Sometime before Thanksgiving of 2021, Josh's right hip started hurting. He had gotten a new pair of shoes for work and thought maybe that was making him feel off. He goes through the holidays and it was still hurting. He goes to the chiropractor on January 17th to see if he was out of line. She suggested seeing a doctor and maybe it was bursitis in the hip. He sees Dr. Padgett on January 24th and did a x-ray. The radiologist sees a condition called AVN (avascular necrosis) which is the death of bone due to a lack of blood supply. Dr. Padgett was surprised, but said it could be an old injury of some sort. He sends him to the ortho to confirm. Josh sees Dr. Linschoten at BR Ortho on January 27th. He confirms that it is AVN. It was a shock to hear!! The femoral head was dying and would eventually collapse. The only solution was a hip replacement. They started him on Mobic while he thought about what he wanted to do regarding doing the surgery soon or waiting. He wanted to wait, but the pain was getting worse and he was limping bad. He was using crutches some. They did an MRI on February 8th and it was worse than the x-ray showed. He decided to go forward with scheduling surgery. His pre-op appointment was on February 15th. After insurance approved it, the surgery was scheduled for February 23rd at 10:30 am at Baton Rouge General.
I got to go and wait with Josh after he was prepped for surgery. He was feeling nervous. The nurses were all super nice.
His doctor came in to say hello. He offered to pray and everyone in the room held hands. It was a beautiful moment. I stayed with him until they took him back.
The surgery started at 10:50 am and ended about 11:45 am. His parents, Cadie and my mom came and sat in the waiting area for the surgery. Nana, Papa and I went to talk to the doctor when it was over. He confirmed that the AVN was caused from Covid. The surgery went well. The spinal block didn't work and he was put under. Josh went to recovery for about an hour. We went to meet him in his room. He was waiting in the hall in bed talking. The nurses said he had been asking for his wife. He wanted me to hold his hand.
Soon after he started having pain. The nurse started with a pain pill, but it was getting worse. We had to keep asking for stronger medicine including morphine. It wasn't until they gave him dilaudid did he feel better. That was around 4:30 pm. He fell asleep within minutes. Physical therapy came and got him out the bed and took a few steps even when he was in pain. The night nurse told us she discovered that he did not get pain medicine in recovery, so it was a rough beginning. The night went okay. He was discharged the next day to go home, on our anniversary.
Thursday night he was in a lot of pain. The home health nurse came Friday morning to start physical therapy. After she left, we went to the ortho and they did an x-ray. Everything looked fine. They gave him two shots for inflammation and a prescription for dilaudid.
He has a titanium rod in his thigh, the ball is ceramic and then the socket is plastic lined with titanium backing with a titanium screw. This replacement should last 20 plus years.
He used a walker for a couple weeks. Physical therapy came 3 times a week for 2 weeks. He healed and recovered well after the pain was under control. After a month, he was able to do things as he felt comfortable. He went back to work 6 weeks after the surgery.
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