Bill with AVN

[Guest guest]

Hello All,

I'm new here. My name is Bill, I'm 40 yrs old and was diagnosed with Bilateral

AVN of the femoral heads on Oct. 15th 2010.

I have not underwent any joint replacements yet, I am still trying to perserve

them, but am losing hope in the procedures.

My left hip is the symptomatic one of the two.. I had an Core Decompression on

Nov. 18th 2010.. I was on the typical 6 weeks non-weight bearing crutches till

late December..

While on the crutches after the CD, I felt pretty good and optimistic about

the CD.. Since I have been off of them for almost 5 weeks, pain has slowly

returned to about where it was before the procedure. It really doesn't surprise

me.. My x-ray of the left hip was all ready showing some minimal articular

collapse of the femoral head. I had to at least try to save the joint though. I

just couldn't set here and wait for it totally collapse.

I had another MRI on Jan. 4th 2011, it was compared to the diagnostic MRI

preformed on Oct 15th. MRI report said right asymptomatic hip showed No Change..

Left symptomatic hip, that was cored, showed some healing... Well it doesn't

Feel like it.. I limp rather badly after I have been seated for awhile.. It

takes any where from 5 to 15 steps before I can walk almost straight again.. I

would say the pain at 1st is about a 3-4 out of 10 then maybe a 1-2 out 10 after

it loosens up or whatever it does.. I have heard others call this " start-up

Pain " .

Tomorrow I am calling the OS to schedule my CD of the asymptomatic right hip..

Like I said I have to try.. While I am visiting him on this next surgery, I am

going to talk some more about the possibilities of my future THR.. We have

talked some about it, not a lot.

I guess my 1st question to the group is...

If it were you, and you had the CD done... How long would you wait to see if it

worked before scheduling the THR? I know they say if your hip hasn't collapsed

in a year than it is sucesssful, but I am not really looking forward to it if it

does collapse.. sounds very painful

So just looking forward to your thoughts. What would you do?

Thanks for Reading, Bill in Indiana