A hip update

I went for a two week post-op appointment on Thursday and had a good discussion with one of the orthopedic team, not the surgeon. It seems that our expectations of how long the pain would last were not realistic. He wasn't surprised at all that I was still in a lot of pain after two weeks and admitted that the surgeons have a tendency to underplay how long the recovery will be. It makes sense when you think about it that any procedure where the bone is traumatised (by drilling a hole into it) would take quite a few weeks to recover. The surrounding muscle tissue also needs to heal. He expected that I would get some relief in the next couple of weeks and explained that it would probably be 3-6 months before we really know if the surgery has been successful.

I have found over the last couple of nights that I can sleep for longer between doses of pain meds and during the day the pain hasn't been quite as intense.

It seems like it's going to be a longer recovery than we expected but at least there's light at the end of the tunnel.

These posts are way too dry....here's some hip humour...

A Pain in the A***

When I signed off my last blog, I'd hoped that the next post would be a review of some exotic foreign city I'd been to on my travels. Unfortunately, things haven't quite worked out that way and I'm conscious that we haven't updated many of you on the last few weeks events.

Towards the end of my cancer treatment I was also having physiotherapy for what I thought at the time was sciatica (lower back pain, caused by a herniated disc). After six weeks without any improvement I went for an MRI scan and the results came back showing that I have avascular necrosis (link). In a nutshell, this is the degradation of my hip bone most likely caused by the steroids that I was taking to reduce the swelling around the tumours.

After a couple of cortisone injections that weren't effective, the orthopedic team I'm working with decided to perform a core decompression (link). This involves drilling a small hole into the femur head to relieve pressure and stimulate bone growth. Sounds like fun, eh?

I had that surgery a little over a week ago and have been recovering at home, on crutches, since. The pain from the original condition was bad, but since the surgery I've been in more pain than I ever thought bearable. I'm trying hard not to over-dramatise, and regular readers will know that I generally tell it like it is, but this has been tough. I find I'm counting the hours until I can take the next dose of (very strong) painkillers.

A lot of people have asked "how long until you'll get some relief?" and it's very difficult to answer. The surgeon told me beforehand that results from this procedure are 'mixed' and each patient recovers at a different rate. I can only hope that the pain I'm feeling now is the bone regenerating itself and that the decompression will achieve what was intended. If it does, then I've been told I should be able to resume normal activities (cycling, but no running) in six weeks or so.

That's been one of the hardest aspects of the last couple of months. This all came to light just as Minnesota was entering its beautiful springtime and the cyclists started flooding out onto the roads. It also means that I've had to pull out of the MS150 in June that I talked about last time - bugger!

So, there we are, another chapter. I'm just hoping it will be a short one and that next time I can bring more positive news.