I ended up with a compound fracture of my left femur, and some nerve damage that caused 'foot drop' of my left foot. I was hospitalized for just under six weeks. During that time, things got dicey when a fat embolism made its way to one of my lungs. The surgery to repair my leg, inserting a titanium rod (sometimes called a Kushner Rod) in the femur had to wait until the embolism was cleared up. Combined with an external prosthetic brace, the rod allows one to begin putting weight on the leg immediately after being discharged from the hospital. This reduces or eliminates the muscle atrophy that one would get if the leg was in a cast for a few months. I forget how long I ended up wearing the brace as I progressed from using two crutches, to one crutch, and then to a cane. I used cane regularly for quite a few years, perhaps six or seven, maybe a little more.
A couple years later I returned to the hospital to have the titanium rod removed. I was only in the hospital for a day. I had asked to keep the rod, but I never did get it. Around that same time, the 'foot drop' went away quite suddenly. I had been going for testing, and surgery was suggested to correct the nerve damage. But one day while hanging out with a friend at her job, I noticed that I was tapping my foot to music. With the rod removed and the nerve damage gone, it seemed that the ordeal was completely behind me. Or so I thought...
Not too long after I began to suffer from back pain after walking, running, etc. When it got bad enough to visit the doctor, a leg length discrepancy was discovered. My left leg was now about a half inch or so shorter than my right. X-Rays showed that my left hip was starting to develop arthritis. The doctor theorized that it could have been an unnoticed hairline fracture at the time of the accident. I was measured for a prosthesis (a lift that fits inside my left sneaker) and the back pain did go away. But at that time, the orthopedic doctor told me the progression I should expect. He said I'd be fine for a while, perhaps needing an aspirin or two now and then. After that, I will likely switch to the stronger OTC meds for more frequent and severe bouts of pain (at the time Ibuprofen was the drug that you no longer required a prescription for). He said the next phase would be that I would end up taking perhaps twice the listed dosage on a frequent, if not regular, basis to deal with the hip and leg pain as the hip deteriorates further. After that, prescription pain killers. This is the phase I have been at for the last three years. My regular doctor had tried to prescribe anti-inflammatory (NSAID) drugs like Celebrex, but they barely took the edge off the pain, let alone make it go away. So the last three years, I have been taking Vicodin aka Hydrocodone. Not every day mind you, just when the pain gets past a certain threshold. It gets tricky now and then, deciding whether or not to take the opioid. Some days, I wait too long and end up 'chasing the pain'. When that happens, even taking the max dose of Vicodin does little more than soften the edge of the pain. The last phase as you can guess is that I finally opt for the hip replacement surgery. Why not just get it done years ago you ask? The replacements wear out, and if I were to have had it replaced when first discovered I probably would have had it redone once or twice since then. The doctor years ago suggested I wait until I can't deal with the pain any longer.
And that's almost where I am now. I saw a specialist at Stanford University Hospital a couple times the last two years. The bad news he gave me last time was that my hip is getting near a point where the damage will make the surgery and recovery more difficult. But I am still thinking of the logistics of being out of work for a couple months, getting around immediately following the surgery, and other related issues. Then again, the increased pain has had other effects. I'm less mobile these days, and that's causing a bit of a weight gain issue. Of course the gain in weight makes it more painful to be mobile, which goes back to the beginning of the cycle. When will I get my hip replaced? I'm not sure, but at this point I know that I need to pull the trigger sooner rather than later.
