Well I do have some good news to report...finally. My original OS to his credit has said that he thought that a lot of my pain might be referred from my back. Yesterday afternoon I had a rhizotomy (the burning of nerves) on the right side of my back at levels L3/4, L4/5, and L5/S1. My pain has been greatly reduced! I took one NSAID last night and one ultracet mid morning today and that is it so far. I still have pain, but it is tolerable. It is making me now wonder if I should have even had the hip replacement since so much of my front leg pain seems like it must have been coming from my back. Unfortunately I still have the joint pain in my hip and the sensation of hitting/scraping against something whenever I lift my leg or externally rotate and of course the clunking so I will continue to pursue further testing. I wish that I would have had the rhizotomy before ever letting anyone touch my hip, but everyone (both hip and spine doctors) thought the pain was from my hip because L4 and L5 don't usually refer down the front of the leg. When the pain doctor was poking around in my back yesterday to find the pain generating spots before burning I could feel it kind of ache and burn down the front of my leg (I had the procedure under local so I was fully awake), and at another level I could feel it wrap through and around to the front of my hip. He did say that those were not normal pain patterns, but that everyone is wired a little differently. He did say that my L5 facet joint looked pretty ugly. I told him it felt pretty ugly too! LOL! So while I am happy...ecstatic actually...to have decreased my pain by 50% plus, I am somewhat dismayed that I may have followed the wrong path with regards to my hip especially now I am having complications with the replacement. It seems that the primary pain generator all along was my back and not my hip. Just an FYI for those of you who also have low back issues. Make SURE your back is not the primary culprit. I am starting to have the same type of symptoms on my left side, and you can be sure I will have a rhizotomy on the left before anyone ever touches my left hip.
On a positive...I can now more easily tolerate the pain in my hip socket area and my anxiety has decreased immensely so I feel emotionally much stronger. It is truly amazing what one day of minimal pain can do. Last night was probably the best nights sleep I have had in over two years, so I am sure that was a huge help too. I do feel a little fearful that the pain is going to come crashing back...that is why I did not post yesterday. I did not want to speak too soon although I was dying to share my happiness. But today I went to work, and the pain relief seems to be holding steady. The doctor told me if the rhizotomy works it could last up to a year, and then I could repeat the procedure. I am going to keep my fingers, toes and eyes crossed! LOL! Now that so much of the pain is gone I can see that I was really in so much agony. I hope, hope, hope, it does not come back for a while. I keep testing my back to be sure it is really gone. Big sighs of relief!!!!!
I also finally had the metal allergy testing the end of February 26th. I did not appear to be allergic to the metals, they did a skin test, but I was allergic to the adhesive....go figure! I have not done the ion testing yet. I suppose I should just to be sure. But with the new OS thinking it is an alignment problem, I may wait until after I have the CT scans and 3D imaging. I still need to get to the bottom of what is going on in my hip.
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