Wonderduck's Pond

May 31, 2018

So, About That Doctor's Appointment...

Some good, some bad, some "eh, whatever"... about what I expected, in other words. Unfortunately, my doctor couldn't make a judgement on my hip because he still needed to see the x-rays. Seems the immediate care place I went to isn't part of the same medical network so I had to officially request that they be sent to his office. He did give me more of the muscle relaxant (cyclobenzaprine, if you're wondering), so that's a plus.

In the bad news department, I probably have carpal tunnel in my right hand... and yes, it may very well have been caused (or at least hastened) by my hip injury. See, back when my hip was really darn bad I had to lean on my cane quite a bit... and I don't mean that in the metaphoric sense, but in the "put weight on cane" sense. This had the unexpected side-effect of causing my right palm to hurt, making me wish for a padded glove or something. Shortly thereafter, my thumb, index and middle fingers began to give me a hard time, alternating between numbness, tingling, and extreme sensitivity (that last one is a kick... today it felt like I had sliced my finger open when I picked up a ham sandwich on generic white bread. Who knew white bread was sharp?). Now it's pretty much all the time.

Getting back to the hip thing, my doctor had a hip replacement a few years back, so we discussed that in detail. For him, it was the greatest thing ever... he went from having constant, incessant, not-quite-crippling-but-awfully-awful pain to... well, nothing. Which is a GOOD THING! I'm not at that point yet, and he wasn't suggesting that I was, but if this continues to worsen, well...

In point of fact, my hip basically doesn't hurt right now. Don't get me wrong, I'm not exactly going to be a danger to Shakira any time soon, but it only hurts when I lift my leg (like when I step into the bathtub) or if I lie on it for more than a few minutes. Oh, and getting into the car is still a nightmarish scenario that's at least as painful as it is embarrassing. I get in back-first, squirm as far in as I can (or as far as the steering wheel lets me), get my right foot in... not so easy with size 14-EEE, it always gets caught up by either the door or the sill... pivot to face as far forward as I can, hook my cane under my left foot, then lift that into the car... remember, it hurts when I lift my leg manually, but getting it airborne with a tool doesn't as much... then either swear or groan in pain, depending on my mood. Until I figured out how to do this, it could take me 15 minutes to get into the Duckmobile. Nowadays, it's only a couple of minutes... still slower than your normal person, but every bit helps when it's raining.

One big surprise that I got was that I had lost something like 35 pounds in the year since I last saw the doc. No, not surprised... stunned? Shocked? Completely and totally amazed? Pick your favorite word or phrase, I was that. Still, there had been indications... loose pants, mostly... so maybe I shouldn't have been surprised, but... well.

So that's it... oh, and there was blood drawn as well. Somehow it'd been five or six years since the last blood test, which surprised me. In any case, the results of that are of some interest as well... doc says that carpal tunnel is often found in diabetics, for example... but that's a test I'm not worried about getting the right answers for. We shall see what we shall see.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:55 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 Glad you finally had your appointment. Sounds like your doctor has a path forward in mind. Best wishes!
That's how I had to get in the car during my second pregnancy, except I couldn't move my legs asymmetrically, so I had to swing both in at the same time. Not fun.

Posted by: Mrs. Will (Kathryn) at June 01, 2018 04:25 AM (JPRju)

2 Hooboy. Gotta love the human body! In the process of easing the load on a painful body part, you cause pain in a new body part! Intelligent design, my tailfeathers...

Posted by: GreyDuck at June 01, 2018 07:37 AM (rKFiU)

3 Yeah, hip replacements can help a lot and may well be needed. My mother ultimately needed both hips replaced, but had emphysema (Kids, don't smoke. It's not worth it). She code blue'd every time they put her under anesthesia. She still ended up having to go through both operations and was much better off for it, despite the risk.
The good news is that today recovery is much faster. It used to be that you would be in the hospital for several days, now I had a neighbor who recently had bot hips replaced and both times was out of the hospital within 1-2 days.

Posted by: stargazera5 at June 01, 2018 11:05 AM (FuETf)

4 I wouldn't call this a reason not to do it if you needed it, just something to be aware of, but if you're youngish and have a hip replacement, there's a good chance you'll live long enough to need to have a revision. From a UK website: "Around 80% of cemented hips should last for 20 years. Younger, more active patients often get cementless hip replacements and these may last longer, although this isn't confirmed in long-term studies."
These days, carpal tunnel can be dealt with surgically, if you wind up needing it. My boss had it done to both wrists about 8 years ago as two separate operations, and was back to work pretty quickly. Resting, icing, and compression may help with it, too.

Posted by: Rick C at June 01, 2018 01:32 PM (Q/JG2)

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