So, you're been diagnosed with hip dysplasia and they send you off to get a "Hip Arthrogram MRI". This recently happened to me. No one told me what to expect. Here's the deal. I was sent to a hospital for this procedure. The arthrogram comes first, the MRI second. If you're claustrophobic, you might want to consider a sedative for the MRI portion of this event. First, the arthrogram. Basically, in a hip arthrogram, they will stick a needle in your hip and inject dye. First, I was stripped and put in a hospital gown. Then I had to lie down on a big table with an x-ray machine lookin' thing above it. Then, my joint was marked with a marker and the whole area was liberally painted with betadine. Your knickers will be destroyed ladies, betadine stains. Then, an anesthetic was injected into my hip area. This just pinches a little. While the anesthetic takes effect, they will mix up a little dye/lidocaine cocktail to inject into the hip joint. This injec...
Okay. I am back. I just got home a couple of hours ago and am really tired but I will try to post a scar picture tomorrow. So far, here's the deal: I remember nothing about the operation. I had an epidural and a general but woke up from the anesthesia about 30 minutes after I was wheeled into recovery. When I woke up, I did hurt. But not as much as I thought I would. I just felt cruched over to the side. They gave me a morphine shot and I was fine and chatty a few minutes later. All in all I have been in very little pain. I did have a self administered morphine drip but I only used it occasionally. I was off of the epidural and morphine on Friday and on the oxycontin and oxycodon. The first day was a bit tough, but my pain never really got beyond a 5 and usually stayed b/w 2-4 (on a scale of 1-10). Bad Stuff: The only bad part was after they took out my catheter I got a UTI and peeing was agony. That took about a day to work out. I also got REALLY nausiated on Saturd...
Well, it's been 6 months since my RPAO. Here's the update: I can now walk MILES at a time. My right side is still sore and feels kind of bruised. I have partial numbness over the entire front and side of my right hip, but this is way better than immediately post-op when I had total numbness in a large percentage of the area. My left side is still giving me trouble, but only very sporadically. In the last few weeks, my right side has also given me a bit of trouble, but not very often and not for very long. I STILL can't sleep on my right side with making the bruised feeling more intense. BTW, I have 5 screws in the right hip and my surgeon gives me funny looks when I ask about screw removal. I feel fairly certain that I will have to do the left side as well, but hopefully its not for at least a few years. That's about it. There's really nothing else to say. I absolutely advocate the surgery. I have no regrets about it. you can e-mail me with ...