OK, Game ON

I went to my orthopedic surgeon on Friday for my annual visit regarding my hips. For those of you who don't know me IRL, I have avascular necrosis/osteonecrosis in both hips. I was really sick with my migraines about 5-7 years ago. I have had migraines since I was 15, but they got REALLY bad. I was out of work on short-term disability for 2 years and was in and out of the hospital 8 times in that 2 year span. During that time, my neuro had me on periodic short steroid dose-packs to break the cycles. I was finally able to get my migraines under control after a TON of trial and errors, but the damage to my hips were done.

I ended up fainting at home one October morning in 2006, when I was here alone. When I woke up my ankle was throbbing. At the time I thought it might have been a bad sprain, but three days of agony later, I found out it was broken. It took much longer to heal than it should have so I ended up having surgery three months after I broke it. During the recovery period, my left hip started killing me. The ortho I was seeing for my ankle at the time, blamed it on my altered gait since I was over-compensating for the ankle. It was plausible, so I waited.

I finally had to go to my PCP that summer because I was finally getting well enough to go back to work. She ordered PT and got some x-rays just to make sure that nothing more serious was wrong. She, personally, called me back the next morning to tell me that she had already cancelled the PT order and had contacted a surgeon at UNC-CH because the XRs pointed to Avascular necrosis. Basically, AVN causes the blood supply to bones in joints to stop flowing. Essentially, the bones in my hips are dying.

I was officially diagnosed w/ AVN at age 29 and the plan at the time was to treat conservatively until I couldn't stand it. At diagnosis, I was between Stage 2 and 3. Now I have progressed to Stage 4. It has really been painful for the past 6 months and has caused me for the first time to call in sick because I just couldn't walk. So at age 34, I am going to have my first hip replacement. The original plan was to get as close to 40 as possible, but it can't be put off any longer.

My only options were to:

(1) go ahead and get pregnant and have however many babies we want now

Or

(2) have the hip replacement this year and try to have another baby next year.

I'm choosing option 2 mainly because I would like to be able to easily play with my kids. I don't want to put either me or them in jeopardy because Mommy can't get up and run to save them if they run into the road. And I just want to be able to enjoy them and do everything they want me to do. I don't want to miss out on being a role-model to my baby girl. So this is for her. I want her to know that while I won't be able to play with her for a few months, but I will be able to play with her for the rest of her life.

Sorry, I know this is an extremely long post, but I felt I needed to explain how this happened. Now that I surgery is happening in four months (don't have the exact date yet), I have to lose weight and get into the best shape possible, so that the recover won't be any harder than it has to be. It will be hard simply because I can't exercise like I would want to. I'm going to try though. I don't have a choice.