Today was my appointment with the new orthopedic surgeon. (He's not a new surgeon...he's just new to me!) There was a lot of standing around looking at xrays and scans, discussion, consultation with other docs, fresh pictures, more talk.

I think where we landed was that there are a couple of things he wants to try before resorting to the major revision of my left hip. He suspects that part of my problem could be helped by some physical therapy to strengthen the muscle tissue surrounding the hip. That tissue was obviously sliced through to get to the hip in the first place, and although it will never be the same, we are going to work to, as the Bible says, "strengthen that which remains."

The other problem, the unrelenting pain in my thigh, may be helped by a less invasive operation called a strut graft. This would be accomplished using (pardon me if this is TMI) "donor" bone from someone, as the doctor put it, who doesn't need theirs any more. 'Nuff said.

The problem is that this doctor is the only one here who does strut grafts and he is deploying to Iraq in May and is booked pretty solid until then. So we will look for a place that I can be "worked in" (don't you love a term like that for surgery?)so I don't have to wait until the fall.

I'm relieved that I'm not facing an immediate new hip replacement. Given the reality of how long I've dealt with the pain, I'm pretty sure it's not just going to go away, so I'm glad to know we might have an answer that's less risky and will mean less down time. So thank you for praying, and you can keep praying that this will return me to a place of not having to make life/activity decisions based on how much my leg is hurting!

Labels: Health