Femur/hip pain

[jessie]

My surgery was in August. I went back to work (recently resigned due to excessive stress - gotta change careers) {paramedic}. That's bad enough.
Deep inside my hip has been hurting for a while, but now my femur is hurting as well. It seems like I can feel movement about halfway down my femur when I walk. I'm thinking that I might have to use my cane again.

I know, I know, see my surgeon. Well, mine is at the Veterans' Hospital and it isn't quite as easy. It can take over a month to get an appointment. I'm not crazy about the idea of a "do over". My experience there was not so good. (I spent 2 hours the night of my surgery - pressing the nurse call button with no result - didn't have a foley catheter and had to pee. Finally someone came and after I begged to be cathed, I was allowed to relieve myself of almost a liter of urine - had to get the same nurse back 3 hours later. Very pleasant memory).

I'm afraid of the answer, but does this sound like my hip has to be replaced?

 

[Josephine]

Sadly yes - it sounds to me like your prosthesis is loose. But then you've guessed that already, haven't you! Did you have an uncemented THR?

 

[jessie]

Yes. I got the Zimmer hip. The day I had surgery, the VA was no longer allowed to buy them. I expressed concern, and stated that I was aware the hip was good, but the process was flawed. He told me that I needed this hip due to my career field and he was adept at this procedure. Oh and by the way, a resident did my surgery. I saw the actual surgeon before surgery but haven't seen him again.

 

[JenniferG]

Man, that all stinks. I'm sorry for you jessie. Any option to go somewhere else?

 

[jessie]

Not unless I win the lottery.

Hey Doug how about a nice feel better recipe. No, I'm not on a Diet.
Do you know what Diet is? It's Die with a T! Georgia folks don't diet, when we do, we call it vacationing up North.

 

[Josephine]

Most failures are nothing to do with the type of prosthesis but all to do with the technical expertise of the surgeon.

 

[Laurie]

Jessie, I am so sorry to hear your experience. And no catheter, etc?? Sounds barbaric. I had HR in August and know how great it can be. I sure hope you have some recourse with the VA. If you have a local Department of Veterans perhaps they can help??? (We do here locally and they are great clients advocates to the VA for our county veterans).

Wonder if Doug checks in on hip threads???? you may have to give him a shout out elsewhere??

Laurie

PS: But I would beg to differ on the north, great vacation spots all over, especially in the summer spring and fall.

 

[Judles]

Jessie...... surely there has to besome satisfactory recourse for this! You should not be in such discomfort! Don't give up!
I definitely agree with Laurie. Please come up North.......until you've been here,you'll never know! I promise you, you'll be very pleasantly surprised! Summer, winter, spring & fall, we have it ALL!

 

[jessie]

I lived in NH for 13 years. What exactly do you consider north? I was almost Canadian, living in New Hampshire. When I first moved up there, having dinner out, I asked for tea. They brought me a hot cup of tea. I said, "I meant a glass of tea". To that she said, oh, that's seasonal. So I said, "then, could you bring me a glass of ice?" Had to use sweetener (I don't think they know what sugar is)

And at the grocery store I found grits on the international food isle. Barbeque in NH? Anything you put on the grill. That's sacrilegious in the South. BBQ is low heat and long cookin'.

Fried food? Up North- Fish or Bacon? " Down South, we fry fat to fry fat in. Corn breadin' a fresh caught cat fish/bass/trout/crappy and put it in the deep fryer, OH and turckey. Good stuff. Hush Puppies to go with 'em also fried. We fry pork skin, chicken livers (gizzards-taste good but use up too many calories to eat), pork chops chicken, steak (breaded of course), tomatoes coated with corn meal, pickles, squash with plenty of butter and onions, creamed corn (yes, it is possible). Baby butter beans cooked with plenty of butter and a piece of salt pork, and some extra salt for good measure. And then we actually have regular vegetables.

Turnip greens * add some bacon grease some salt and a little sugar, fresh spinach- Add plenty of Butter and a goodly amount of salt (no amounts given , just taste and when you like it, every one else has to like it).

When you have friends over for breakfast, they will be there through dinner and supper. And you won't realize it. Somehow, the dirty plates move and clean ones come in and the next thing you know it's another meal. All the while you have been drinking Sweet Tea or Coffee with the piece of cake you just ate.

I'm pretty sure that's why the South did not win the War of Northern Aggression. If the bullets hadn't stopped 'em, coronary artery disease would have.

 

[Josephine]

I won't move this post now but please confine posting to the topic in hand. Off topic posting will, in future, be either deleted or moved into Joint Replacement Lifestyles.

 

[Jamie]

Jesse, I agree with Laurie that you should make some noise with the VA. After this problem, I would think you can go up the chain until you get assurance that any more surgery will be performed 100% by the surgeon assigned to you and not a resident. I had a friend who had a bad experience with the VA in Kansas City, and he was treated better after he made some serious complaints both verbally and in writing. It might benefit you to pay to see a surgeon outside the VA as a consultation for the problem and if you could get he/she to say they believed it was a surgical problem, you'd have some documentation to put before the VA so they would be more likely to meet your demands. That's what my friend did. Good luck to you!!!

 

[jessie]

On a good note, I got my 3/4" modified shoes today. Maybe that will help? I also have a call in to the Ortho folks to see about getting an appointment sooner than my mid Feb. routine follow-up.

 

[PRGal]

Jessie,
First, truly sympathetic about your pain & probable revision need! When I saw you said you had a Zimmer hip, though, I had to wonder . . . you're probably aware of the Durom cup recall right around the time of your surgery, but if not, here's a link to more info:

broken link removed: https://www.lawyersforclients.com/zimmer-durom-cup-hip-implant-revision/zimmer-hip-lawsuits-by-zimmer-hip-replacement-patients.html

(Not to promote ambulance-chasers [no offense to legal "hippies" among us]--and I didn't check this out thoroughly since it doesn't apply to me, luckily-- but there does seem to be some financial arrangement for revision patients.) If this applies to you, it may be worth pursuing & obviate the need to win the lottery. Heck, it certainly couldn't be more of a pain than navigating the VA system!

 

[jessie]

I had concerns the day of surgery, in the prep area. That's when I spoke to him. The hip is not so much the problem as is the procedure itself. He assured me that he was skillful. They had received notice that morning that the Zimmer hip could no longer be purchased by the VA.

The who, the why's and the what's are not as important to me right now as is facing a possible revision. I am an active person. I've come back from being shot in the head, I've had a subarachnoid hemorrhage and then a hip replacement. This is getting ridiculous.

I've been trying to pay close attention to when my leg hurts. This is how it goes: heel strike left leg, pain in femur and hip. Weight shift to R leg, swing through L leg, femur pain during forward motion of L leg. It's not unbearable (ok, my pain tolerance is crazy high), but it isn't that bad. Just a new and disconcerting feeling.

What kind of symptoms do people normally have when a prosthesis gets loose?

I'm probably worrying about nothing.

Oh and I've been to the Zimmer site. I think it's a great idea that they are settling with individuals on a one to one basis. I hate when class action lawyers get their greedy little paws on wads of cash and the individuals get a very few dollars. But I think the problem is with the cup.

 

[Josephine]

Still sounds like a loose one to me. I cannot envisage anything else that would be responsible for the pain yor describe.

I really, truly hope I am wrong,

 

[jessie]

This is kinda weird, but my left leg is a little shorter today than it was yesterday. I got my 3/4" lift and it was fine yesterday, but today it's a tad too much.