MRI arthrogram 'results'

Hmph.

Positives:
I don't have arthritis
I don't need a hip replacement
No tears in the labarum

Negatives:
Still no diagnosis
Next step is steroid injection

The consultant said the MRI results were good: no impingement anywhere and the hip is well lubricated. He then said that this is something that is probably going to go away on its own. I wasn't sure how to react to this. The fact that it's still a 'something' is not really good enough for me; what the heck is it? Why can't I get any treatment for the muscular pain now, if he thinks that's what it is?

Argh.

I've chosen to have the steroid injection under anaesthetic, so that my body doesn't react the way it did when I had my arthrogram. 4 days on and I keep worrying that I've made the wrong choice and whether I should go away and get some physiotherapy myself; try some acupuncture; try hypnotherapy... all those things.

Deep down, I do feel that this problem - whatever it is - is going to take a long, long, time to heal. When I am honest with myself, I know that I'm the one who damaged myself and I know exactly how much exercise I did after I felt that initial pain.

Stupid girl.

From September to December I played netball games, did pilates (straining the psoas), went swimming (kicking my legs and doing breast stroke), did yoga (turning my feet out, putting huge pressure on my groin and pelvis), I ran (on the road, on the treadmill). For 3 months I was exercising with a serious injury, in denial the whole time.

Stupid girl.

I'm booked in for the injection on the 1st May. I have to decide whether I want to go ahead with this treatment or not.

MRI arthrogram - my experience

I wore a hospital gown and fluffy robe. The room was cool and dimly lit. I was introduced to my radiologist who spoke to me very directly about what the contrast dye was going to highlight - if anything. The assistant was comforting and told me I'd be fine.

Unfortunately, I really wasn't fine. After months of pain, my hip has become so sensitive that it can even be painful to touch. The muscles surrounding it all go into protect-mode and often spasm when I'm stressed or nervous. So, you can imagine what happened when the doctor inserted the local anaesthetic. For some reason, I seem to be incredibly reactive when anaesthetic is given. It's either because I overthink it and my brain goes nuts, or my pain threshold just can't deal with the needle's invasion. I have a good pain threshold, normally, but this was excruciating.

I cried and cried but didn't move a muscle. The doctor had to keep injecting more anaesthetic into the area - 4 or 5 times he went into the joint to numb it. It was particularly difficult for me to understand whether it was numb because often I get a numb feeling down the front of my quads. All at the same time the area tingled and stung and I felt an even deeper, raw ache through the whole joint. I felt the dye fill the area and tensed up even more. I controlled my breathing and my tears and willed it to be over. I was so embarrassed at my reaction I kept apologising over and over to the doctor and his assistant.

A couple of years ago I had a traumatic accident where I fainted in a steam room and fell through the thick glass door. It took doctors and nurses over three hours to remove the largest pieces of glass from my body, clean the wounds, sew the lesions up. They used local anaesthetic in my shin, my hips, my elbow, my chin, my forehead, and most of all my buttock where I had 30 stitches alone. Morphine and gas and air didn't seem to help with the pain management. I wonder if my memory of that made everything 10x worse.

After the injection - apart from being totally embarrassed - I was OK. The thigh felt numb but wasn't painful at all. I was whisked off in a wheelchair and to the MRI scanner which was in a mobile unit so I had to go through the puddles outside. I had two assistants help me in the scanner and explained it would take about 35 minutes. I was given ear plugs, then headphones, and chose classical music to listen to whilst in the scanner. One of the assistants joked that they'd had an older lady in earlier who'd chosen heavy metal to listen to and after my 35 minutes I knew why: MRI scanners are VERY loud and clunky! All I could here were vibrations and the odd high-pitched viola through the headphones.

Loud, yep; claustrophobic, nope. Not really. After my trauma in radiology I revelled in my 35 minutes of relative 'peace'. I closed my eyes and tried not to think of how yucky my hip felt. It was chilled!

Once the scanner had done it's thing I was wheeled back to radiology and was all done. With the help of my sister I got dressed and left the hospital.

The numbness in the area started to disappear after about an hour, and unfortunately, the pain - a different kind of pain that I hadn't felt before - began to increase. A deep, strange pain that lasted about 48 hours as the dye leaked out. Horrible. I took lots of painkillers which took the edge of it. Once that had subsided, I was back to my normal pain which was actually a welcome relief. A week on and I've still got bruising down my thigh, but I'm like a peach so I'm quite sure it's nothing to worry about.

Bring on the results!