Friday's Appointment

by Pamela
(London)

Went for my appointment on Friday morning and got to see Mr W himself. He said that all my blood tests were fine so there's no infection - huge relief.

He examined my right hip and suggested I started doing one of the exercises again to strengthen the muscles on the outside of the joint. (Lie down on left side - lift right leg up vertically and hold for 10 seconds, rinse and repeat 10 times)

We discussed timing of my knee surgery which I'm happy to put off. He said that the hip would keep improving up to two years post-op and I'd get to the stage I'd forget I'd had one but I'd never forget I'd had a total knee replacement. I remarked that I'd been reading patient reviews of TKR and that about 8 out of 10 were complaining but then perhaps only people with problems write reviews?

After the appointment I took the bus to the Royal Academy's Summer Science bash as there was a stall about using light to work out why hip replacements fail. Gwyneth, who was running the stall, was very helpful and we spent about 20 minutes chatting about hips and the problems of metal on metal shedding ions. Imperial College has collected over 600 failed implants - either from hip replacement or hip resurfacing together with the surrounding tissue and blood samples. I'll be writing more about their work later on.

Up to then the day has been going really well ... and then the pain started - massive pain all over my right hip - I could barely stand up. Knowing I was going to need a taxi I tried to head out of the exhibition hall but was finding it tough going. I reached the stairs only to find my right leg totally refused to lift up. Dotting and carrying with my left leg got me to the top and a bus arrived and stopped right in front of me (thank you bus!). Two people leaped up to give me their seat ( I must have looked dreadful) and I stumbled on board and flopped down wondering (yet again) why I'm so in denial of having such problems that I never have pain meds with me!

I planned out my route home. Bus to Oxford Circus and pick up a taxi there. But by the time the bus arrived at its destination the pain had simply faded away.

What on earth was that?

Knowing I would forget the intensity of the pain very quickly I downloaded a pain diary app for my iphone and entered it up. I scored it as 8 out of 10 - probably the highest rating I can imagine using and, true to form, this morning I want to downgrade it - surely I was exaggerating? I'm making myself stick to the rating I gave it at the time.

This morning - no pain at all just a mild ache.

Any ideas what set that off?

I'm going to be spending the afternoon trying to entice people to do a sponsored abseil for a small charity I run so I'll be on my feet for a few hours. I await my hip and knees verdict on standing up.