Our parents were here for a fortnight. We went out visiting places and all was fine. They went home on the morning of the 16th just before I saw a client – all well so far. I took my son to the gym in the afternoon and decided to do my Pilates and physio exercises on the mats instead of walking. My left hip has always felt weaker than my right and so I try to keep the exercises up to strengthen it, even though they never seemed to be progressing much. That hip has always been a bit clunky too, and a few weeks ago I bent down to feed the cat and said to my husband there was something wrong – it felt as though it was popping in and out of the joint. Anyway, it clucked quite a lot during the exercise, but felt better once I’d finished. We drove home (in the mini!!) I went up to change out of gym clothes, bent down to take off my socks – and my hip dislocated.
It was quite a farce really. My son, who has autism, went next door to get my neighbour who is a nurse and she phoned for an ambulance. My quite small bedroom, with me on my side in 18 inches between the bed and the wardrobes and 2 ambulance personel and 2 paramedics in my room trying to give me morphine and work out how to get me downstairs, with my son carrying on as normal and getting his tea and the cat popping in to see what was going on. The concern was that, instead of 5 minutes away that day, my husband was 50 miles away and uncontactable until at least 4pm. As it turned out my son wasn’t able to get him until after 6pm. The neighbours took it in turns to come and check on him until he got home.
I had surgery on Saturday morning to put it back in and then found I had ‘bed rest’ but no explanation scrawled across my notes. I had been hoping once it was back in I was going home! Especially as I was on a general surgery ward and not orthopaedics, so no one knew what to do with me. Sunday morning I was visited finally by the surgeon who gave me the ‘good news’. Firstly because it had come out once, it would be more likely to do it again and secondly when they tested it in theatre in 2 particular positions it popped back out every time. I have an unstable hip. I saw a physio, they decided I was fine to go home but would need follow up. I was told if it came out again it would need to be a complete revision (replacement) of the hip.
Monday, we’d had supper, my husband took off my boots for me, I moved myself back on the settee – and it came out again. Almost a repeat of Friday as we don’t have a great deal of space in our living room either – too much ‘stuff’!! The ambulance crew eventually got me out and back to hospital where I spent the next 3 hours or so on a trolley in the corridor and the following 10 hours on the same trolley in a cubical. They certainly have some issues! I saw a doctor who was saying that late hip dislocation was usually down to soft tissue areas and I rather took offence (must have been the morphine!!) as I took it that he thought I hadn’t been doing any exercise with it and had allowed it to become weak (as it happens it may be the complete opposite – more of that in a minute), and they were just going to put it back in again and send me home. Not being great with pain I was rather afraid of this as it felt that it was just going home to wait for it to happen again – and in many ways it is.
Tuesday, after an hour and a half wait for morphine, I was taken to a ward and told that I was not having surgery after all that day. I promptly burst into tears – I’d certainly lost my sense of humour by then. It did mean I could be consoled with a baked potato – until Sister turned up ranting because another Sister had a go at her – I was supposed to be in theatre and couldn’t go now. A doctor had quiet clearly written in my notes ‘no surgery – can eat and drink’ (I saw the notes) but had misunderstood when I had been talking with the senior surgeon that morning and thought they weren’t doing the manipulation after all but waiting for a replacement. I finally got to theatre on Wednesday and had it put back in. The up side, if there is one, is that there was a hip specialist able to pop in and I am now under his care. Trouble is, he wanted me in hospital until MRI scans and blood tests were done and I had supervised mobilisation, and possibly a brace.
None of that was possible. On Thursday everything went wrong on the ward and they desperately needed the beds. Two hours before my 24 hour bed rest was up I was dressed and sitting in the corridor waiting for my husband to pick me up while they prepped my bed for someone else. Physio said – walk unaided, yes you can swim, do your exercises, I guess you’re fine with stairs. Consultant said – crutches, no swimming, we’ll take blood, try to keep the hip in and I’ll see you in my clinic next week. As an outpatient rather than an inpatient I’ll have to wait considerably longer for the MRI. Mmmm!
The issue it seems is indeed probably soft tissue. I had a metal on metal Birmingham Hip Resurfacing (BHR) as these were being done for younger people who were still going to be able to be fully mobile. There now seems to be some evidence that the are failing in women. The metal when used is rubbing together and producing ionisation, found in the blood and causing toxicity issues (I had other problems with nerve pain and shakiness in my arms, which may now it seems be linked) and erosion of the soft tissues around the joint. This means the hip will not stay in and I am on extra strict hippy rules – no bending, twisting, allowing less than 90 degrees between my legs and torso, allowing my left leg to drift anywhere close to the centre of my body – or it will come out. Other issues involved might be my hyper mobility in my joints and also the way it was put in in the first place. Any and all of these might contribute and my husband has written to the surgeon who did the replacements in the first place.
So my husband is doing limited hours at work. My son can’t get out except for their photography course together. I’m in a chair trying not to move and doing as much of my work as possible by e mail. The joys of the hippy journey!
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