Pre-op appt.

Yesterday Dustin and I drove down to Tacoma for my pre-op appointment. Actually, I should rephrase that. I drove to Tacoma and back and Dustin slept. It was a quite a long day. We left Lynden at about 8:15 a.m. and by the time I got back from picking up the girls from Mom and Dad's it was 8:20.

We seemed to just "hurry up and wait" the entire day. First, more x-rays, then talk to this person, then this person, then sign here, here and here, then go back to where you came from earlier and give a blood sample, etc. My appt. was at 11:30 a.m. and we didn't walk out of there until 3:30.

Although it was a long day, it was very beneficial. I felt better and more at ease with the surgery after my appointment then when I had arrived. Everyone was very nice and answered any questions I had. I found out that Dr. Mayo isn't going to fix my femur on Tuesday like I thought. He said he's going to look at it while he's in there and then decide. If it needs to be fixed, he would do it six months from now. I was glad to hear that because I figured one incision at a time was enough for me.

Since my pre-op I have come to the conclusion that Dr. Mayo is a rock star. I'm not joking. During my pre-op ordeal, the nurses, x-ray techs, and admission people would ask me who my doctor was. When I told them they all would say, Oh, Dr. Mayo...he's so good or he's the best or did you know that people come from all over the country to see him?
Then, I was told that Dr. Mayo's patients get private rooms after surgery. Another added bonus, right?
And lastly, this is the thing that solidified Dr. Mayo's rock star status in my eyes. I was in the waiting room waiting to get my x-ray when a woman told the receptionist that she was going to step out a minute and use the restroom outside the office down the hall. The receptionist asked her if she was a patient of Dr. Mayo and the woman said that she was. The receptionist told her that since she was a patient of Dr. Mayo's she didn't have to use the one in the hall, she could use the one right in the office. It's a small perk but I'll take it. Bathroom privileges are not something I take lightly. If I can toss Dr. Mayo's name around and can get a closer bathroom, you can bet I'm going to take advantage of it.

See? Rock star. Absolute rock star.

Five more days!!!

I only have 5 more days until my surgery and tomorrow is my pre-op appointment. Wait, what time is it? Correction. Today is my pre-op and instead of sleeping at 1:18 a.m. I am blogging. Sigh. I was sleeping. I was sleeping quite well actually, that is until Dustin came home from doing field work at 12:30 a.m. and woke me up. I decided sleep is out of the question for the next while so I thought I'd blog, read my book and then try to go back to sleep.

Since I'll be in Tacoma most of the day today, I took the entire day off at work. This means I only have one more work day left before D-day. My poor co-workers. I have a wonderful group of women that are going to fill in and do my job (not to mention their own jobs) for me while I'm gone and frankly, they are petrified. At least that's the impression they are giving me. I keep assuring them that things will be fine and they will do an amazing job but I think they still have their doubts. Do you hear that ladies (you know who you are)...you will be fine. My 6 - 8 week leave will fly by and I'll be back before you know it. :) It's so much easier to be positive when you're the one at home recovering and you're not the one stressing out. I appreciate each one of you! I'm so glad you are willing to help me out while I go through this.

I should probably wrap things up so I can try to get some more sleep. I'm sure I will have a lot more information to post regarding my surgery after my appointment today. Until then...

Eleven more days!

Only 11 more days until surgery. Yikes! I still fell as if I have so much stuff to do yet! I don't even have the hospital bed Dr. Mayo requires yet. Oh well, I'm sure everything will fall into place when it's supposed to.

Cripes! I still have to make the hotel reservation so Dustin and my parents have somewhere to stay the first couple of days after surgery. I guess I'll just add one more thing to the To Do list... It is a 3 day weekend after all.

Happy Memorial Day weekend. I'm grateful for those who gave their life for our country. Thank you to those that are currently serving and those that have served in the past.

Thwack!!

Thwack!! That's the sound of me figuratively getting hit on the head with a 2x4. Do you ever feel that way? I know I've recently felt it. Let me explain.

I'm sitting in church this morning and here's the scripture passage from this mornings sermon.

Matthew 6:25-34

"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather in to barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." (ESV)

Could this sermon come at a better time for me? Probably not. One of the things Pastor Robert said was that God uses the things that give us anxiety to draw us closer to Him. I've seen that happen in my life; not only with the anxiety of impending surgery but in other situations I've struggled with in the past.

So if you see me nursing a knot on my head, now you know why. God has once again used His Word to show me that he's in control and I shouldn't worry. Thank goodness. I think that if I were in control I would have messed things up a long time ago.

One more thing...
Thank you to all of my friends and family that have been praying for me recently. I asked that you pray because I was feeling rather nervous about the surgery, etc. and I've noticed that I'm not nearly as anxious as before. I'm sleeping better and I don't burst into tears when I have to talk about it. :)

That's all for now,
Kari

This could totally happen...

OK, so I've figured out one benefit to this whole hip surgery thing. After surgery, I shall become...wait for it...Bionic Woman. Think about it. I will have dropped one hundred grand in parts and labor into my precious hip so I think it's only fair that I get some sort of super hero skill in return. I think I will become like Superman. Wasn't he the one that was able to leap tall buildings in a single bound? That will totally be me. Jealous? You should be. I will be one happening unit.

God thing, cont.

When we last left our hero (that's me) I had just received news that my surgery was approved by the blasted insurance company. I shall pick up the story from there.

So, Keri, from Dr. Mayo's office called me exactly one week ago and confirms what I had suspected the insurance company was trying to tell me in the letter they sent. My surgery was, in fact, approved. She went on to say that she was surprised that it was approved. Apparently, they have been submitting other patients surgeries to the insurance companies and they have all been denied. Keri told me of one patient that's flying in from Michigan to have Dr. Mayo do her surgery this month. Keri said this woman is practically crippled because of her condition but her insurance company has still denied her claim. What a sad society we live in. It's a shame that an insurance company can decided what is and isn't medically necessary for a patient.

Anyway, Keri went on to say that the fact that my surgery was approved was the good news. She had some bad news as well. She said that Dr. Mayo was putting all of his surgeries on hold for awhile because he's been having back problems for a couple of years which makes it hard for him to stand during surgery. He was supposed to have back surgery a couple of different times within the past couple of years but had backed out. A surgeon backing out of surgery? Who would have thought? I guess his wife was pushing him to take action once and for all.
Keri said that they would pencil me in for August or September but didn't really know what Dr. Mayo was going to do. I asked if it was possible for him to stop operating because of his condition. Keri said it was possible but she didn't know for sure. My next question was, if he decides to stop operating, where is the closest surgeon that performs this type of surgery. Keri replied, Reno. That would be quite the quest. I can't imagine getting home from Reno after surgery. Ouch. Keri said that I shouldn't worry about that. She would talk to Dr. Mayo and see what he says and maybe, if I'm willing, he can get me in sooner. She promised to contact me by Friday with his decision.

Around 2:30 that same afternoon Keri called me back. She had talked to Dr. Mayo and was wondering if I would be available for surgery on June 2. June 2?!?! As in June 2, 2009? Yes, Keri confirmed. June 2, 2009. I weakly said that would be fine and she started rattling off information like the date of my pre-op, what vitamins I should be taking, etc. Thankfully, all of this information came in a letter in the mail a couple of days later because she kind of lost me after June 2.

So her I am now, scheduled for a surgery that I never thought was going to happen, with a surgeon that is one of 12 in the U.S., who is also squeezing me in with less than one months notice. Seriously? I don't think it has ever been more obvious to me, than with this whole surgery thing that God really does have my back. I'm so glad. Who better to have in your corner?

It's a God thing...

Some people contribute good things to luck. Others say that the stars aligned just right. Me? I say, it's a God thing. I love to look back at my life and see God doing his thing.

Take for instance, this whole surgery business. The way I've gotten from where I started back in October 2008 to where I am now has definitely been a God thing. Here's my story...

It all started back in June 2008 at Relay for Life (Go Team Lawnscaping!). It was my responsibility to walk for my team for an hour at a time a couple of times during the night. I'm not sure how many miles I ended up walking that night but around 4 a.m. I began to have hip pain. It gradually got worse and worse until I had to stop walking due to the pain. I thought this was pretty weird because I had never felt this type of pain before and certainly not in my hip. I was a bit tender for a few days following Relay but I didn't think a whole lot of it.

In August we decided to take the girls to the NWW Fair. After walking around the fairgrounds all day, the sharp pain in my hip came back and by the time we walked home, I could hardly lift my leg high enough to step up to the curb on the sidewalk. This pain lingered for a few days as well, but never really went away. It would flair up while I was sitting on the couch, laying in bed and just sitting in chair. If I changed positions it would ease for awhile. I wasn't in agonizing pain, mind you, but on a scale of 1 to 10, I was constantly at a 4 or 5.

My dear husband got tired of me complaining of my pain all the time so he suggested I see a doctor and get it looked at. At this point I was sure that there was nothing really wrong with me and that perhaps my spine was out of line and it was throwing my hips out of whack. So I decided to see a chiropractor. My chiropractor was very nice and helpful but didn't hesitate to tell me that if my pain didn't decrease after a couple of visits, he probably couldn't do anything for me and I should go to a specialist.

Sure enough, my pain did not subside so my chiropractor referred me to a muscular-skeletal specialist - we'll call him Dr. X. Dr. X said that he didn't think my pain was joint pain, he was sure it was muscular but he sent me for an x-ray anyway. The x-ray came back and Dr. X said the x-ray tech didn't see anything really abnormal in the x-ray but did think that I may have pelvic scoliosis. I'm not even sure if Dr. X even looked at my x-ray. Dr. X then referred me on to physical therapy because, as he said before, my pain was muscular. Right.

So off to PT I went. I was evaluated by a wonderful physical therapist that did an entire hip evaluation and came to the same conclusion I had. It's not muscular. She then told me that Dr. X had ordered 8 sessions of PT but since my pain was not muscular, there was no reason for me to return to her. At this point I'm feeling just a tad bit frustrated with Dr. X. Fortunately for me, God was doing his thing. I received a voicemail from the lovely physical therapist later that day. She said that she spoke with an experienced PT in her office and he subtly suggested I seek a second opinion and referred me to Dr. Thorpe.

My insurance does not require that I have a referral from a MD to see Dr. Thorpe so I was able to get into see him fairly quickly due to a cancellation. Dr. Thorpe pretty much did the exact same evaluation as Dr. X and then retreated to his office to look at the very same x-ray Dr. X had supposedly looked at. I waited patiently in the exam room until Dr. Thorpe's nurse came in and said that he would like me to come into his office because he would like me to see my x-ray.

I walked into his office and there on his computer screen was an x-ray of some poor sap. This poor sap's x-ray looked as if there were some hip issues going on. The name on the x-ray was one I was very familiar with. The poor sap's name was my own. I took one look at the x-ray and said, is that normal? It certainly did not look like what I thought a normal pelvis should look like. This pelvis looked a little bit crooked. Dr. Thorpe said that he knew right away what was wrong with me. He said it was hip dysplasia. My childhood ailment had reared it's ugly head once again. He said that any x-ray tech should have been able to see the problem and Dr. X should have caught it, too. Sigh.

Dr. Thorpe then explained the options I mentioned in my previous post. Surgery or live in pain and slowly wear away the cartilage in my hip and need a total hip replacement by age 50. He explained that this was a specialized surgery and a surgery that he did not perform. He said that there are only about 12 surgeons in the U.S. that will do this surgery and my heart sank. 12? You mean one dozen? In the entire U.S.? Oye vey. Then Dr. Thorpe told me that he knew of someone that performed the surgery. In fact, they used to be colleagues and as another added bonus, the surgeon works in Tacoma! His name was Dr. Mayo and I decided right then and there that he was my new best friend. I couldn't believe it! God and his things. :)

This is turning into a very long post and I'm not even to the good part yet! Oh well, if you've been able to stay with me this far, you can make it to the end. Go eat a quick snack or something. I'll wait.

It took me awhile to get into see Dr. Mayo because in my opinion, Dr. Mayo has an awesome schedule. Well, it's awesome as long as you aren't a patient trying to get an appointment. He only works on Tues., Wed. and Thurs. Maybe I'll pitch that schedule to my boss when I return after surgery. Anyway, I went in for an evaluation and a whole slew of new x-rays and he confirmed what Dr. Thorpe had said. I would need surgery. Keri, Dr. Mayo's medical assistant and right-hand gal, explained that she would pencil me in for March 2009. Unfortunately, Keri had some bad news for me. My insurance most likely would not approve my surgery. To make matters worse, the approximate cost of this surgery is $100,000. Gulp. Keri said that she had recently submitted two other requests for this surgery for two different patients and they were both denied right away. They had appealed both of them but only one of them was approved. So my chances were 50/50.

It took awhile for my claim to be submitted to the insurance company due to the holidays but not long after it was submitted, I received notice that it was denied. Keri had already prepared me for this so I knew that the plan was to appeal the decision if and when it this happened. The appeal process took a little longer than I had expected but late last week I received two letters in the mail from the insurance company that were post marked within a couple of days of each other. I opened the older of the two first and it was a letter stating that my original claim had been denied but they had received an appeal from Dr. Mayo. I was expecting this letter. I then opened the second envelope and inside was a letter that stated that benefits had been extended for my POA. I think I read this letter over about 10 times before it started to sink in. We won the appeal! I was shocked!

Really, this post is getting too long! I think I'll close on that high note because there still are a couple more low notes until we end on the final high note.

Until tomorrow,
Kari

Jumping on the bandwagon

Well, I've done it. I've caved. I have jumped on the blogging bandwagon and there's no turning back. I've been heard recently saying, "Why would anyone blog about a surgery? What's the point?"
That was then and this is now.
I've done a lot of research for my upcoming surgery and have found many blogs that tell the tale of ones journey through the above mentioned hip surgery and have found that many people blog in order to keep their family/friends informed of what's going on. The more I thought about it, the more I thought that was a good idea. What better way for family/friends to find out how you are doing than to read your blog?
So, here we are at my first attempt at blogging.
This entire blog will be devoted to my preparation of surgery, my surgery and my recovery. First things first, let me give you a little background as to why I have to have surgery.

Let's go back...way back to 1980 (think big hair and acid wash jeans). Within the first year of my life (I'd have to ask my mom exactly when) I was diagnosed with Hip Dysplasia. I'm not sure what my symptoms were but all I know is my hips were messed up and needed to be fixed. So I was outfitted with some very stylish braces that I wore for quite some time (again, I'd have to ask my mom for the details) until my condition improved. (I have a picture, I'll see if I can figure out how to post it within the next couple of days.) Fast forward to the year 2008 and you have me, a fairly active 28 year old that is all of the sudden feeling very much like an 80 year old due to hip pain.

To make a long story short, I was again diagnosed with Hip Dysplasia (apparently, it never really went away) and was told that I could do one of 2 things. I could go about my business just as I had been, in pain and probably need a total hip replacement by the age of 50 or I could have surgery to fix my ailment and thus postponing the inevitable hip surgery for another 30 - 35 years and be generally, pain free during that time.

It wasn't really a choice for me. I had gotten to the point to where I had chronic hip pain. It hurt to walk, sit, drive, lie in bed, etc. I felt old. I couldn't walk more than one mile without starting to limp because of the pain. I couldn't sit in one position very long. If I did something active like play softball (Go 1st CRC!!!) I would pay for it the next few days. I knew right away that I needed to have surgery.

So after a 5 month journey, I'm finally scheduled to go under the knife on June 2nd. More on that story to come.

This post has turned into quite a lengthy introduction and I have so much more to tell but I'll slowly tell my story over the next 25 days so I don't lull you into a deep sleep.

Until then...

Kari