Not having a good week here. Skip to end for current status after my long medical grumble which is indeed a major challenge 😄
All going well up until Tuesday; did my normal dog walk/Jillian routine on Monday with no ill effects but by Tuesday I was having pain in my right hip (what I call my ‘good hip’ because it was replaced with a shiny new one a couple of years ago!)
I thought it may be because I am really feeling the arthritic pain in my left hip (the one that still needs replacing) so that may be causing problems with my gait and consequently putting a lot of strain on my right hip. So I just did a gentle flat walk on Tuesday with the dogs and then 20 minutes of yoga. Things went very much downhill after that and I could not bear weight on my right leg without horrible pain; I was concerned I was really doing some damage if I did.
I had already made an appointment (last week) at my GP for next week to discuss my left hip, but Tuesday evening pain in my right hip/leg was so bad I called 111 who told me to go to A&E. Roads were all badly flooded around here so did not fancy doing that trip in the dark and rain (I mean, I wasn’t dying, just in pain) so they said they would get someone medically qualified to call me back. Couple of hours later a paramedic called, did not think it was serious and advised me to see GP next day; he said he would make sure I was on the GP’s call list for the Wednesday morning.
This is when it got a little bit farcical; GP called first thing (when I was in the bathroom!) and left a message that said as I had an appointment next week already, they would just make this a double appointment so I could discuss my left hip in detail! So we were now in the realms of Chinese whispers and confusion of hips, which took two phone calls and 3 receptionists before I managed to make clear what the problem was. The upshot being the practice said ‘come in straight away’, which I did, on crutches (which DH liberated from the attic) and they then sent me to A&E for an xray, concerned my right hip prosthesis may have shifted (it’s rare, but does happen), or that I have a stress fracture. ‘Go now, while it’s quiet’ she said...
6 hours later….
Had an xray, bloods etc. but not seen by an orthopaedic doc, just the junior doc in A&E. He looked at my hip but did not do any poking, prodding, or manipulation, did not check range of movement, nothing. In his opinion xray ‘looked fine’, just go home, rest, take painkillers, come back if it doesn’t settle. White cell count elevated but not concerned by it. I probably should have pushed for a second opinion but I was tired and starving and just wanted to get home.
So here I am, Saturday morning, not any better but pointless worrying about it or doing anything about it as nothing happens in the NHS at weekends anyway.
I’ll call my GP practice first thing Monday if no improvement but I really want that xray looking at by someone better qualified at least.
My first instinct may be right; I may have done some soft tissue damage due to my gait being unbalanced (muscles/ligaments/tendons, who knows). That will get better eventually and I know how to deal with that, but I am not completely reassured that there isn’t bone damage.
Managed to weigh myself and I’m at 61.8kg, just over a kg off my pre-Christmas low, so things were going so well! I’ll have to be really careful now as I have no exercise calories to rely on 🙄
Thank you if you got this far!