This morning I literally woke up crying over the pain in my hip and how little sleep I got last night because of it. I then proceeded to have a mild panic attack that PT wasn't going to be enough (or fast enough) to control this increasing pain - especially since I'm set to leave for a week in California on Saturday. So I dragged myself out of bed to email my rheumatologist again and see if there are any other options.
Luckily, my rheumatologist is truly amazing and managed to squeeze me in for an appointment this very afternoon. I am so, so, so lucky to have such an awesome doctor - he always manages to make time for me when I start to feel desperate. I count my blessings every time.
After a physical exam and talking to me about the location of my hip pain, my rheumatologist determined that we're not actually dealing with bursitis, as he thought before examining me. He now thinks that it is either (a) muscle strain in my groin (though we couldn't identify an event or action that would have caused such a strain) or (b) inflammation in my actual hip joint. Awesome.
Since it is not bursitis, the good news is that no one is going to stick a needle into my hip. But, the bad news is also that no one is going to stick a needle into my hip, and due to the restrictions of my pregnancy there really aren't that many options for dealing with this pain and inflammation. For the time being I'm sticking with tylenol and lidoderm patches - and resting and icing...and hoping. If I'm lucky, this will be enough to encourage the pain to die down, at least a little bit.
If it doesn't, I've been given a prescription for three days of prednisone (and we all know how I feel about prednisone), but I guess I'm happy to at least have the option if things get really bad while I'm in California. After that, if I get extremely desperate, I will have the option of vicodin - which is a drug that falls into Pregnancy Category B (meaning that animal studies have failed to demonstrate a risk to the baby, but there are no adequate studies in pregnant women). If the pain continues to increase in severity or continues to persist, X-rays are obviously out of the question but apparently we can consider an MRI.
It's good to know the options, but I must admit that none of them are particularly appealing. And I'm feeling pretty grumpy about living in this body today - where if it isn't one thing it always seems to be another.
But, here's to hoping I can somehow convince this pain to magically die down so that I can avoid having to take any extra drugs. And/or that I can at least figure out a way to sleep better tonight....
2 comments:
Hip pain can be so awful - and I imagine it's particularly bad when you're pregnant.
I'm glad you have some options, even though none of them are ideal. I hope the pain improves for you soon!!
HELEN: It isn't great - and I feel like it's only going to get worse as this belly grows!! But I just have to keep reminding myself that even though I am in pain, the baby is perfectly happy in there - kicking and growing and squirming. The doctors have nothing but good things to say about how he is doing, so sometimes that's enough to keep me going. ~;o)
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