A little background before the upcoming appointment Friday with Dr. Park, the surgeon who performed my hip replacement back in January. Hopefully better light will be shed come Friday, subsequent to sacrum and lumbar MRI’s accomplished last week.
An unusual sensation emanated from the base of my spine accompanied by severe autonomous clenching and chronic muscle strain throughout my lower abdomen and thighs when I stopped the pain medication approximately 10 days after surgery. There were 2 problems associated with the surgery, the 1st of which is mostly resolved, with the 2nd remaining to be diagnosed.
Beginning in January 2018, I waited while the VA slowly and methodically slogged through one conservative treatment after another. Neurological and orthopedic exams, steroid injections and of course the months-long waiting periods in-between amounted to well over a year from the time I knew I had an end-state arthritic hip, to when I finally received the surgery. So the entire right side of my body compensated by developing an acute chronic strain condition. The right thigh in particular, became so deeply strained and sore I was often barely able to walk at all by the end of the day the first half of this year. Now after 6 months of misery, that problem has only just recently begun to show signs of remission. Within the past month or so, I have started using the cane more in my “right” hand, supporting the new left hip, which seems to be doing great, with only minor healing discomfort remaining.
Now for the bad part. I’m still grabbing the cane with my left hand due to: Either my lower abdomen was crushed like a bug with some sort of clamp on the operating table while my left leg was being sawed off and re-attached with a new hip joint, or the L4-5 annulus was torn tossing me around somewhere like a sack of potatoes. My first guess was a mashed-up sacrum. Dr. Park said it could be a stress fracture in my pelvis. L4-5 annulus tear seems to match the primary pain source from what I can decipher in the MRI reports. I was interpreting this as the worst of the muscle strain, but now it’s pretty obvious what is going on down there. Whatever it is, I’m effectively crippled.
It’s not just the VA, and could happen to anyone. I’m probably one of the lucky ones. Surgery is risky business. People make mistakes. Thankfully not a botched hip “replacement,” considering the new hip seems good so far. I’ll have questions to ask, and suggestions to offer regarding the patient clamping and handling procedure(s).