I was referred to an orthopaedic specialist before Christmas, and this morning was the appointment.
First of all - the specialist is a lovely lady. Clearly very intelligent and on top of her profession, but also very nice and funny, so that set me at ease (I dislike doctors more than I dislike lawyers, so that was quite a trick!).
They took an X-ray in November (or beginning of December, I can't recall) that showed nothing, so it surprised me that they referred me on (I did
want to be referred on, mind you, I've just had bad luck with doctors) but I'm so glad they did. I feel a lot more confident that we may get to the bottom of this, now.
I'm going to have an MRI of the affected joint, within "a matter of weeks" (shorter than I would expect, tbh) and then they'll hopefully have a clearer picture of what we're dealing with. She gave a few possibilities, all of which are treatable with either steroid injections or surgery.
And I will continue to see her about my hip, which put me greatly at ease as I haven't often found a doctor I get along with.
She did have to pull and twist on my leg a lot (and said that movement has been restricted by a fairly minimal amount, which is good news) which means I'm in a lot of pain at the moment. Hippie had to go pick Random up from school after we got back because there's simply no way for me to walk the half-mile each way to pick him up, but some things can't be helped.
I'm currently detoxing from my regular painkillers. I take them fairly sporadically, but they stopped even touching the pain in my hip so I'm hoping if I don't touch them at all for a couple of weeks they'll come back with renewed force and tackle it for a few hours. I've been in constant pain for a long time from it, but since the power outage it's been absolutely ridiculous.
That does mean I have no recourse from the pain, at the moment, but I will ask for a massage tonight (Hippie's very good at them) and have a hot shower beforehand.
Thanks to everyone who's been rooting for me in this - your support's a tremendous help. Let's hope I'm on the way to recovery, even if it's only the first step
