have gone back in January because it was written in my record. But the PA there had told me to come in on an as needed basis. So whomever I spoke to said she'd ask the PA tomorrow about it. I may end up making an appointment anyway, but I'll see. My new knee celebrated its 6th month anniversary yesterday with a drive to West Hartford and back to meet a new cousin and it was fine. No pain!
So we'll see how tonight goes.