Newly diagnosed AVN

[Guest guest]

Hi All

I am new to this group - just found it yesterday and it has been such

a help. I raise sharpei puppies and last October while crawling over

a puppy gate, I thought I pulled a groin muscle. By Christmas, I was

in extreme pain, limping like crazy and finally saw an OS. He took

Xrays, told me to get an MRI and said there was definite narrowing of

the joint space of my left hip and that he was sure it was OA and I

would need a replacement " at some point " . I started on Vioxx and was

doing OK for about a 2 month period. I wasn't surprised and both

parents have had hip replacements and my brother has already been to

JRI and will have resurfacing done whenever he gets brave enough.

Well to make a long story short - the last few months have been

horrendous - I walked through Europe for 2 weeks and came back in

horrible shape. Can't get in and out of bed, car, etc. Have to lift

up my leg to get it into the car.... I can't believe how quickly I

have become immobilized. I got the MRI (should have done it in

December) and sure enough it is AVN. The changes on the XRay are

quite frightening (I am a nurse) and the MRI report shows " cystic

degenerative type changes in the adjacent acetabulum...collapse of

the entire weight bearing surface of the femoral head... " I know the

docs in the Ortho Group and have great confidence in my OS. I was so

set on resurfacing but he tells me it is not an option due to the

severe degeneration of the femoral head.

I'm interested in knowing if anyone else has been told this and had a

successful resurfacing done. I also read that with AVN, there is a

real risk of fracture of the femur neck due to the impaired blood

supply. Any input on this??

Carol (El Paso, TX)