Because Stage 4 Cancer Isn't Enough-Part 1

 

     This is a long and windy story so the skinny, metaphoric version is this...I was hit by a Mack truck, and didn't die.  The long version is this...(and it is long so I’ll post it in parts).

 


     For the past decade, or so, I have struggled with arthritis in my left hip.  Given my stage 4 cancer status, I didn't think a hip replacement was possible.  However, because I've done so well on my oral chemotherapy, Xalkori, I've been able to be pretty active...cycling, Pilates, workouts, etc.  My ongoing, progressive pain was starting to get in the way of my life.  After meeting with multiple orthopedic surgeons, including an ortho-oncologist, I was encouraged to get a hip replacement, despite my cancer diagnosis.  I ended up choosing Dr. R. because he offered a minimally invasive procedure (back to work in 6 weeks), has successfully done several friends and colleagues hips, and I liked his bedside manner.  In my first meeting with him, he asked the most questions about my cancer and explained differences in techniques he may need to consider. I was most comfortable with him.

      Surgery was scheduled for Friday, March 23rd at a large, well-known medical center and teaching hospital in Chicagoland.  Although it went well, later that day complications occurred causing the entire month of April to be a traumatic blur. 

      These days hip replacement surgeries can be outpatient procedures.  Some folks go in early for surgery, are walking a few hours after surgery and doing stairs a few hours after that.  If all goes well, they get to go home later that evening.  I was told that having metastatic cancer in my hip increases the bleeding risk during and just after surgery, AND then because I have cancer, the risk for clotting goes up. As a precaution, I was to be watched carefully by blood testing and given an anticoagulant.  I was a patient that would stay at least one night in the hospital, maybe two.

      I reported for surgery at 5:45 am.  Everything went as expected and I was in surgery by mid-morning.  While I was in recovery, Dr. R. spoke with Wynn in the waiting area.  He was very happy with how the surgery went;  I "tolerated it very well."  He told Wynn that he fitted the new hip into place and the post-surgery X-ray looked great.  Soon after I woke up, they’d get me up and walking.

      Here’s where my story goes south.  It’s such a nightmare that even as I write it now, it still doesn’t feel like my story...these things don’t happen to me.

      On my maiden walk with the physical therapist (PT), a few steps from my bed, I suddenly heard “clunk” and felt pain shoot down my thigh.  The PT asked if I bumped my walker and I said, “No.  That was my hip.  I’m afraid because I have pain now.”  She got me back into my bed and immediately called the resident who said that they’d likely need to get an X-ray, but that he would call Dr. R.  Unfortunately, Dr. R. decided an X-ray was not necessary.  My post-surgery X-ray was picture perfect and the pain I reported was likely due to the significant joint replacement surgery I'd just had.  

     The decision against an X-ray at this juncture was a huge mistake...the hugest.

      Later that day, a PT returned to my room and we walked some more.  We walked to the floor’s stairwell and she showed me how to go up and down.  The following day, after showing a PT that I could bear some weight on my new hip and could go up and down the stairs, I was sent home and a home health nurse and physical therapist were to be at my house the next day. The nurse came to check my vitals and draw a blood sample to assess the amount of blood thinners I needed to be on. The PT came to help me continue to bear weight on my new hip, and get around more and more. 

     In an effort to make a long story a little shorter, after four days at home, trying to follow the therapy instructions I was given, I realized that each day I was getting weaker. I was so weak that Wynn made the decision to have me taken to the local hospital by ambulance.  The first thing the ER physician ordered was a hip X-ray and I was found to have a femur fracture with bleeding into my hip, and my new hip was dislocated.  I was transported back to the large med center by ambulance where I was found to have a hemoglobin of 5 and I received two units of blood.  My left thigh was so swollen due to the bleeding that it looked three times larger than my right thigh.  After reversing the anticoagulant therapy for a few days and getting two more units of blood, I was back in the operating room, a week after my initial surgery, with a different surgeon.  He removed my new artificial hip, put in another one and placed five bands around my femur to shore it up at the sight of the fracture. Several days later I went to a rehab hospital where I could get PT and OT twice a day.  

     I was optimistic I was on the road to recovery, but there were more complications.  That's Part 2 of my long and windy story.

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