I went to see my orthopedist today for my four-week appointment. It's been four weeks and two days since I broke my hip. This is the second time I've seen him. (First was Friday 6/11 & Monday 6/14.) They shot x-rays, and the ortho told me the films look good. I've got some compaction, where the bone is kind of smashed into each other at the break site, shortening the neck by about .5cm, which is good I think he said. ("Imagine an ice cream cone where the ice cream fell off. You pick it up and smash it back onto the cone, so that it won't fall off again. That's compaction.") The upper screw has not backed out, nor has the dynamic hip screw (DHS) below it. However the compaction has the upper screw hanging out a little bit, with its washer loose. He showed me the two week and four week x-rays side by side, and pointed out that some gaps are filling in. He told me there's no sign of avascular necrosis (AVN) yet, which is very good news. I am still in some danger of experiencing AVN in the future. He recommended two more weeks with no weight bearing, and also to continue working from home. The concern is that BART and its steps, escalators and urine-soaked elevators are not safe for a person with a healing broken hip, on crutches. I'd agree. At six weeks I'll see him again, and he'll probably allow me to go into the office, and also to begin putting a little weight on my left leg, and progressively more each week thereafter. He also said that he'd recommend taking the hardware out of my leg at some point in the future. I was happy to hear that! I'm not sure when it would happen, and it would also mean another six weeks off the bike, but I know I'll prefer it. He said he didn't think I'd need a bone graft for the removal, that it would probably fill in fine by itself. We talked about some of the 'funny feelings' I've had, and he said that all of them sound benign. (A click in my left hip, once, removing my wallet while driving, a feeling of movement once, while sleeping, and some new pains that I didn't have before.) We also talked about how I stopped taking the calcium supplements, as well as vitamin D and magnesium, because the calcium supplements did seem to trigger afib, and he agreed to stay off them and eat healthily, with lots of dark greens in my diet. I'm doing that as much as I can. I talked about how, although I try to not place any weight on my left foot, sometimes getting up, carrying things while on crutches, getting in and out of cars, et cetera I do place some weight on my left leg, but that I try really hard not to. He said that's OK, to continue to try to keep my weight off of it for now.
I feel better, emotionally. Whew! I can see a happier future.
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