All,
I recovered very quickly from surgery on September 3. I stayed home the following Tuesday and Wednesday, but I was happy to return to work Thursday one week after the surgery. Everything has been going well and my mom and I went back to Tulsa yesterday to remove the staples and to schedule the next and hopefully my last surgery. Right now it looks like I will be returning to Tulsa on October 14th for pre-op testing and a doctor appointment to take X-rays and check progress. The surgery is scheduled for October 22nd. This will be a big procedure, but hopefully since they have already removed the hardware it will go fairly easy. They will be breaking my femur to re-align the hip, iserting a rod through the neck into the hip that will be attached to a plate screwed to my femur and applying bone paste around the neck to stimulate growth.
The recovery continues, but I am starting to see light at the end of the tunnel.
J
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Home again.
Cara and I came home from the hospital yesterday as expected. Today is a regular holiday day off, but I am already ready to return to my routine. Honestly, the surgery has come and gone with very little pain. My only discomforts are tenderness around the insciscion sites. I look forward to returning to work ahead of schedule. I look forward to returning to the doctor for follow up visits and advice. I look forward to fully recovering this fall.
J
J
Saturday, September 5, 2009
My hip was(is) messed up
I should not post this without reading Cara's most recent post, but here goes.
First, I am doing very well and Cara and I should be heading back to Fayetteville tomorrow morning.
Dr. Stafford came in to see us this morning. He reminded us that my hip was one of the worst breaks that they have dealt with and they are trauma specialists. I have to keep asking myself why I did not push for a hip replacement, but I am reminded that I am young and if we can save the hip then this is what it best.
Dr. Stafford had not seen the results from the CT scan post surgery, but he was in there during the surgery. This is hard to explain, but after the extra bone matter and the hardware was removed, it was apparent that the hip has deformed during the healing. What this means is that rather than the neck and the ball angling up at about a 120 degree angle towards the pelvis, it is actually closer to a 90 degree angle. This is both good and bad. It is bad because this causes more stress, makes one leg longer than the other and possibly requires surgery (in about 6 weeks) to be corrected. It is good because the surgery would not be as severe as originally expected with new hardware. Dr. Stafford said they would take a wedge of bone out of my femur and fix the femur with the hip in the correct angle. I forgot the term he used for the procedure, but the downtime (no load bearing) would not be as long. The thing I am doing is adding up the dates. 6 weeks of no load bearing from this week's surgery + 6 weeks of no load bearing from the future surgery still equals 3 months. It also equals more trips to Tulsa.
I always try to stay optimistic, but I was really hoping that this would be my last prolonged stay at St. Johns. I am ready for this to be over.
Anyway, like I said before, I am feeling pretty good overall. We will keep you posted as we get news from follow ups.
J
First, I am doing very well and Cara and I should be heading back to Fayetteville tomorrow morning.
Dr. Stafford came in to see us this morning. He reminded us that my hip was one of the worst breaks that they have dealt with and they are trauma specialists. I have to keep asking myself why I did not push for a hip replacement, but I am reminded that I am young and if we can save the hip then this is what it best.
Dr. Stafford had not seen the results from the CT scan post surgery, but he was in there during the surgery. This is hard to explain, but after the extra bone matter and the hardware was removed, it was apparent that the hip has deformed during the healing. What this means is that rather than the neck and the ball angling up at about a 120 degree angle towards the pelvis, it is actually closer to a 90 degree angle. This is both good and bad. It is bad because this causes more stress, makes one leg longer than the other and possibly requires surgery (in about 6 weeks) to be corrected. It is good because the surgery would not be as severe as originally expected with new hardware. Dr. Stafford said they would take a wedge of bone out of my femur and fix the femur with the hip in the correct angle. I forgot the term he used for the procedure, but the downtime (no load bearing) would not be as long. The thing I am doing is adding up the dates. 6 weeks of no load bearing from this week's surgery + 6 weeks of no load bearing from the future surgery still equals 3 months. It also equals more trips to Tulsa.
I always try to stay optimistic, but I was really hoping that this would be my last prolonged stay at St. Johns. I am ready for this to be over.
Anyway, like I said before, I am feeling pretty good overall. We will keep you posted as we get news from follow ups.
J
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Thursday, September 4
Hello! J is out of surgery and in his room. Surgery started at about 1:00 this afternoon and ended around 3:30. He did well, but lost some blood. The unofficial amount is around a liter. We will have to watch and see if he needs a transfusion tomorrow. Blood loss is expected in this type of surgery, and J has already been "typed" with blood waiting in case he needs it.
His pain seems to be managed fairly well. He is resting comfortably with the help of Delotid. He has already said he would like to be off the IV pain meds as soon as possible. He also asked for a Super Sonic cheese burger, but that will have to wait until tomorrow sometime. He is on a clear liquid diet at the moment.
During the surgery, Dr. Norris was able to remove a good amount of the hetero-topic bone growth on the front part of the hip. This means J is now able to lay his left leg flat on the bed, something he was excited to show me as soon as he got to the room. There is more bone growth on the inside of J's femur, but the surgeon did not remove that as there are a lot of blood vessels in that area of the leg, and he did not want to damage them.
Tomorrow J will have a CT scan and radiation treatment. The CT scan is to assess how much healing has occurred since April. The ratiation treatment is to prevent more/regrowth of the hetero-topic bone. Regardless of the CT scan results, J will not have another surgery on that leg for a while. We may elect to have a bone graft in about six weeks to further improve flexibility, or we may just call it good and begin the business of going on from here. We will have to see how much more flexibility is there, and there is just no way to know that until J is able to put weight on that leg.
So, the bottom line is: Today's surgery may be the last... or it may not.
Love,
Cara
His pain seems to be managed fairly well. He is resting comfortably with the help of Delotid. He has already said he would like to be off the IV pain meds as soon as possible. He also asked for a Super Sonic cheese burger, but that will have to wait until tomorrow sometime. He is on a clear liquid diet at the moment.
During the surgery, Dr. Norris was able to remove a good amount of the hetero-topic bone growth on the front part of the hip. This means J is now able to lay his left leg flat on the bed, something he was excited to show me as soon as he got to the room. There is more bone growth on the inside of J's femur, but the surgeon did not remove that as there are a lot of blood vessels in that area of the leg, and he did not want to damage them.
Tomorrow J will have a CT scan and radiation treatment. The CT scan is to assess how much healing has occurred since April. The ratiation treatment is to prevent more/regrowth of the hetero-topic bone. Regardless of the CT scan results, J will not have another surgery on that leg for a while. We may elect to have a bone graft in about six weeks to further improve flexibility, or we may just call it good and begin the business of going on from here. We will have to see how much more flexibility is there, and there is just no way to know that until J is able to put weight on that leg.
So, the bottom line is: Today's surgery may be the last... or it may not.
Love,
Cara
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Good News - possibly
Well, my hip surgery was postponed from today until tomorrow. We were very frustrated and blamed it on a lack of communication between the two different surgeons who will be operating. The fact is that I have not seen either one since April and I have not seen the one I met with today since last October. He let me know that today's X-rays looked better than April's X-rays. There is a possibility that the femoral non-union has actually healed - or at least healed more than it was before. The problem is that the implants (plate and screws) prevent them from getting a good look with either X-rays or CT scans. We also learned that a lot of my discomfort may be more related to the heterotopic bone growth, than to non-union in the hip joint.
I am now scheduled for a surgery at 1:00 P.M. tomorrow. The main scope of this operation is to remove the implants and as much heterotopic bone mass as possible. A day or two after the operation, I will have a CT scan to examine the bone growth at the femoral-hip union. I will also be receiving a dose of radiation to resist any future heterotopic bone growth.
The good news is: if the femoral union has healed, I will not require the bone graft and the new implant in my femur, with the removal of the extra bone mass my hip flexibility and rotation will be improved, and I could be putting weight on my leg in as little as three weeks rather than 3 months.
The bad news is if the CT scan reveals a lack of bone healing in the femoral neck, we go back to plan A with a bone graft and no weight for 3 months. However, this operation could happen as early as Saturday and I would still be returning to Fayetteville on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Overall, I must be happy with delaying the surgery one day an visiting with the doctor today.
J
I am now scheduled for a surgery at 1:00 P.M. tomorrow. The main scope of this operation is to remove the implants and as much heterotopic bone mass as possible. A day or two after the operation, I will have a CT scan to examine the bone growth at the femoral-hip union. I will also be receiving a dose of radiation to resist any future heterotopic bone growth.
The good news is: if the femoral union has healed, I will not require the bone graft and the new implant in my femur, with the removal of the extra bone mass my hip flexibility and rotation will be improved, and I could be putting weight on my leg in as little as three weeks rather than 3 months.
The bad news is if the CT scan reveals a lack of bone healing in the femoral neck, we go back to plan A with a bone graft and no weight for 3 months. However, this operation could happen as early as Saturday and I would still be returning to Fayetteville on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Overall, I must be happy with delaying the surgery one day an visiting with the doctor today.
J
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