Barb's Hip

[Guest guest]

I have been rather quiet the past day or so because I went and hurt myself

when Dad wasn't around to fix it.

Kerry and I took Sherlock to the beach on Sunday afternoon. I wore cheap

sandals so I could wade in the water with the dog. We splashed around and

ran and played and had a great time.

Then, back on the beach and out of the water, I came across a patch of

seaweed. I walked through it instead of around it and ended up slipping on

the slimy stuff. I fell face first into the sand and seaweed.

I called Sherlock over to help me up. He stood still and let me use his

shoulders to push myself up, then we walked over to the water so I could

clean the seaweed off my legs. Kerry was busy scooping the poop Sherlock

had recently made, so he wasn't exactly available to help. As soon as he

could, he took Sherlock's leash so I could survey the damage. No bruises,

no cuts, no red marks, and only some minor pain in the hip area.

About 4 hours later, after chatting on IM for awhile, I noticed that the hip

was really sore. When I tried to get up, I realized it was EXTREMELY sore.

Spent the evening resting it and Kerry got me a cane. By bedtime, the pain

was really bad and I couldn't lay down, straighten my leg, or even roll over

without pain. Kerry helped me get dressed - I couldn't reach my feet at

that point - and took me to the hospital.

We waited 3 hours at the hospital (2 in the waiting room and 1 in the ER

room) before I ever got to see a nurse. Sometime around 2:30 in the morning

they sent me in for X-Rays. Just positioning the leg was excruciating. The

X-rays didn't show any sublux or broken bones, but it did show old

calcification in the joint. The doctor assumed the calcification in the

left hip was because it was the more unstable of the two hips and had

probably had damage from repeated subluxing. They gave me codeine in the

hospital and sent me home with the recommendation to follow up with my

regular doctor and to see about having surgery later to tighten up the

joint. I told him surgery was NOT an option I was willing to consider, so

he walked out shaking his head.

The doctor also didn't want to prescribe codeine because he read some study

that said it wasn't as effective as the other drugs he wanted to give me. I

told him the other drugs made me vomit and that was the last thing I needed

with a bad hip. He insisted on giving me Percocet and an anti-nausea

medicine, but I refused. I explained that codeine has worked well for me

since I was 9 years old and I was not about to change things now. He gave

in and wrote the Rx for what I wanted and sent me home.

We finally got back home around 5 a.m. Monday morning. I spent almost all

day Monday either asleep on the couch or asleep in bed with lots of leg

pillows. I had 2 codeine at the hospital and 3 more at home on Monday

throughout the day. By Monday night, I was starting to be able to walk with

less pain and could actually move my leg into a comfortable sleeping

position.

I stayed home from work today to rest and recover and by noon today it had

gotten much better. There is still pain, but now it is only if I take long

steps or sit in certain positions. It's much better than it was yesterday.

This was the worst acute-pain incident I have had in years, but fortunately

it didn't last long. More often I get the generalized pain that is

tolerable, but annoying and it lasts for days and weeks.

-Barb