New hippie about to start out

renee01952  suggested I start a new thread to tell people about me, although I'm not sure anyone will be all that interested. I know I'm not!

?So, about three/four years ago the occasional ache in the hip became more than a niggle so I thought I would probably have to do something about it. Long story short, leaving behind a useless GP (who I hadn't noticed was useless on the grounds that I never went to the GP before!), various bits of me started breaking down so that I started 2017 with severe OA in both hips (touch wood, the right one not so far given any problems), a touch of OA in the right ankle (not sure about the left - I have given up MRI's and X-rays on bits that don't hurt because I just don't want to know!), and spinal stenosis from OA in the spine. And gout (a few very bad flares but relatively far apart- three in four years). So 2016 hadn't been a great year and I had discussed the fact that I'd need to start thinking about the THR of the left hip - it was getting worse and worse, and treatments that worked fewer and fewer.

?Remind me never to say, "thank goodness that year is over, the next one can't be so bad"!  

?In May I had a bad attack of gout that just didn't seem to clear up. After four weeks of walking around in pain (did I mention, stubborn person? Won't give in?) I decided to go to the GP. Yep, straight to hospital, came back with a cast, crutches, unable to drive for weeks - and everyone asking how on earth I walked around for four weeks on a broken ankle! So... major panic stations for the doctors as (a) you shouldn't walk around on a broken ankle for four weeks and (b) I actually really didn't do anything at all to break it - no falls, no bangs, no traumas (which would be why I hadn't realised it was broken!). Even more perplexed doctors when a bone density scan shows that my bone density is even better than it should be at my age (a very youthful 59 tomorrow). So, never mind, it will be better before I spend my birthday exploring Mayan ruins in September....

?I'm not even out of the cast, four weeks later I stand up (that's all I did!) and it's like a hot knife has been thrust through my left hip. Ambulance, sirens, gas (that gas is great ?), and an emergency admittance to hospital for an unknown cause.

There then followed three days of hell. No, not the hip. Three days of hell with what may be the worst NHS ward in the country. Where I was routinely deprived of the pain meds that I was admitted with (in other words - the ones that didn't do too well BEFORE my hip got suddenlt worse), and where the nursing staff routinely patronise, lie to, and bully the patients. This sounds like bad news, doesn't it? It was. For the staff. Did I mention stubborn? To mention nothing of the fact that my working background uniquely qualifies me to cause maximum chaos with minimum effort in such places! Although I now have notes on my medical records saying that I am never to be admitted to or treated at that hospital again - I'll go anywhere in the UK expect there!

?After three days I was moved to another ward when they figured out the problem - osteonecrosis. It wasn't there in February. Now it is very bad. So bad that the consultant would have operated immeditaely had it not been for the fact that my opposing ankle is broken and I need it for weight bearing....Okaaay....

?Two weeks later, get out of cast, not walking good but what can you expect? Except for, something doesn't seem right. Right ankle wise. And that would explain the break - the tendon in the ankle is damaged (and I probably never had gout - it was probably ths tendon starting to go), and may need surgery but... And yes, you have got there. They can't do surgery on the ankle because I need surgery urgently on the hip!

?So here I am. I am not in Mexico exploring the ruins at Uxmal for my birthday, about which I am most p****d off! My THR is 8th November, which is the date the consultant came up with as a balance between doing it before it is too damaged, and the ankle having enough strength not to break again. I am fed up to the back teeth of crutches, which are the only thing that get me around, and not that well either now - a couple of hundred feet, and that is at a good time of day, is all I can manage.

?And I thought I was well-prepared and looking forward to it until I started reading the posts here, but having read so many tales of woe, I'm beginning to get worried! Oh, and that whole being awake when it is done thing too - that wouldn't have been my first option. Or my second... or my one thousand, three hundred and twenty-ninth....

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