Hip Update

I finally managed to track down my surgeon today to ask him some follow-up questions about my surgical options.

Here is a brief (as I can get) rundown:

He believes, and a consensus at a recent Canadian meeting of orthopedic surgeons confirmed for him, that debridement (actually treating the impingement) cannot be completely and effectively achieved through arthroscopy. A medical study I found online seems to confirm this. His opinion is that the jury is out about the total effectiveness of arthroscopy with regard to debridement; it has been done but the feeling is that it is physically impossible to ensure complete and thorough debridement without an open surgical procedure where the surgeon actually has a full and unobstructed visual of and access to the joint.

I asked him if he would be willing to try and perform the debridement arthroscopically, given that some surgeons are at least trying to do this without open surgery. His response was that, if he performed arthroscopic surgery it would be just to address the labral tear, not the impingement through debridement. However, given my impingement is slight, he said there was still a possibility that this would alleviate my problems.

I did, of course, mention 'e' of The Gerli Life's experience with the same diagnosis and the fact that her surgeon didn't even present open surgery as an option for treatment. As I predicted, it's impossible for a doctor to comment on another patient's situation when they know nothing about that patient's medical history. His supposition was that her surgeon chose to offer the least invasive surgery without informing her of it's limitaitons in regard to other options. (Sorry, Gerli, I'm just quoting here.)

Since I had pretty much decided not to do open surgery at this point in my life, I explained to him that my decision at this point was more about how much of my problem could be treated arthroscopically. If there is a possibility of addressing some or all of the impingement arthroscopically to, as much as possible, decrease my chance of future problems without open surgery, I want to explore that first.

Despite the fact that I was concerned that my pushing this issue would cause him to be defensive (we all know the stereotype of the egotistical surgeon), he was actually very altruistic in his response. He said that he would make some calls to some other hip specialists in Northern California to get some other opinions about athroscopic debridement. He even said he would be willing to refer me to another surgeon, if that seemed to make the most sense for me. The good thing was that he was very specific in articulating that he was not taking this as questioning his expertise, which I really appreciated. The last thing I need is to sour the relationship with him, especially if he is to help me gather some additional information and/or ends up doing my surgery.

We left it that he would call me back on or around next Wednesday with the results of his findings. Of course, I expect to have to call him to follow-up, although I'd like to be pleasantly surprised.

I also had my regular doctor's appointment today. Did I mention I LOVE LOVE LOVE my PCP? She is absolutely the best doctor I have ever been to. Great personality, takes time to listen to you, never makes you feel rushed, never leaves you waiting, understands the system and works it to your advantage... in short awesome. I picked her based upon a gut instinct, reading her profile online and looking at her photo. She had an honest smile that extended to her eyes and she turned out to be exactly as I had painted her in my imagination. I'm so lucky; I hope I never have to change.

Anyway, the point of mentioning this visit in my post is that she actually went through the results of my appointment with the ortho surgeon on Monday with me. I won't play-for-play our conversation but, suffice to say, she pretty much backed-up what I have said above. In that I trust her, this has really helped me to pull my thoughts together.

In other news...

My laptop is fixed! I heard its dolcet tones upon startup as the technician started it for the first time with it's new motherboard. All that's left to do is to fork over the other $200 and pick it up. Yay! Sort of...

It's flippin' stormin' again! Can you believe it? Tuesday was like being in the middle of a Kansas twister, with my Cypress trees dangerously leaning toward death. Yesterday was a beautiful, crisp, sunny day with barely a breeze to ruffle your feathers. Today? It's like Wednesday never happened. The Cypress trees are back to kamikaze levels, the wind is howling around the house, and the rain lapping at the windows. I'm the first one to like the odd, refreshing storm, but I am so over this see-saw weather, particularly because my dogs have cabin fever. Without exercise they demand more one-on-one attention and are whining and growling downstairs in the family room as I write this. Bye bye rain, come again another day, I say!