Don't Have a Leg To Stand On Department

"A Leg To Stand On"

A New semi regular "column" by Michael F. Nyiri

On June 13th, I posted a News And Notes Column which centered around my hip replacement. Included was this x-ray image which I was given to show to the orthopedic surgeon when I went in for a referral appointment because of the increasing pain in the area of the replacement. You can see that it certainly looks like the bottom of the three screws which attach the rotator socket to the hip bone is "loose". I even got comments to that effect when I posted the entry: "Wait a sec... it looks like there's a screw loose in both x-rays." harmony0stars . "It looks like a screw is loose in that xray. (no pun intended)" prettynosyarentu . "I agree with the above comments that it looks like you have a screw loose (literally, of course, not figuratively!)" endlesssummer128 .

My referral came through last week and I scheduled an appointment with a Dr. Green, an orthopedic surgeon, at 2:15pm on Monday, June 30th. I hauled the packet of x-rays to the doctor's office, and waited almost an hour before I was called. Seeing dozens of patients enter and leave, obviously in pain, and the lack of reading material didn't help to appease any fears I might have been feeling.

For the last couple of weeks leading up to this appointment, I've pretty much convinced myself that I was going to hear the worst possible news. That the screw in the x-ray is obviously loose, and I would need the operation all over again. The worst form of "deja vu" imaginable. I filled out six pages of paperwork, turned it in, sat down,  gritted my teeth, crossed my good leg, and waited. More patients came and went. At around 3:20, over an hour after I arrived, a heavy set nurse in blue came to the door and called my name. She had trouble with "Nyiri" as usual. I arose, corrected her on my last name (rhymes with "cheery") and walked down a long hallway to a small room where the nurse asked a series of questions. Then she asked me to take off my pants, don a pair of "hospital pants" and wait yet again.

Most of the pain I experience in the doctor's office is mental waiting for him to finally arrive. As with most of the doctors I encounter he was young enough to be my son. Dr. Green looked at the x-rays and noted in a matter of fact way that there certainly did seem to be a "screw loose".

Good news. The hip replacement lasted fifteen years. Bad News. It needs to be replaced. Even worse news. I need ANOTHER referral because Dr. Green only knows how to do "original hip replacements", not "replacement hip replacements." The referral goes to either a doctor at UC Irvine or UCLA. (Gas prices being what they are, I hope it's UCLA. Irvine is a long way from home at $4.50 a gallon!) Dr. Green told me that the replacement is possbily wearing out because of my "active lifestyle". Here I thought hiking around Los Angeles was good for me. Seems like all my hiking, and my power walk every morning, might have helped to exacerbate the breakage. I was advised not to do any exercising, and to use my cane. We don't want any more breakage.

The doctor couldn't tell me for sure by looking at the x-rays if the "loose screw" was indicative of breakage, but he said it's highly likely that the screw burst through the rotator somehow. He twisted and prodded, like doctor's do, and then he shook my hand and told me to wait for the referral letter from my insurance company. Looks like I'll be using my $1500.00 deductable (which I can't afford, but I'm not thinking about that right now, this is my health.) this year. One of the gals at work joked last year that if I needed another hip replacement I should have had it last year, so the combined $1500.00 deductable would have paid for the colonoscopy and the hip replacement. Oh well, I was hoping then that I really didn't need another so "soon". For some reason now 15 years seems like an awfully "short" time span, instead of the other way around.

I'll be updating my "progress" with this latest adventure in this new "series" of semi regular entries: "A Leg To Stand On". I'll have to come up with a graphic, of course.

I'd love to be more postive, upbeat, and humorous about this, but I'm actually rather depressed and in a bit of "limbo" right now, as I sit here at the computer typing this entry. In my conversation with Dr. Green, I told of how some friends and workmates had been telling me that currently, the healing time for a hip replacement was far shorter than the six months it took for my to heal the last time. That's true, he concurred, but since I was having a hip replacement replacement, the healing process would probably be more likely to be longer.

I work in the electrical industry as a control panel designer and manager of the department which builds the panels. When one of these panels fails test, we say it has to go back into "rework". I'm sure my technicians will find it humorous when I tell them my doctors have decided I need to go "back in for rework" on my hip.