I have two very painful problems at the moment and just do not know what to do.
1. I had a hip replacement about 10 years ago and it has never been right. After the op I had new pain in my groin and down inside of my leg which has steadily got worse. Also pain on outside of hip. Movement and walking painful - and bending is hell.
2. Disc problem with severe pain down leg, numb foot etc.
I have been prescribed opiate patches which I am not taking at the moment as they scramble my brain and I am trying to manage without. I just take paracetamol, but this is not great long term. I cannot have anti-inflammatories.
The two conditions are on the same side and I never know which is causing which pain.
I paid privately to have a nerve root block in spine 2 weeks ago - there was a massively long wait to have it done on NHS, so I dipped into savings. Unfortunately the improvement was short-lived. I knew it was a risk but feel pretty hacked off at the waste of money as well as the continued pain.
My options now are:
- have a microdiscectomy on slipped disc. To have it done on NHS would take an eternity - to do it privately would cost-a-load.
- have the hip replaced again - they have done every test in the book and cannot find the source of the pain and this is all they can suggest. Again there is the NHS/private decision; and also I have to bear in mind that I was very poorly after first hip replacement and finished up on coronary care unit. Also the current replacement is structurally sound and it seems wrong to mess with it. But the pain is awful.
I am 73 and want to get on with my life as long as I can. I am being held back by pain - I walk with a stick and great pain.
I just do not know what to do for the best. I spent many years looking after my OH who died two years ago. I am just beginning to surface from all of that and hoped I might be able to get out and have a bit of fun. If I have the ops I would need to factor in recovery periods.
I do have enough savings to cover both operations, but would be left with very little and I had hoped to have some nice holidays pain-free, but funds would be low.
If I do go for the ops, which do I do first?
I have two holidays booked for this summer - low-key self-catering ones. I would hate to miss these, but not great to do them in pain.
Decisions, decisions ........
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