Meeting DY

I commenced workin as a physiotherapist in a private practice at the end of 2007 where I worked along side many talented physiotherapists. When talking to colleages about my hip I was encouraged to see Mr David Young (commonly referred to as DY) who is an orthopedic surgeon at Melbourne Orthopedic group. As frustrating as it was at the time I knew that I was going to see a good surgeon when it took 8 months to get in for my inital appointment (and that was even after having some strings pulled for me because I knew people!!) I was warned by his receptionist when making the appointment that My Young often runs over time so it would be a good idea to bring a book to the appointment just in case! Well lucky I did because I was called in to see him after a mere 4 hour wait. I was introduced to a David as he was rummaging through the papers on his desk, clearly looking for something important. He buzzes his receptionist "Do you know where Meghan's file is? The receptionist walks in as says "is it the one that your holding in your hand?" To be honest I was then a little concerned.. thinking to myself "and I am supposed to trust him with my hip!?!"

After discussing my history of pain and prior surgery to remove my labrum I informed Mr Young that the main reason I had come to see him was not because I was in a lot of pain but instead because I was concerned about my future and wanted to ensure that I was doing the right things to preserve my hip joint. Mr Young took one look at my hip Xray and I could see his eyes light up with interest. It is never a good sign when a specialist who has been in the field for longer than you have been alive says "wow" when looking at your imaging.

I was immediately sent across the road for a CT scan (thankfully no injection required!!). On my return I was ushered straight back in to see DY. It was like I had some how become "dodgy joint royalty" bypassing thoes lower than me with only slightly dodgy joints!! I spent over an hour with DY as he measured important angles on my imaging and taking photos of the scans on the light box so that he could use them in his presentations to his colleagues. I was told at this initial appointment that I had a perthes like hip where the femoral head (or ball of the joint) had softened due to lack of blood supply during a critial stage of growth which eventually led to a developmental deformity. How I saw it was instead of having a nice "ball" that fit within the acetabulum (cup or socket) I had a misformed and overgrown "footy" shaped femoral head which therefore did not fit very well. Mr Young went on to describe other changes in my hip including the very shallow socket that was facing the wrong way which my abnormally large misformed femoral head was trying to articulate with and how this was a recipe for a total hip replacement sooner rather than later in my life. I was also informed that if he had met me earlier there would have been NO WAY that he would of removed my labrum as this has been shown to speed up the formation of degenerative changes within the hip joint!!

He strongly encouraged me to consider having an arthroscopic surgery which would do a few things:

1. It would allow him to look at my joint more closely to see if there was any evidence of osteo-arthritis

2. He could address the Cam Impingement or footy shaped femoral head by shaving my bone down to make it more ball like

3. He would be able to see how I go with the surgery, ie do I follow instructions and do I respond well to general anaesthetic... he informed me that If I do well with this surgery I would be a candidate for the peri-acetabular osteotomy surgery.

When I left Melbourne Orthopedic Group that day I remember feeling drained. I was now very late for work.. only by 4 hours or so.. however the girls at work on reception were very accommodating and they rescheduled my whole afternoon. I got into my car to drive home and burst into tears. I realised that despite having minimal pain I did well and truely have a hip joint that was not ideal. I felt that I had done the wrong thing by having my previous surgery to have my labrum removed despite knowing that it had solved all of my pain problems that I had earlier.

After talking to my boyfriend and mum I decided to go ahead and have the arthroscopic surgery and I booked in to have it done in November 2009.

(PS I will try and get some photos of my scans of my hip joint to include in my blog so you can have a look at my "famous" or should i saw "infamous" left hip!!)