Appointment went well and including yet another X - Ray, I was only there 1.5 hours.Mr Mohammed, one of the top consultants in UK, came to waiting room himself to meet me.In his consulting room he had my X - Ray lit up on the screen. I briefly glanced at it, and straight away noticed it was different from my other including my MRI scan.
He went through my things like my work, age, and my walking. Then asked me how I was hoping to benefit from anything that he was able to do foe me. Similar question asked by the previous consultant, Mr Goel, who referred me on to him. I told him that I told Mr Goel, that I like to walked 100 mile non stop and that he offered to give me a hip replacement. I said that, that had thrown me, because what was going through my mind at the time, was, why do I need a new hip when there is very little if anything in the way of athritis (previous x - rays and scan results, just months earlier). He immediately pointed to the screen and told me that my hip was severly arthritic, 80% in fact. Looking at the screen closer, I was gobsmacked, what showed as a nice round Femoral head on my previous X - rays and scan, was now rougher than a Course Alluminium File with what looked like chunks missing, but obviously broken up and still inside the Capsule.I asked him how it had deteriorated so quickly. As he hadn't seen the previous results, he couldn't answer.
He then gave me three options, I could do nothing, have another injection , or a hip replacement, saying that an arthroscopy would achieve nothing.I straight away opted for a replacement, which will take place in around 5 months time. Asking him about better pain relief, he mentioned Tramadol but didn't recommend it. Iv'e tried that before and it just spaced me out.So that's it, at least it was was a huge relief to know that I'm at last on the ladder. For some time I have been wondering why the pain has increased week by week since my Cortisone injection, when prior to that I only had a discomffort. The pain is so bad now, I'm hardly getting any sleep, limping badly and am planning on trying a walking pole but am even having to drive round to the local shop, just 300 metres away. My thinking has me now convinced that the fast degeneration is due to that injection.After searching online, I found there were warnings about results from Cortisone Injections in a nummber of patients, not all of course, and that much more research is suggested. I did find this quote, which in my case I can identify with. " The most common problem was accelerated progression of osteoarthritis (26 people), indicated by reduced joint space between the bones because of cartilage loss"