Skip to main content

Off to a Rheumatologist!

Today at my OS appointment many things happened. I will break it down by joint. Also it was decided I need to see a pediatric rheumatologist, because it is not normal for a sixteen year old to have so many joint problems.

Left Knee
The MRI showed the kneecap is too high (which was known), general swelling of the joint, and cartilage thinning/damage (aka arthritis but no OS wants to diagnose a 16 year old with arthritis). The plan as of now is three injections of Euflexxa a week apart and see if that helps before investigating surgery further.

Left Hip
The MRI showed FAI (which I have already discussed) and a torn labrum. The labrum is a piece of cartilage that is in the hip (similar to a meniscus in a knee). The cortisone is working but no surgery will be discussed until after I see a rheumatologist, so just continuing the PT for now.

Right Hip
The OS thinks that my other hip has FAI as well as a labral tear, which he thinks is bigger than the tear in the left side. An MRI was ordered to confirm the diagnoses, so I will go to HSS for that on Monday. I should have the MRI results by next Wednesday, if/when they confirm I will get a cortisone injection in my right hip. 

I am feeling a bit overwhelmed right now with all this. Looks like I will be spending a lot of time at HSS in the next few weeks. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Swollen Wrist

This morning I woke up to a red painful swollen wrist. My right wrist was not happy or useable for the better part of the morning. Of course my mom wanted to make a rheumatologist appointment for this week but I really did not think it is worth it. Since I am now in the 2 week period before my hip surgery I can not take anything but Tylenol anyway (no voltaren or fancy cream), so there is not a whole lot that can be done. We finally settled on me going to my GP (for the 2nd time in one week as I had a pre-op appointment with him on Monday), and I took a picture so I can show my rheumy at my next appointment. I managed to get an appointment at 11AM because my GP was in the office this Saturday. By the time of the appointment my wrist looked pretty normal, although I had the picture so he could see something was up. He had it x-rayed just to rule out any issues non rheumatology related, and as we both guessed the x-rays came out normal. My Lovely Wrist this Morning I was left wit...

The Perfect Body?

Today I am going to write about a taboo subject- body image, and how living with chronic illness/pain has affected it. I get told how great my body is a lot, I am tall and fairly skinny. Not to be egotistic but I look pretty good in a bikini. I should love how I look. I should be confident of my body, after all I just bought a pair of size 2 jeans. Yet I still struggle with loving my body. My New Jeans! In middle school I thought my legs were fat, that was when I had muscles from horseback riding, today I miss my muscular legs. My thighs tend to be two different sizes, the left one is almost always smaller. The reason for this is simple, my left quad has atrophied from months of limping and being on crutches when I was 15/16, at one point it was so bad my doctor measured it and the difference was a good 2 cm in circumference. Today they are almost the same size, and probably look the same to anyone else, but to me they still look different. If you haven't guessed it yet, ...

I Am Still Me

In the past two years it seems like my medical issues have become part of my identity. I am the girl always on crutches or limping, the one who doesn't participate in gym. No one asks where I am if I am not it class, they know I was probably at a doctor's appointment or if I come in a period or two late my friends know my shoulders are probably having a bad day so I had to take a bath to get rid of morning stiffness. I am not sure when it happened but people are now more surprised when I can walk then when I can't.  Sometimes it is really hard for me to move past the medical parts of my life, because it does affect all the others, but it is important that I do. I try to do everything I used to do, which is hard but aside from athletic activities I have done a pretty good job managing. I can't always do everything I want to but I prioritize.  There are a couple things I refuse to let my health affect. Debate is something I don't let get affected, since I have ...