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Hip Resurfacing 8 weeks Post Hip Arthroscopy

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Just an update, so far feeling great and honestly have not taken a single pain killer since the day of surgery. As my surgeon had to perform a microfracture ( there was lose cartilage that had to be trimmed ) then I can't really say if this has worked as yet but fingers crossed as there is no other joint preservation treatment if this fails.

Only slight concern is that my left foot is permanently cold and toes sometimes blue, normal or worth getting checked out?
 
Are you still experiencing the cold foot and blue toes?
 
Hmm, the blue toes would worry me a bit, but as for the other nerve symptoms, that's not unusual so soon after HA. I was warned about it, and assured most of those symptoms do settle in time. I've had some very odd sensations, even last week my toes were feeling a bit odd (10/11 weeks post HA). You must remember the traction is pretty brutal on the soft tissues, and nerves have also been stretched. I was told it takes 6-8 weeks for the internal bleeding & bruising and soft tissue swellings to subside so I'm guessing this can press on the large number of nerves that pass through the hip area. I was really impatient about it, but it was fine in the end. It just takes time. Also, I was told, if I pushed myself too soon, before all the internal stuff had healed, I was only going to make things flair up and slow down my recovery.

Of course it's very funny, me saying this to someone else, me, Mrs Impatient, I wasn't the best physio patient I will admit, but I can tell you that 11 weeks down the line I can see that I really did expect too much too soon. It hurts, in funny places, in funny ways, and it's sometimes hard to credit because there's no big scar to look at. I was in agony on a few occasions, barely able to walk and very worried, but it has got better.

Having said this, the blue toes don't sound great, so if it were me, I'd contact the hospital about that.

How are you doing now?
 
Sorry, forgot to log on for a while, anyway visited the doctor this morning to get another sick note, told him about the cold foot and toes, apparently I have a reduced pulse on my left side from the groin down, he simply told me to come back in 4 weeks if no better.

Might not have been the best thing but from Googling my symptoms it appears that an arterial embolism / clot might be possible. I have had a few muscle spasms in the glute/outer hip area and seem to be shedding some skin on my head,face and lower right leg but I had put this down to psoriasis as it is in my family.

If a clot is possible then there is now way I am waiting four weeks to go back so am waiting for my surgeon to come back to me after I left him a message this morning, in any case I have an outpatient appointment with him on Tuesday 19th.

Apart from that all feels good so far, physio is going well and range of movement is good, have started to use some elasticated bands to put some resistance through my exercises and all being well should be looking to start weight bearing in approx 1.5 weeks time at my next physio session.
 
I'm glad you're checking into this. Please let us know how things go.
 
well I have been admitted to hospital, called nhs for a second opinion, they said get to A&E, and I got admitted this afternoon, hopefully can get in for a ct/ mra scan tomorrow. It's not quite private healthcare but having never stayed in an nhs hospital before it isn't too too bad, and I got my own room and can claim £100 per night for being here so not all bad I suppose
 
Good Luck, hope they work out what's going on.
 
Just now read your post and haven't read all the others. I had arthroscopy for a labral tear, cartilage shreds and some osteotomy. At that time, my arthritis was only moderate although between it and the soft tissue stuff, I was already in a lot of pain. 6 months later my arthritis had advanced to horrific. The arthroscopy seemed to help nothing at all, certainly not my pain. I turned out I had dysplasia which had gone undiagnosed by the radiologist and MRI guy in July. My hip had been partially dislocating for months which explained the take-my-breath-away pain I had more and more frequently.

I'm sorry not to have better news to share. The good part of it is that all the old hip pain just disappeared immediately after the THR. It really is miraculous. Yes, there is pain and stiffness from the surgery, and for me and I think for most of us, it is amazing relief from the arthritic pain. I wish you well on your hip journey. Keep us informed of how it goes.

Namasté, Margo
 
Came out of hospital on Monday (self discharge) having had the MRA scan on Monday morning it appears that I have nerve damage which is affecting the control of temperature in my operated leg, as all blood flows and circulation are fine. Consultant came to see me at 5.30pm on Monday night to give me the news but wanted me to stay in for the night while they 'tied things up', told him politely to sod off anyway and that I was going home. Think he couldn't be bothered to do my discharge notes as he was also on his way home, no wonder the NHS is strained. Stupid thing is that I had to stay in for 3 days just so that i could get a scan quicker than normal and for no other reason, didn't need any care whatsoever.

Unfortunately because i was admitted on Friday it would still have been quicker to wait in there rather than use my healthcare, never mind at least I get paid for every night I spent in there.

Otherwise everything seems to be going well, surgeon made a special trip to see me while in hospital and asked me to start 50% weight bearing, so far all feels good.
 
Did the doctors offer options as to where you should go from here?
 
Not at all, it seems that this is something that i just have to get with, I do have a follow up appointment with my surgeon in a couple of weeks so shall see what he has to say then.
 
Have you thought of a second opinion? I could recommend a couple of places/people.
 
Thanks but to be honest, if the scans show that circulation is absolutely fine and that both the NHS consultant and my surgeon have suggested nerve damage then that will do for me.

I was warned of nerve damage before the op and subsequently also have a slightly numb patch around my knee, just one of those things I guess.

Further update, now 50% weight bearing and getting about the house on one crutch and touch wood everything feels good so far, only thing I have noticed is that I have a constant click in the hip when sitting down but as there is no pain then I can live with that. Cant wait now to get active again and hopefully will be back out on my bike in a week or two. Really need to as I have put on 8kg in 5 weeks from sitting about doing nothing and picking at food out of boredom.
 
The numb patch round the knee is different. That's due to the incision and everybody has that.

But since you seem so easily contented about it all, that's fine. I'll hold my peace! :wink1:
 
I'll start with my story so far - sorry, fairly long post.

June 2010 - diagnosed with femoroacetabular impingement and suspected labral tear to left hip, right hip same impingement but very minor symptoms to date, fingers crossed!

October 2010 - CT Arthrogram - no tear found

November 2010 - 5 hour hip arthroscopy (unexpected large tear found to labrum) and bone debridement.

January 2011 - Back to work, arthroscopy failed, pain returned, back to surgeon and more x-rays.

April 2011 - Open procedure, further removal of 'cam' and (cant remember the name of this procedure) Bone made to bleed with a view to scar tissue acting as cartilage.

February 2012 - Noticed further pain, back to same surgeon, further x-ray.

March 2012 - Cortisone injection into hip joint, pain relief for 3 weeks.

April 2012 - nearly back to same pain levels again, also suffered for one whole night and had to take co-codamol which I have never done before. The pain is, and used to be a very sudden sharp deep pain which lasted for anywhere between 5 seconds and 5 minutes or so, then went away until the next time.

So, my question is, has anybody had a similar experience and tried an alternative solution without going for THR early? I was thinking of asking my surgeon to have a look inside the joint via arthroscopy to see what was going on clearly before we decide on any further treatment, not sure if he would go for this though.

As far as I am now aware, my next option is THR. As I shall only be 30 this year, then I obviously want to stay away from this option for as long as possible. If I go with worst case of a THR lasting 10-15 years (I know they can last much longer but I have to work on worst case) then by the time I am 60 I could potentially have had two THR's and theoretically be in real trouble.

I am kind of in limbo at the moment though, I have a two year old daughter, so on one hand I don't want to have to be concious of how active i am while she is young, but at the same time I don't want to be in a difficult situation years down the line.

At the moment I am doing some light cycling, approx 4 miles 2-3 times per week.
Some core strengthening work
Upper body weights
I need to also lose a couple of stones in weight, I figured that less weight equals less pressure on the joint, i piled the weight on after the two surgeries, used to be very active but had to really limit this since.

My consultant/surgeon is MR CE Bache and I have gained a second opinion from Mr A Manketelow who was in agreement of the care I have received so far. Both surgeries and physio have been through BMI hospitals.

So any ideas or suggestions would be more than welcome, and if you got this far down the post, thank-you for taking the time to read.
 
Welcome to BoneSmart CM (if you don't mind me calling you that :)

My gosh you certainly have been through the mill, so young. I have a very close family member who had his first THR at 26, second at 27 due to Psoratic Arthritis. He is now in his 40's and still doing wonderfully well with OS indicating no hint of needing surgery. I realize your situation is so different, but for the past 19 years he has had quality of life that would not have been possible had he not had the surgery.

Once again welcome to BoneSmart and I am sure that our resident expert will be along soon to have a chat. Good luck with your decision :)
 
cm19820 said:
Open procedure, further removal of 'cam' and (cant remember the name of this procedure)
Click to expand...
bone debridement.
cm19820 said:
nearly back to same pain levels again, also suffered for one whole night and had to take co-codamol which I have never done before. The pain is, and used to be a very sudden sharp deep pain which lasted for anywhere between 5 seconds and 5 minutes or so, then went away until the next time.
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This sounds like the condition is progressing and you may well have arthritis developing. Have you read this article explaining the detail of FAI? What does "cam impingement" mean?
cm19820 said:
I was thinking of asking my surgeon to have a look inside the joint via arthroscopy to see what was going on clearly before we decide on any further treatment, not sure if he would go for this though.
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I'm pretty sure he won't, not unless he does it with a view to proceeding with some restorative surgery such as a replacement.
cm19820 said:
If I go with worst case of a THR lasting 10-15 years (I know they can last much longer but I have to work on worst case) then by the time I am 60 I could potentially have had two THR's and theoretically be in real trouble.
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Why fixate on the worst case scenario? Do you know how incredibly rare those are? Do you know most hip surgeons are now pretty confident that today's devices will last at least 40 years and there are plenty of cases where people already have that much longevity with their THRs! You can see two of them here Long life hips: 40 and 32 years. and do remember that those two people had their hips put in that long ago - just think how much better today's devices are! I would go so far as to say that you should think maybe one revision in your life time but I have an even more important point of view for you than that. Besides which, the myth about only two revisions being possible is just that - a myth.

You say you have a two year old daughter and you want to be able to play with her and run with her. These are golden years and even 'if' you had to have a revision at 45/50, she will be 17 or more then and you will have spent these golden years of her life not being able to partake in her growing up. What I am saying is that life is for now. We none of us know what tomorrow will bring - big red buses come to mind! - and things can change in an instant. Why put this part of your life on hold when you have the chance to make it better and pain free?
cm19820 said:
My consultant/surgeon is MR CE Bache and I have gained a second opinion from Mr A Manketelow who was in agreement of the care I have received so far.
Click to expand...
I know Andy Manketelow very well. Worked with him at Stanmore when he was but a registrar and knew even then he was destined for greatness!
 
:goodpost::I-Agree: You have every right to live pain free. I know this operation maybe a little scary but think of it to be pain free and be able to do things with your children. also because you are young I would think that you would heal faster than the older people. Now having that said I know many have had it older and no trouble. I think you said you are now taking some pain pills. When I started taking pain pills I told myself this isn't how I wanted to live. I do know this is your deceision and its a big one but do try to step back and try to imagine what it will be like in couple of years without the operation and what it would be like by living with a total hip replacement with the very good chance of being totally pain free. I know this is a scary time in your life so please keep posting and letting us know how you are. :doggieshmooze:Tashia:cat-kittyandsmiley:
 
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