... but I hope everyone had a safe and memorable New Year. I've been busy, getting things together for doctor appointments, and dealing with hip and sciatic pain. For those of you who have never had a sciatica problem, there is no comfortable position to be in, period. It hurts to walk, it hurts to sit, it hurts to lie down. Being on your feet is the least uncomfortable, but with the problems in my left hip, I'm kinda damned if I do, and damned if I don't. At this point, even Norco is having a minimal effect, and I'm taking 1.5 to 2 caplets every four hours (when awake). I took some at 3am this morning, but only because I was up to pee... I slacked off on drinking water, and my kidneys were complaining, so I'm back to 48ozs a day; my body just isn't used to that much water, and I end up having to "hit the head" in the middle of the night... so I used the opportunity to take an extra caplet.
Fortunately, the sciatic problem will start to go away after Monday, January 11, 2016, when I take another round of epidural steroid injections, and the impinging disc will shrink back to where it's off the sciatic nerve. I'm really looking forward to the "lidocaine honeymoon," or the time when the numbing agent for the injections makes things not hurt for a few hours. This is becoming a ritual, of sorts, on the day I get my injections I am supposed to "go home and rest" (doctor's orders). Lately, I've taken to napping in the living room, while Mary goes out and runs errands, etc. I put the TV on something that takes very little brain action to watch (reruns of Futurama and Simpson's, golf, football -- if the sound is down -- and stuff like that). Just nothing with shrill voices, or people arguing (sorry Fox News). Passive stuff, old movies, things I've seen a thousand times (except Spaceballs, that's only for times when my girls and I can watch it together). I doze, rather than fully sleep, but I get into a fully relaxed state, and if 30 to 60 minutes happen to slip by, no biggie, because I will sleep pretty well the night after a "procedure".
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I'm going to try to cram in as much golf as I can, since I will have my hip arthroscope on Friday, and I don't know when I will be able to swing a golf club again. The PA at Summit Orthopedics thinks I could be walking with a cane, or at least a single crutch, by the time I have my follow-up on the 28th. I hope he's right, or even real close. By the time we go to Scottsdale, for Spring Training in March, I should be pretty mobile.
MY goal, which may be different from their goals, is to be playing golf again during the month of April. Not April 1, or any specific date, just sometime in April. Heck, at this point, not having actually had the surgery, I have no idea how I'm going to feel afterwards. I know it's going to hurt, any time one's body is invaded by foreign objects, the body responds with pain. The PA said that they would be stretching my left leg in order to create a working space for the arthroscope, and that I might have some residual sciatic pain. That will be different, since my current bout of sciatica is centered on the right side. I plan to start playing with a cart, for a while, and walk as much as I can without having to push/pull/carry my clubs. When I am comfortable enough to play nine holes on foot, I will start pushing a hand cart. Ultimately, I'd like to be back to walking the full 18 holes (with clubs) by my birthday in mid-July.
As for the surgery, I'm a little apprehensive, mostly because of the pain. I have full faith in my surgeon, Dr. Hunter Greene, so there's nothing down that line. At the same time, I am really looking forward to the surgery, mostly because it's going to, eventually, take my hip pain away. I've been living with this pain in my hip since October of 2014, I reported it to my Primary Care doctor in November, and again in December, and having an MRI done on the area in January of 2015. At first I was concerned that the pain might be a worsening of the A Vascular Necrosis (AVN), a condition I was diagnosed with earlier. AVN, simply put, means the top of the femur (which forms the ball of the hip joint) has a 6.5cm dead spot on it. When it was diagnosed, I was told that I would have symptoms of pain on the inside of the hip, that would indicate a potential failure of the femoral head. When my pain first started, it was on the inside of the hip, actually just below and to the left (my left) of my... well, you get the idea...
It's kind of like being poked, repeatedly, with a stick with a dull point on the end, right on the inside of the left hip. It's not, exactly, an unbearable pain, although I've had it bring me to my knees when I wasn't careful walking on a downhill slope, or going down stairs. Going up isn't exactly a "walk in the park," it hurts to do that, too, but it's particularly painful going down. I've taken to doing a side-step to come up and down my driveway. All the folks at Summit Ortho say that pain will be gone after all is said and done, so there's a light at the end of this pain.
I've always thought that a surgery would be a terrible way to start the year, but this may actually be a good thing. I hope...
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