Almost 3 month update:
I have a follow up appointment this Thursday 8/24. This will be my 3 month follow up.
This recovery has been a journey. As I've written in earlier posts, it began as a simple recovery and I was walking device free and getting around swiftly in the first few weeks. Then I started having some soft tissue/tendon pains. The pain was in my anterior hip/thigh region, and my doctor diagnosed it as probable iliopsoas tendinitis. These pains continued for weeks, at times bad enough to make walking painful, other times not as bad. (I only remember one half day when walking was as painful as it has been these last 4 days.).
The month of August things started to settle (ironically just when I had the MRI, it was scheduled a month prior) and I felt more or less pain free, with some slight twinges of pain at times. But, last Friday, I woke up feeling a lot of pain in the side and posterior region of my hip. A pain that feels like it's coming from my hip joint/trochanter area, radiating down the side and backside of my hip, down my leg into the knee. Each time I get up to walk I can take about 10 or 20 steps before this sharp pain begins and makes walking nearly impossible.
I feel like this pain is similar and related to the previous pain I experienced weeks ago, but is now aggravating different nerves connected to the hip joint.
I've had the litany of tests: Xray, CT, and MRI.
MRI findings: "No articular cartilage thinning/degeneration detected, no labral tear detected, no definite osteonecrosis, no effusion, no substantial tendinosis or tendon tear detected, no muscle atrophy or muscle edema.". But, "fluid collection associated with osseous erosion of the greater trochanter" is detected. In more detail, "There is a persistent fluid collection anterior to the trigone and the blood tracks between the rectus femoris and tensor fascia lata* and the collection appears to connect to the trunion and contracts superiorly to the lesser trochanter and posteriorly about the trunion. The fluid collection is continuous with osseous erosion of the greater trochanter. Bone marrow edema tracks into the distal aspect of the femoral diaphysis, possibly below the field-of-view. No inguinal lymphadenopathy."
CT findings: "1. Small focal fluid collection anterolaterally at the left hip, favored to be a postsurgical seroma with early heterotopic ossification. 2. Small site of erosion of the left femoral neck of uncertain significance as this is not detectable radiographically to determine any interval change.
*I'm still parsing all those medical and anatomical terms to understand it more. Interestingly enough, the rectus femoris seems to be where pain was radiating in my earlier bouts of problems, and the tensor fascia late seems more like where the pain is traveling now. I'm really looking forward to talking to the doctors now.
My surgeon has been on vacation but last week saw the written MRI results (hadn't seen the images yet himself) but said they didn't sound particularly concerning and likely part of the healing process. (This was last week, before my newest round of pain, and different pain area than before).
I'm also noticing that my left (operation side) leg is shorter. I'm guessing about a centimeter, but it's very noticeable. I'm using a Dr. Scholl's shoe insert at the moment, and that makes it feel corrected. I know I'll need to get proper orthotics at some point. For now though, I'm curious about the possible cause of the shortening. (I noticed the shortening from early on, but I don't remember how early unfortunately).
After it's all said and done I won't be surprised if this is all just a part of the soft tissue healing process. But dang, I can't even walk at the moment.
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