The Appointment

It went, um, well. I guess.
We arrived at 1:00 and found out that the doctor was running behind. Very, very behind. As in, we finally left at 5:00. And I had neglected to take any pain medication beforehand. It was not a pleasant experience.
The X-rays showed that the PAO and the femoral osteoplasty look fantastic. Everything is healing well. In fact, I am forming bone much faster and better than expected.
That's sort of the problem. They saw a couple of things other things on the X-ray as well. There is a large callus (hunk o' bone) projecting into the pelvic inlet. It may be an issue with future childbirth. We'll just have to wait and see- we just won't know if it's a problem until the baby that is still a twinkle in Eric's eye is trying to come out.
The other problem is some heterotopic ossification- bone formation where there shouldn't be bone. In this case, it appears to be anterior to the hip joint and maybe in the rectus muscle. They would ignore it if there was no pain or problems. Unfortunately, on exam, I had a loss of range of motion. It didn't really hurt. It just felt like my leg had hit a doorstop. A large, bony doorstop.
The doctor told me to start taking naproxen twice a day to try to limit more bone formation. He also recommended stretches to try to get the motion back. He said that if this doesn't work, he would recommend waiting for the ossification to mature in 6 months or so and removing it. He also mentioned that this would require detaching the quads again and staying in the hospital again.
After I stopped dropping F-bombs, I agreed. I've been stretching my cotton-picking heart out. It sounds so nice and relaxing, doesn't it? As it turns out, if you try to push past that doorstop, it hurts. It reminds me strongly of labor pain, except that it doesn't stop hurting afterwards for about 24 hours. Then, it's time for me to do it all again. Let me rephrase that- it's time for Eric to do it all again. Because I am just not capable of inflicting that sort of pain on myself.
So this feels like a set-back. I know that in the long run, it's probably progress, but I'm discouraged. I was taking an aspirin in the morning as a blood thinner and a Vicodin at night. Now, I'm back to taking aspirin, four naproxen, and about four Vicodin, as well as Prilosec, Tums, Senna and Colace to treat the bowel issues caused by all of the above.
But on the bright side, I can start bearing more weight. That doesn't mean off the crutches, but it is a step in the right direction. Now, I mostly need the crutches for weakness and instability. And in two weeks, I can go to one crutch. Two weeks after that, a cane. The doctor said he's progressing me faster than usual. He normally doesn't allow dropping one crutch before twelve weeks. This will be at eight weeks.
Also on the bright side, I can drive. When I'm not on pain pills. And I got a prescription for physical therapy. Starting any day now.
So things are looking up. And down. We'll just have to see where this goes.