My Hip

The dr said this:
-the bone on the inside of both of my femurs has died, but it should regenerate on it's own based on my age
-the femoral head of my left hip (the ball part) is deteriorating but since it's not causing me a lot of pain, they're not doing anything about it
-my right hip is fine structurally, so he thinks it's bursitis and is sending me to physical therapy to teach me how to stretch it

Overall I didn't like him. Might partially be due to the fact that last time my dr told me to go to physical therapy to solve my pain issues, I ended up almost dead. Either way, he seemed condescending and I didn't want to ask him any questions or tell him about my other areas of bone pain because he didn't seem to give a rip. I asked if they shouldn't monitor the left hip to see if it deteriorates more and he said 'well if you start experiencing more pain in that hip then you should let me know.' I said, 'so it doesn't matter how much pressure I put on it, walking, running, that's all ok because you said it isn't going to break?' and he replied, 'well you shouldn't be running anyway due to your other health issues, but walking and regular activity would be fine.' So I take this to mean, I've just got to deal with the pain and move on.

23 weeks old

Nola at 23 weeks with grandpa Don

Me with Embry, Me with Nola

Embry, Me, Tony, Nola
(all about about 6 months old)

My appt with the orthopedic specialist is tomorrow morning, bright and early at 8:30. I'm excited because I'm hoping they'll have a good solution as to how to fix this pain. I'm also a bit nervous because I've gotten the response 'well, there's nothing we can do, so live with it' a lot in the past and I'm really hoping they don't say that. I forgot to mention about the pulmonologist, he said that he wants a repeat of the lung function test in a few months because it showed that the rate at which oxygen is going from my lungs into my blood is 52% and it's supposed to be at 100%. He thinks it's just because the test wasn't done very long after the whole incident so things might not be up to par just yet. Anyhow, I'm also slightly concerned because now my left shoulder, left hip, right knee, and right ankle are feeling about as good as my right hip. It's all very mysterious because remember before, like back when I was pregnant with Embry, I was getting those steroid shots in my shoulder and hip? Well, funny thing is, it's the opposite shoulder and hip now. Needless to say I'm not sleeping very well. It takes about 3 hours to fall asleep and then I roll from side to side about 15 times during the night, no joke. Tony has been giving Nola her 5am feeding so I can sleep, but I change her diaper, so after that it takes me another 1-2 hours to fall back asleep. Blah blah blah. I'll try to make a post tomorrow afternoon to update on what the dr says.

Nola is getting her first tooth! I found it yesterday on 4/20 after much feeling around and staring into her mouth while she tried to push my fingers out with her tongue. It's the front bottom left one (just like Embry) and it really helps to explain why she's been so fussy for the past week. I was really hoping she didn't actually turn into a fussy baby for good because I always brag about her being the good one. I tried to get a picture, but it didn't work out too well because the flash on my digital slr broke and I can't get the normal flash to pop up on it. She's also trying to sit up on her own. She does it in her bouncer and her swing now, she tries from laying down, but can only get her shoulders up so far. Due to the teething, she hasn't been taking very long naps which makes things a little difficult for me.

22 Weeks Old

Soooo, I don't mean to sound like a broken record here but my gosh, my hip hurts! I'm not sure how I'm going to make it till my orthopedic specialist appt on the 22nd much less do all the things that need to get done between now and then. I'm sure I'll manage, but I'm pretty sure it's just getting worse. Tony told me to call the dr but I don't know which dr to call since the one who ordered the mri is the hematologist and he doesn't need to see me anymore, my primary care dr I've only met once and she probably doesn't know about the hip yet, and the people at my insurance co clinic are hospitalists so they can't do anything. Even if I did call someone, I'm not sure what I'd say anyway...'Hi, I'm in a lot of pain. Help.' Update: called to see if they could move up my appt, they said no.

I went to see the pulmonologist last week and he said 'I'd be very very scared if you had to have surgery.' So if I do need a hip replacement, he doesn't want me to go on the heparin drip (like I was in the hospital) because he thinks that might have been part of the reason my platelets kept dropping. He also wants me to get a removable blood filter in case I were to clot while I'm off the blood thinners to keep the clots from going to my heart. He also ordered an echocardiogram and a chest ct. He said that when I had the first chest ct done, it showed some other foreign objects in my lung other than the clot, but he did say that sometimes a clot can make it look like there's more junk in there than there is. So basically he wants another one to make sure nothing else is in there. Needless to say, it wasn't a very 'inspiring' appt, but I'm glad he's actually making an effort to get stuff figured out.

Nola can roll over! She went from front to back and then the next day went from back to front. Now she seems to be doing back to front a lot and gets mad when she's on her stomach for too long. Her acid reflux meds are super hard to get her to actually swallow, so I think I might call and ask for the liquid stuff. She's still spitting up as much as ever. I think I might try real baby food soon and see how that goes. Update: asked for liquid prevacid instead (after trying to scrape all the dried disolvable tablet out of her neck folds this morning).

21 weeks

The results are in: the hip bone has died. The hematologist said he thinks the bone might be able to regenerate from the inside-out, but it's not his area of expertise so he's sending me to an orthopedist. They can't get me in until the 22nd, so I guess I'll find out then what the plan of action is. The hematologist sounded like they'd need to figure out whether the bone is still sturdy enough to last or not. So at least now I know why I'm in so much pain!

We went up to Phx over the weekend for Allison's baby shower. It was fun, but Embry got sick on Sunday so we came home early. No Renaissance festival, oh well, it would have been super hot anyway. Tony's mom and sis are moving into a 2 bedroom apt in June, so I'm not sure that we'll be able to go up and visit them much after that. They should be down here for Easter which is coming up pretty fast.

Tony and I went on a 'date' to the Old Spaghetti Factory while we were up there. I was not impressed with the food, but the atmosphere was neat. Our 'homework' assignment from our counseling session last week was for Tony to tell me what he felt while I was in the hospital and for me not to say anything, so we accomplished that. I feel like a weight has been lifted now that I know what he was thinking, that was really weighing me down.

Nola is still not rolling over although I've been working on it with her, so should be anytime now! She tried rice cereal and wasn't too impressed, but not opposed to it either. She did however spit most of it up a couple minutes after I was done feeding her. Haven't seen any results from her acid reflux med yet, although it says it could take 4-8 weeks to start working. Embry is doing really good with the potty...I'd say she's pretty much potty trained, fingers crossed!