Squashing my bible bump the modern way, surgery

Today I met with my hand and wrist Doctor, Dr. Shieu.  This is the fourth time meeting with her. I have been having pain in my wrist off and on for several years.  It is just in the last couple of years that the pain hasnt gone away and has gotten worse.  The pain in my wrist in hand makes my hand stiff and hard to use.  It is extremely difficult to pick up small things like my contact lenses, or pick up a puzzle piece.  Driving is difficult to because it is hurts to grip the steering wheel and chopping food with a knife hurts.  Being in pain sucks and being in pain that limits you sucks even more.  However, my wrist pain is NOTHING compared to my hip pain.   Unlike my hip pain, my wrist pain is something I could live with but I dont want to live with it.

I dont want the pain in my wrist to get worse or develope arthritis like what happen with my hip.  If I can nip this thing in the butt now I think that is better.  That is why Dr. Shieu and I decided to go ahead with surgery.  She recommended I get a second opinion before I go ahead with the surgery and told me there is not a 100% guarantee that the surgery will work.  I like Dr. Shieu; I feel she has my best interest at mind. 

This is how my surgery will work. I will be put under and my arm will be tied down.  First, to address the hand pain, my tendon in my hand will be released.  An incision will be made in the crease of my palm to get to the tendon.  There may also be a cyst in my palm so that will be cleaned out as well.  Next to address the wrist pain. My cyst is very small and located in my wrist.  Dr. Shieu wasnt sure such a small cyst was causing my pain, but she noted that my wrist are very small so it was a good possibility.  Dr. Shieu will make a horizontal incision on my wrist. That incision is going to be cute huh?  The suicidal emo look was never really my thing. The cyst is really close to an artery so she may not be able to remove it but she is going to try.

blue dot is the cyst, red is incision line

Dr. Shieu recommended that I have this hand and wrist surgery before my hip surgery.  The recovery time will be one month and will not be too hard of a recovery. After one month I will be able to use my hand again to support myself with my crutches and with my cane.  If I have my hip surgery first, I will have to wait 6 months to a year to have my hand surgery because I will need my hand to use my crutches.  I am going to talk to Gavin about this surgery and I will let you all know what I am going to do.  I have to fit this surgery into my life somehow.  I am so busy going to doctors appointments for my hip and I want to get my hip surgery settled as soon as possible.  I wont be able to travel to doctor appointments for that one month, I will have to stay local.

Target Haul

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When I am having a good hip day one of my favorite things to do is go shopping.  And one of my favorite places to shop is Target.  I enjoy shopping at Target not just because of their awesome power carts and abundance of handicap parking places, but also because of their products and prices. Target has everything from groceries to clothes.   Because Target has power carts that means I can do all my shopping by myself.   Not to mention, after writing a letter to Target telling them about how I had been discriminated against at a Target store numerous times, I havnt had a problem since.

I love to shop at Target for basic clothes like tanks, tees, leggings and underwear.  They have quality products for great prices.  I dont like to have a lot of clothes because it is hard for me to keep up with laundry.  Therefore I just have a few basic clothes that I wear over and over again.  That means I need quality stuff.  Target has these long and lean tank tops and I wear one everyday either as tank in the summer or as an undershirt in the winter.  Target just happen to be having a $5 sale on their long and lean tanks so I grabbed two.  One in white and one in green.  I bought the tanks in a size xs, smaller than I usually wear,  because after a few washings they stretch out a little.

Me in my Target Tank and new Target jeggings.

The next thing I found at is $10 Xhilaratinon jeggings.  I love jeggings because they are so comfortable.  I hope skinny jeans never go out of style.  On my petite figure skinny jeans make me look taller and leaner. Another reason I like jeggings is because they look like jeans but are stretchy.  Most days I am heading out of the house for doctor appointments.  I dont really want to look like I am heading to the gym everyday, but I need to be wearing clothes that are stretchy.  At my doctor appointments, the doctor wants to poke me, prod me, and move my leg in every direction.  If I am not wearing stretchy pants I will need to put on an ugly hospital gown for my examination. 

New jeggings from Target

I also like to buy my bras at Target.  Fancy huh?  Gilligan O'Malley bras are well made and affordable.  They are comparable to Victoria Secret bras for a fraction of the price.  I discovered Gilligan O'Malley bras after I lost 10 lbs and went down a cup size.  I need to throw out all my old VS bras and couldn't see spending hundreds of dollars to replace all of my bras.  I needed to find a bra that came in a band size 32 which is a little harder to find.  A lot of brands dont carry a 32 band size.   Gilligan O' Malley has bras in a 32 band size, last just as long as VS bras and offer just as much support and comfort.  The only downside is that Target bras dont offer as many styles, but they do have a good selection of styles ranging from plain to lacy.  This time I bought a $12.99 pushup bra in navy blue that is one of the more plain styles.

Gavin found this cute Sprite shirt.  He wanted to copy me after I got my super awesome Cherry Coke shirt.  His Sprite shirt was $7.  We look cute when we wear our soda pop shirts together.

Gavin's Sprite shirt from Target

I got this from Kohls, not Target

That is all the clothing I picked up now I will tell you about some of the products I love to snag at Target.  First I will tell you about this Stainless Steel cleaning product by Method.  It is non-toxic and made in the USA.  It also cleans granite countertops.  I have to polish my stainless steel appliances everyday because stainless steel picks up every fingerprint.  It is easy to polish my fridge, dishwasher and oven with this product.  It only takes a couple of minutes.  This product is about $6.

The next thing I want to tell you about is a bathroom cleaning product.  It is by Seventh Generation.  Seventh Generation makes products that you can trust made from natural ingredients.  I spray this around the tub and toilet every other day and I dont have to scrub it or even remember to rinse it.  This bathroom product is made from natural ingredients so you can even use it on surfaces that food will be on.  Once a week I use it to give my bathroom a good scrub and I have a sparkly clean bathroom that I can be proud to show guests.  This product is about $6.

My last Target must have is a box of alcohol swabs by Up & Up.  I am a germ freak.  I love germs and I hate germs.  I also love to kill germs.  I keep these alcohol wipes in my vanity to disinfect my makeup everyday.  I wipe down my foundation bottles, brush handles, eyeshadow containers, and concealer. My skin is acne prone, but since I started this routine I havnt had a pimple in months.  I also keep a few wipes in my purse to wipe down nasty things like the car steering wheel and shopping cart handles.  Another thing I frequently use them for is wiping down books.  Books are germy little things until I get my hands on them.

That is it for this Target Haul.  Until next time my hippy peeps.

3rd Opinon from Dr. Diab

 My blog this week is a little boring so here is the short version:

Dr. Diab says I need a surgery to address the impingement.  He would do an open surgery.  He would not recommend a surgery to address the dysplasia because of how much arthritis I have and how difficult the surgery is.  I have a lot of arthritis in my hip and therefore I will probably not feel 100% better after surgery, but I will have a marked improvement.  Now I have to decide which surgeon to do the operation.


Today I met with another surgeon for a 3rd opinion about my hip.  I had to drive into the city for the appointment but it was worth the drive.  Online, there are a couple of support groups for young people with hip problems.  Dr. Diab's name kept coming up.  He works especially with children and specializes in spine and hip surgeries, especially hip dysplasia.  A quick recap:  I have 2 separate hip problems.  One is a femoral acetabular impingement (FAI), which is bone hitting bone, and the other is hip dysplasia, the hip socket is not shaped right.  Dr Diab confirmed again that I have hip dysplasia and said he could do an operation to correct the dysplasia but would recommend against this surgery. This type of surgery is too aggressive.  Dr. Diab also reiterated that I have a lot of arthritis in my hip.  Because of the years of wear and tear, and inflammation my arthritis is pretty bad. Because of this, even impingement surgery would not take all the pain away.  Also, Dr. Diab is the second surgeon to tell me that I should have never had had my first surgery to correct my labral tear since the tear was caused by my impingement.

Okay, I just want to say that I know I cant live in the past, but I am really p$ssed off that I never had insurance as a child so I could have taken care of this sooner before the arthritis set in.  I am also angry about all the "poor people" doctors that I saw, before I got insurance, that dismissed my pain and didnt refer me to a real doctor.  And finally I am angry at my first surgeon for giving me so much hope that my first surgery would correct my problem and get rid of my pain.  She just caused more pain and more arthritis. Now that I got that off my chest, I can move on.

Normal Hip

 

my hip, not enough space on top, not enough coverage around bottom of femur

my hip should look like, the black triangle is a shaved down femur,

Dr. Diab said he would recommend a surgery just for the impingement.  It would be an open procedure because he doesn't do arthoscopic surgeries.  He wants to be able to see everything and take out enough bone.   I felt vain but I asked him about the scar.  He said it would be about 4 to 5 inches across the top of my thigh.  The scar would be covered by reasonable underwear and swim wear he said.  I guess my underwear and swim wear isnt reasonable, haha.


I felt very comfortable with Dr. Diab.  He was patient and answered all my questions and explained my condition to me in a clear way.  I would feel comfortable having the operation with Dr. Diab even though it is an open surgery.
He is a respected surgeon, has excellent bedside manner, and is in network for my insurance.
My other options for surgeons are:
Dr. Sampson -  The best arthoscopic surgeon.  This means I would not need an open surgery.  He has great bedside manner and is one of the most sought after surgeons for FAI in my area.  However, he is not in network for my insurance.  This means I would have to pay cash for the surgery that can be upwards of $50,000.  My insurance will reimburse me 80% but 20% of $50,000 is $10,000 out of pocket.


Dr. Safran- Another respected arthoscopic surgeon in my area.  He has performed this surgery a lot and is in network for my insurance.  The downside is, is that he has horrible bedside manner (not just with me but I have read about other patients with FAI having similar experiences with Safran.)  Dr. Safran may be able to perform a perfect arthoscopic surgery, but what if something goes wrong and I need to talk to him.  Talking to him will be a pain in the butt with his bad interpersonal skills.  He doesnt really listen to me or explain things clearly and just keeps telling me to go to physical therapy.  I always feel rushed when I have an appointment with him even though I will wait 2 hours to see him.  I feel as though he dismisses how much pain I am in.

Dr. Hughes- This surgeon is younger than Safran but good friends with Safran as well.  He said he has performed this surgery many time and had done revision surgeries for patients.  He is in network and has really great bedside manner.  I didn't feel rush when I met with him.  However, he is younger than the other doctors I met with.  Maybe he doesn't have as much experience.


I will have a lot of thinking and discussing to do with my family in the next month.  I am so glad I have Gavin with me to help me through this. My biggest concern is that the surgeon does not take out enough bone with this surgery and then I will need a revision surgery.

Put cha stunner shades on

When I leave the house I feel like a celebrity minus the millions of dollars in endorsement contracts.  I feel like every five minutes someone stops me to talk to me.  People are really strange.  They stop to ask me, "what is wrong with you?  What did you do to yourself?  Were you skiing?"  It is weird to me that people feel comfortable asking me private medical questions about myself.  I dont ask strangers "OH, is that a herpe on your lip?" haha.




The most bizarre thing that happen to me was when someone wanted to take a picture with me and my crutches.  Seriously?  Another time, while I was in San Fransisco City, a woman asked me if I was at Redwood City Costco last weekend (about 40 minutes away from eachother).  She said, "I just knew it was you. I told my husband it was you and he didnt believe me.  Now I can tell him I was right."  I totally felt like a celebrity sighting.

However, unlike most celebs, I am not making any money off of my fans.  Therefore I have very little motivation to smile and be nice to so many strangers each day.  I know people are well meaning and just curious, but it is really exhausting to stop every five minutes, smile, and say, "oh, i had surgery."  Then the stranger will proceed to either tell me their life story or ask me even more personal and invasive questions.  "How long have you been in a wheel chair?  When will you be better?  What do you do all day; are you bored?  You should be eating [this thing]."  The list goes on.... and on..... and on..... and on.   It is super annoying.

These incidences happen ALL THE TIME.  And frankly I don't have time to stop and talk to each curious stranger I meet.  My daily activities such as cooking, cleaning, getting dressed, showering, shopping already take four times as long as a non disabled person.  Not to mention I have doctor appointments four days a week that take up a lot of time.

So what do I do?  I put my STUNNER SHADES ON!  It is seriously like magic.  I wear my $5 sunglasses and people rarely talk to me.  And if someone tries to talk to me I can totally pretend like I didn't see them.  So I wear my Stunner shades a lot, even when I am inside (just like celebrities do).  Luckily I live in California and it isn't quit so different to wear sunglasses all year 'round and even indoors.  It really makes going out of the house easier and less time consuming with my sunglasses on.  Hopefully I can get better sunglasses soon though because I cant see a darn thing out of my cheapo glasses.  I have really bad night vision.  My insurance pays for part of the price of designer sunglasses if they are prescription.  Getting designer glasses so I can see when I where my sunglasses is on my to do list.  I just have to convince Gavin HE needs new prescription sunglasses and then we can go together for an eye exam.

Everybody take a cue from me, and if you don't want to chitchat with strangers, PUT YOUR STUNNER SHADES ON!  Even indoors. :)

Handicap parking!!

Yesterday I received my handicap parking permit.  You see it is temporary because I am going to get better someday.  When I asked Dr. Hughes for a handicap parking permit he said "No.  You're too young for that!"  I started to say "I know but it is hard...."  Then Dr. Hughes started laughing and said, "Of course I will give you a handicap parking permit."

Dr. Hughes was just joking.  People on the street stop me all the time and tell me I am too young to be disabled.  I think Dr. Hughes probably knows this because most FAI patients are young.  I like that he uses it as a joke.  Because he understands that you are never too young to have FAI.

Having a handicap parking permit means I can go anywhere by myself.  Even busy downtown areas like San Francisco.  I actually have a doctors appointment in the city next week and I have been worrying about parking.  Usually, I dont go anywhere without Gavin to drop me off at the front door.  This permit really means freedom for me.  I dont have to drive around the block for 20 minutes finding a parking spot close enough that I can walk!!!




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Second Opinion from Dr. Hughes OS

Today I saw Dr. Hughes for a second opinion on my hip.  The first thing he says is that he is good friends with Dr. Safran and trained  under Safran.  When he said this I though "oh great, theyre going to team up on me." (Dr. Safran doesnt have good interpersonal skills and is kinda  a know-it-all).  To my surprise Dr. Hughes had great interpersonal skills and was able to clearly explain my condition to me.  Dr. Hughes said I had a CAM and PINCER impingement. Dr. Safran said I only had a pincer impingement.

I have a mixed impingement

Dr. Hughes showed me the impingement on the MRI and it looked pretty obvious to me.  This is something I was born with and no amount of physical therapy will make the pain go away.  I need an operation. I should stop physical therapy now because it is hard to get stronger when I am in so much pain.  I should concentrate on physical therapy after another operation.  In other words, I dont need to get stronger before the next operation.  He suggest I have an operation as soon as possible, meaning this week.  I told him that I would think about it.  That is a lot to take in. 

Now, I have a big decision to make.  Should I have immediate surgery with Dr. Hughes?  He studied under Dr. Safran, is easy to talk to, listens to me, and has experience with this condition.  However, he might not be as experienced as Dr. Safran.   Or should I live with this unbearable pain another few months and hope Dr. Safran will agree that I need surgery?  Dr. Safran is suppose to be one of the best surgeons in the country, but his interpersonal skills are not that great and he doesn't seem empathetic to my pain.  For example he wouldn't give me a referral to a pain management doctor.

I am going to talk it over with my family and make a decision soon.

"
Also, I asked Dr. Hughes what the success rate is for this surgery and he said "[One study] published that the success rate is 85%, but.........."  When he said "but", my heart sank.  I thought he was going to say actually it is much lower than that.  He said, "but, with young patients it is actually higher than that."  Higher than an 85% success rate?  This put me on cloud nine!  I had delusions of having my life back.  Being able to go to the mall, walk up stairs, take a vacation!  I dont think I have ever been so excited about 85%.  But I dont want to get my hopes up too much.  My last surgery didnt help at all. If anything it set me back.  And my previous surgeon was so confident that I would be back to sports in 6 months.  It will be a year since my surgery this September and I still dread getting out of bed in the morning to walk to the bathroom.  If I never play sports again, I dont care,  I just want to be able to have a normal life where I can walk.  I feel like my life is on hold right now.

You can read about my last visit with Dr. Safran here 
http://hippyangie.blogspot.com/2011/06/saw-my-surgeon-quick-update.html

6 Things I Love this Summer that keep me hippy chic

Hey everyone.  Miss you all.  Well, hippy gals need to look good and feel beautiful too.  These are some of the things I am lovin' this summer.

1) Bows

This photo was taken before my Aunt added beautiful highlights to my hair

Clip in bows are so cute and in right now.  I got this bow at hot topic after seeing my friend Linnea wearing it.  Anyone can wear a black bow and it goes with any outfit or any hairdo.   They sell these everywhere in everycolor.

2) Softlips pearl lipbalm
This lipbalm has spf to protect from the sun and is also a very subtle, pretty pink tint. It leaves lips really soft.  I apply it morning and night.  Having moisturized lips also helps lipstick go on smoothly.

3)  Mac Hue lipstick

MAC Hue

MAC Hue

 This lipstick is a very pretty sheer pink nude that covers my pigmented lips really well.  It looks great with a smokey eye..  I wore it on my wedding day as a top coat.

4) Swim Cap

 We seriously need to bring the swim cap back.  Look how stylish it is.  I never see people wearing a swim cap at the pool and I dont know why more people dont wear them.  It saves my hair from damage from the chlorine and the sun.  Also, I look terrible with wet hair.  As soon as I get out of the pool I take my swim cap off and I have fabulous hair right after swimming.

5)  Alba Deep Sea face mask

It is organic, vegetarian and under $10.  I bought mine at Target.  I love this mask because it helps control breakouts without drying my skin.  Even if you dont have trouble with breakouts I would recommend this mask because it makes my skin feel fresh and soft like a baby.  My skin glows after I use this.

6) Urban Decay Midnight Cowboy eye pencil

Urban Decay, Midnight Cowboy

Midnight cowboy is a really pretty color, a tan brown, with hints of pink.   It has flecks of silver in it for sparkle without being overly shimmery.  I also wore this on my wedding day as a base color for my smokey eye.  The best thing about this pencil is that it does not smudge, budge or melt off.  You can wear it alone or as a base and your eyeshadow will not be going anywhere.  The first time I wore it, I was sort of scared it would never come off, but to my relief it did come off after a shower.

Well, those are several of the things I am loving this summer.  I will keep you updated on more things I love at a later date.




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