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I'm in a lot of pain today. Did too much I suppose. I pay for it every time I try to clean the house. Today is counting the hours until I take my pain pills and a lot of tens unit and ice packs.
But, sigh, at least I am still able to do a few things. Rothbear, how are you?
Well, had another appt. today and the PA is actually being optimistic. I can now lift my lower leg without help when sitting, which apparently means that the muscles and nerves are finally starting to "wake up" a bit. Most of the time I am "just" aching instead of severe pain, and that apparently is also a good sign. Questioned him as to what happened with the knee-hab unit he ordered 2 weeks ago, and when he checked apparently it was one of those communication things where everybody involved thought that everyone else was doing their job and no one was. And this was with my therapist leaving messages and emails with the main nurse.....so not sure why she didn't check on it after several messages. So now it has been ordered and been put on rush. Hoping that it will push things along faster. PT has asked for 3 extra weeks of at home therapy because I really wouldn't be able to do everything that they would want me to do and would be a waste of time.
When in the waiting room some little old man came out and apparently knew someone sitting there. He made a big thing about the doc "fixing him up" 5 weeks ago and now he is walking pain free without any cane, etc. If I could have gotten out of the wheelchair quick enough I think I would have tripped him. Well, not really, but didn't do much for my mood.
rothbear you made me laugh. The first time I went for a checkup after my operation, 1st the PA was running late, then he took this other woman before me & when she came out she laughed &said she was doing great. That he was so sweet to see her even though she'd been late. Ya, I wanted to smack her as my back was killing me.
Glad to hear things may start moving along with you.
RB, glad things are improving but, still, it sounds like your team is overloaded or not good at following up.
This is really common in today's medical atmosphere, especially being an older patient.
IDK, but my mom has to coddle everything from appointments to treatments to questioning treatments to getting the doc office to call in her damned scripts. Every. Freaking. Time.
Well, had another appt. today and the PA is actually being optimistic. I can now lift my lower leg without help when sitting, which apparently means that the muscles and nerves are finally starting to "wake up" a bit. Most of the time I am "just" aching instead of severe pain, and that apparently is also a good sign. Questioned him as to what happened with the knee-hab unit he ordered 2 weeks ago, and when he checked apparently it was one of those communication things where everybody involved thought that everyone else was doing their job and no one was. And this was with my therapist leaving messages and emails with the main nurse.....so not sure why she didn't check on it after several messages. So now it has been ordered and been put on rush. Hoping that it will push things along faster. PT has asked for 3 extra weeks of at home therapy because I really wouldn't be able to do everything that they would want me to do and would be a waste of time.
When in the waiting room some little old man came out and apparently knew someone sitting there. He made a big thing about the doc "fixing him up" 5 weeks ago and now he is walking pain free without any cane, etc. If I could have gotten out of the wheelchair quick enough I think I would have tripped him. Well, not really, but didn't do much for my mood.
I am glad you are finally showing some improvements. I am sure it will be better soon. Still we will be thinking of you.
Since several of you have written to me and expressed concerns, I just wanted to let you know what has happened the last couple of weeks.
As you know my therapist has tried to get me a lot of help, but without much luck. Luckily I had an appt. with another doc in that same practice who deals with back issues. When we went there DH basically told him that we felt the follow-up care had been sorely lacking and he had us go over everything that had happened and what had been done. He also read a letter that my PT wrote to him. After checking some things out he told us HE was going to order a MRI, nerve test and "demand" that we get an appt. with the surgeon and not the PAs before the end of the year. He was not very happy with how we had been treated. He did feel that the problem was with the femoral nerve, but was puzzled as he said that usually they are able to avoid it easily during surgery. This was the Friday before Christmas week. By Monday I had appointments for all the tests as well as another appt. with him AND an appt. with the surgeon.
Now as of today..........I tried to have the MRI, even with a Hitachi "open" one, and I just was not able to do it. Only made it about 10 seconds before I panicked and had to be pulled out. I absolutely cannot have anything over and around my head/face and although this was open on the sides, the top was still very low. They said something about getting some pills, but the adrenaline level I get when panicked just wipes them out. So I waited until my nerve test yesterday. It was uncomfortable at times, but I let the doc do as much testing as he needed to do......took over 30 minutes but he got a LOT of information. He told me that, although I had an issue in my back, it was an old issue from when I had back surgery in 1998 and had nothing to do with my current problem. He was very sure that the problem was the femoral nerve as well as a smaller secondary one. Also said that an MRI really wasn't necessary. He said that the nerve test shows the nerves were damaged (could be stretched or even torn from the muscle), but not destroyed so they would heal eventually. However they heal about 1" per month and apparently the femoral nerve is about 10" long. He said that we should start seeing more rapid progress after about 3 months (beginning of Feb.). Went to the back doc again today and after reading the test results he concurred with the nerve doc. Although it will be a long process he is as sure as he could be that it will heal.
Tomorrow I have the appt. with the hip surgeon and see what he has to say. I am trying to figure out how to tactfully let him know that we are not happy and have him tell us what happened in the surgery to cause the nerve damage. I do know that he had to grind out a larger base in the hip bone as mine was too shallow to securely hold the top of the implant. But apparently he wasn't careful about how he pulled and ripped around. We are also going to request that he call my insurance company and try and get the knee-hab unit approved to help strengthen my quad muscle faster.
As of now I am walking better with the walker, doing all my exercises, and a couple days ago was finally able to lift my right leg up in the air off the floor several inches, which is a big improvement. Apparently we will be dealing with this longer than I care for, but my DH has been so wonderful and there are no words to say how much I love and appreciate him. DD was here for 10 days and did a lot of cooking and taking care of me a bit. I'm not sure I realized before just how much I am loved by my family.
And I will be taking my first longer trip this weekend as we have our pre-drywall inspection on our hew house being built in Delaware. We just have to take along all of my "paraphernalia" and get a handicapped hotel room. Take care to all and have a wonderful Happy New Year.
Just another quick update. Saw the surgeon on Wed. with a long list of questions. First we told him that we had felt the follow-up had been lacking and that we had asked to see him a couple of times and had been told he was too busy. He claims that is not his policy. We went over all the PA stuff, etc. He agrees with the nerve test, but when I asked him how it could have happened, he kind of hemmed & hawed telling us that because it's such a major surgery in such a small space (small???? I have an at least 8" long scar} that it's like looking in a tunnel and although he and his assistants try to be careful to not pull too hard, things can happen. Yeah, excuses excuses. He goes on his merry way, and I'm stuck dealing with this for months on end.
Anyway, the one thing we did get is he agreed to see me personally on all my follow-up visits. He is supposedly calling my insurance company to try and get the kneehab unit approved and to get some more in-home PT. We shall see. My next appt. with him is mid-February. He cleared me for travel so we will be leaving Sunday and back on Wednesday or Thursday. Will have to stop every 1.5 to 2 hours, but that's OK. We shall see what happens.
Thanks to everyone who has PM'ed and emailed me, I appreciate all of it. Take care and I'll keep plodding along
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