Thanks for all your messages.
Jo - Please don't think I was ignoring your advice. I thought I'd try one more thing and it all snowballed rather quickly. The original OS said he wouldn't consider another arthroscopy, because, like you said, if the first one hasn't worked, the second one won't, but said he'd refer me to another surgeon, who turned out to be another arthroscopy surgeon, both of these surgeons are classed as young adult hip specialists. I was a bit confused by that.
I saw the guy, he's new at the QE so I thought he wouldn't be too friendly with the other consultants yet and therefore be unbiased. He seemed quite confident that another arthroscopy would do the job. So I asked him why he recommended one when another OS said no chance. He just said he was confident and it was worth trying again even to get some pain relief. I'm desperate and I guess I wanted to believe him that I could be in less or no pain. Then someone cancelled their surgery and I got their spot with 4 days notice for surgery.
Can I ask why you shouldn't have a 2nd arthroscopy? I have asked and asked about a THR and they say I'm to get that idea out of my head because 1. I'm too young and 2. My hip is healthy. It's obviously not! How do I get an OS to believe the constant pain I'm in? All of the OS I have seen so far are the Young adult hip specialists, and all they seem to want to do is arthroscopies. I keep telling them that I have no quality of life, I can't sleep for more than 40mins, I hurt all the time, I can't weight bear, can't work, can barely leave the house, and they just don't seem to take me seriously.
My surgeon said that it's too early to tell if it's worked because it can take a year to settle. But the pain is exactly the same as before. So I think I'm going to have to wait a few months and ask my GP to refer me to Mr Nanu. But are they going to do that? I know patient choices says yes and all that, but won't they try to send me to an arthroscopy specialist at Sunderland rather than a THR specialist? Is Mr. Nanu only a THR chap? Would it be best to get a copy of my notes and scans from the QE?
Do you think the OS was right in saying that for all he couldn't get into the hip, there would be nothing to be seen in the groin side of it? Can anything go wrong on that side? Because tha'ts where the majority of the pain is. What reasons are there for not being able to dislocate the hip? If they can't dislocate it, then what can they do surgery wise?
My physio is concerned for me because of my pain levels doing the most basic exercises and doesn't want to give me anything else, so she's about to give up on me too. Could physio make things worse?
Tracy xx
Australia
