Finally got my 16 month post-FVFG follow-up yesterday in NYC. I had an MRI done last week and brought it to my appointment. My surgeon said the MRI doesn’t look terrible, and the hip’s head isn’t completely collapsed. He said my hip is still has pockets of avascularity, but there is a tunnel of life going through the hip, if it were completely dead and collapsed, I wouldn’t be able to stand. The increase in joint/arthritis pain is due to the fact that I’m using it so much more. He said “unfortunately we’ve seen what the biology can due, and since it’s not adequate, we have to think about other things,” and referred me to a hip reconstruction specialist.

Had my 9 month follow-up appointment down in New York City on Monday.

I brought down a copy of the MRI I had done 2 weeks ago. He and two other surgeons were pleased with what they saw. There is an increase in blood flow to the head of the hip, and the cartilage on the ball is still not peeling off.

Read more…

I had my 6 month follow-up appointment last week down in NYC. My doctor took a look at my MRI and said things looked great and the hip was healing nicely. My level of pain is normal, but should subside with physical therapy. And the best news of all… I’m officially weight-bearing as tolerated! I can walk!

It is now time to move onto the next step and make my leg strong and usable again. I am going to physical therapy twice a week and doing exercises at home the other five days a week. I also rejoined my gym yesterday, I can’t wait to get back into shape.

Had my 5 month post-FVFG followup at Boston Medical Center a few weeks ago. They took another set of X-rays and compared them to the previous set taken the month before. The doctor said that there were no changes, which isn’t a good or bad thing, it just means that there were no changes significant enough to be seen on an X-ray. I am getting another MRI tomorrow morning, which I will bring down to my 6 month post-FVFG followup in NYC this weekend. My doctor in NYC hopes to see enough progress made in the head and neck of the hip to let me walk unassisted. I’m not getting my hopes up, but this could be the light at the end of a long tunnel.

It’s been 3 long months since I was operated on at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. A lot has changed in the past few weeks. The hip doesn’t hurt like it used to. When I’m relaxing, it doesn’t hurt at all. I take Motrin sparingly, almost exclusively at night.

Until this point, I was on a non-weight bearing status, and was desperately looking forward to a change. Well that change finally came this past week at my 3 month follow-up in NYC. The surgeon looked at the film from an MRI I got last week and said things looked great. He was able to show me where the new bone graft was integrating with the old hip. He said I can start putting weight on my leg, starting with 30 lbs. I’ll slowly increase the weight on my own over the next 3 months. Hopefully in September I’ll be able to walk unassisted and never have to use crutches again!