I saw the orthopedic specialist a week ago. We didn’t wait all that long in the waiting room before going in which was nice. He started off by reviewing my x-rays of my knee, femur and hip and then the CT Scan of my hip. I noticed on both the x-ray and CT of my hip he kept absentmindedly circling the top of my femur with his pen. He never said anything though initially. He gave me a gown and left the room.
After changing into the gown and waiting a few minutes he came back and asked me to climb up on the table. Not an easy feat when on crutches and unable to put full weight on my leg. After a few minutes of fumbling with the help of my husband I was able to get up and lay down. He started out with my uninjured leg and moved it around in the hip socket a bit and asked me if it hurt. It did but not on that side it just hurt some on the injured side as he was moving me around on the examination table a bit. Then he moved on to my injured side.
I thought I was gonna die. The Pain was so extreme I screamed and screamed. He asked me where it hurt. I told him where. It was mostly in my groin on the inside top of my thigh but some just on the top and on the side of my hip as well stretching around to the back. The pain in my groin area was so bad though. He didn’t do anything else after that. He just told me to get down and change back into my clothes.
After this he came back and said he was really concerned about my hip. He thought I might have an occult (hidden) fracture in my hip somewhere despite what the report with he x-ray and CT scan said. He looked at my CT scan for a few more minutes and then said “Yeah, I think we need to do more testing on your hip”. So now I have to go for a bone scan. Which from my understanding is a CT scan but with a radioactive substance that will highlight any fractures, even if they have been there a few weeks or months or even years. It will show other anomalies as well such as bone regrowth, tumors, etc.
He told me to continue using crutches and keeping the weight bearing to a minimum with the crutches. I can put down the leg to help steady myself and to ensure my knee and ankle don’t get stiff and sore again as they are still healing as well but he said not to put full weight on it and be really careful as if there is a fracture one wrong move including just twisting or stepping on it wrong could be catastrophic and cause a really bad break.
I had a further talk with my family doctor yesterday and he filled out paperwork to see if we can extend my short term a bit longer and keep me at home. Getting to and from work is an issue and sitting is an issue as I can not sit very long at a 90° angle. I start to hurt so much. I can’t do physio or anything yet. So hopefully they wont give me a hard time about it. I have to recline at like a 135° angle to get some pain relief or stand with the crutches which is hard in itself.
My family doctor gave me paperwork to get a temp accessible parking pass and I am using a wheelchair for longer distances so I can at least go to Walmart for an hour or so with my husband to get out occasionally. But an hour at Walmart just tires me out and causes a lot of pain so I am mostly just home trying to keep the pain under control with tylenol and ibuprofen. They won’t even give me anything else until they know what it is. He also mentioned that if it turns out there is a fracture there I will need to have surgery to insert a rod and pins/screws etc as it will not heal on it’s own unless I spend 3-4 months on strict bed rest. Which is not an option and they don’t recommend unless you can’t have surgery for medical reasons.
Leaves me in a bit of a predicament though, on one hand I hope that it is not fractured so that I can get on with my life, however as I am experiencing the pain and they can not find a reason that’s not really getting on with my life or on the other hand you hope that they can tell you yes it’s fractured, here’s what we are gonna do and by this time next year you will be back to normal after surgery and time to heal.
It’s left me frustrated beyond belief, more frustrated then I have ever been before. Even the time leading up to the diabetes diagnosis and the other health issues weren’t this frustrating.
