Extra Hardware

I forgot to mention this in my last posts...

It seems that I have a little bit of extra hardware in the PAO hip. When I went in to Mayo's office in July, I got to see the x-rays of my hip post-surgery for the first time. Sara stuck the x-rays on the light up board thingy (I'm sure there's a medical term for that thing) and she pointed out each of the 5 screws that were now holding my bones together. That in itself is a weird thing to see but while we were counting the screws, I noticed that there looked like there was a tiny, one inch screw toward the top of my pelvis that seemed a bit out of place. I asked Sara what that was and her response was "Oh, that? That's a drill bit." Gulp. "A drill bit?!?!", I ask. "Yes", she said nonchalantly, "It must have broken off during surgery."

Yipes. It wasn't funny at the time because I was a little freaked out but after the appointment my husband and I were talking about it and we were both picturing Dr. Mayo drilling into my pelvis, cursing because he broke a drill bit and then saying something like, "That's the third one this week! Cheap medical equipment..."

OK, this may not be funny to you but you've not met Dr. Mayo. I'm not sure he's one to show a lot of emotion. He's pretty even keeled and consistent - not to say that he's not kind, because he is. Anywho, my fellow Dr. Mayo hip chicks probably know what I'm talking about.

So now I'm walking around with 5 stainless steel screws and a broken drill bit in my hip. I know what's going to happen when I go through airport security in March - it's not going to be the screws in my hip that set off the metal detector, it's going to be that bloody drill bit!!

I'm healing!!

OK, so it has taken me awhile to post my results of my last follow up with Dr. Mayo. :/ I saw Sara, Dr. Mayo's PA, because Mayo was on vacation (or something like that) and she looked at my x-rays and said my joints looked awesome. I'm so glad I seem to be healing just like I'm supposed to. I'm officially 5 1/2 months post op and I still have a little bit of pain when I lift my leg/knee up while I'm standing but I can definitely tell that things are getting better.

During my appointment I begrudgingly told Sara that I've been playing volleyball for the past couple of weeks and she kind of gave me a look. I told her that I was being very careful and wasn't doing too much jumping around. She said that as long as I limited my jumping, I should be OK. I wonder if Mayo would have said the same thing? Fortunately, she gave me the OK to play softball in the summer. Hurray!! It still feels like I have a hitch in my giddy-up when I run so I hope to hit the gym within the next few weeks and try to work out the kinks.

I don't have to go back see Dr. Mayo until my 1 year post-PAO anniversary in June unless my right hip starts giving me troubles but so far, so good.

I plan on traveling to South Carolina in March for a friends wedding and I'm wondering if I'm going to set off any alarms with all the hardware in my hip? I should probably ask Mayo's office about that prior to my vacation, right? :)