My medical woes

This year has been a year of physical maladies for me. Beginning in July I started having some pretty bad hip pain. After a couple weeks suffering I went to the doctor. Based on the symptoms he believed I had sprained the hip and advised to not do any activity that further hurt it and come back if it didn't get better. Stubborn outfit that I am, I waited until October to return. At this time he prescribed an anti-inflammatory and muscle relaxer and suggested trying these out along with full rest. He also had x-rays taken which didn't show anything apparently wrong. Two more weeks, no improvement, so it was time to see the orthopedist. He thought it might be tendinitis and thought it advisable to have an MRI done. Unfortunately the insurance company decided that physical therapy should first be tried. Some humor at the time was that I was getting therapy for some unknown condition. Sigh. So I went to therapy and while I liked my therapist a lot didn't have any improvement. I was humbled at therapy however, seeing the patients recovering from stroke or other major conditions. I was definitely more mobile than they! Back to the orthopedist and, FINALLY the MRI was approved. What an adventure. Despite the headphones it was quite loud. And I can see why people who are claustrophobic don't like them. I found it somewhat fascinating during my 45 minutes in the thing. Tom pulled double duty that day, not only picking Abby up at school, but when I realized how late they were running, picking Maggie and another girl up from track and taking them home. At about 6pm that evening I received a call from my orthopedist -- certainly hadn't expected to hear that quickly. Apparently, he hadn't yet seen the films but was called by the radiologist (a couple alarm bells went off at this time!). The MRI showed a small tear in the labram, arthritis on both hips, and (the scary part) a great accumulation of fluid on the joint. No wonder I was in such pain! In any event, the great fear was infection, so I was to go for blood work the next morning and he scheduled me for evaluative surgery the following Tuesday (by now we were in January -- just a couple weeks ago). I made the mistake of googling "joint infection". Don't do that. So Friday I went for the blood work and enjoyed a movie and lunch with 2 friends as a great distraction. I attempted to not worry over the weekend. Tom joined me for the pre-op appointment Monday morning where the doctor first said that the preliminary blood work was negative for infection (first good sign!) and showed us the films. I quickly figured out that the big white blotch was the liquid. I went then to the hospital for all the pre-registration stuff and was done for the day. Quite thankful for friends to help with transporting the girls to/from school Tuesday! Tom and I headed to the hospital Tuesday morning. I spoke with the doctor before the procedure and the rest of the blood work was negative for infection, definitely a GREAT sign. He ended up suctioning out 15ccs of liquid and injecting some steroid to try to relieve the pain. We went home and all was better, if not entirely well. I returned the following Monday to learn that the culture of the fluid was negative, but as I'm still having pain and limited range of motion, I've been sent to a "hip specialist" for evaluation for arthroscopic procedure to fix/clean out the tear. I go there on the 14th of February.

So, that's the hip story. Last Friday (a week and a half later) I discovered a broken glass in the dishwasher and threw it away. Later that evening I went to push down the trash and, of course, cut myself on the inside of my left wrist. Cleaned it and put pressure on it with a paper towel, then had Maggie help me wrap it tightly with an ace bandage. I went about my evening activities for another hour and went to check on it -- still seeping blood and looking nasty. At this point it's about 9pm and I'm thinking to myself -- I'm pretty sure this will need stitches given it's depth and location, but should I go NOW or wait until the morning? Knowing that Saturdays are always busy for the girls, Tom and I headed to the hospital. When we checked in, the nurse asked "has any information changed since last week?" You know you've been at the hospital too often when they ask that question! The took x-rays to make sure there wasn't any glass pieces, cleaned it with betadine, and "glued" it together. It was quite sore Saturday, slightly sore Sunday and continues to improve. Of course it's on my left hand and I am quite left-dominant. Sigh.

Since the name of the page is "(Almost) All about Beth" and I usually talk about the girls, I figured it was time to update you on me! Hope to have more news soon. In the meanwhile, signing off as the early-on-set-arthritic-person you know!