Went to my Orthopod this afternoon for an XRay and a final evaluation of the hip replacement surgery. Piece of cake.
Since they are not able to produce digital files, I brought my camera and took some photos of the radiographs.
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Here is the hip about two years ago -- I had periodic outbreaks of load-bearing pain but weeks of no abnormal sensation at all. You can see the faint outline of a lesion on the right side of the ball.
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This is what it looked like about six weeks before the surgery. You can see a collapse of the top of the ball and deterioration of the cartilage. Very painful to the point of affecting my sleep -- I would sleep 12-14 hours/day and wake up groggy and lethargic (more than normal anyway).
Because of the General Anesthesia, they had me do a sleep study and it turned out that I was only getting 10-15 minutes of REM Sleep at a time, I would rise out of REM for 20 minutes and shift position trying to get comfortable, enter REM for a bit and then the joint ache would make me wake up a bit. I am now sleeping 8-10 hours (what is normal for me) and waking up fully refreshed with energy throughout the day.
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We have the technology! It has been a long two years and looking back, I can see where this affected me even before the breakout pain two years ago. I thought it was mild depression or SAD but no, it was having a pound or two of dead tissue in my body.
Very glad to have had this surgery and the team at St. Josephs Hospital was absolutely first rate -- every single person.
