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Originally Posted by bryan239
I wish I was rich! lol These days very few of us are and I am like most, living pay check to pay check. And my employer does not offer health ins benifits so I pay for my health ins out of pocket...and its not cheap! I just dont think hip replacements are made for younger more active people. I am still at that point in my life where its to soon to start slowing down.
My fear of waiting as long as I can is that I have been reading reports from the FDA and other things around the Web that with alot of the metal particials floating around in and around the hip joint its self, it starts to turn the bone soft. Im afraid that if I wait it out as long as I can there will be a lot of soft tissue damage and that will mean more work to fix the problem (less good bone to work with). I would feel better having the same type of replacement on both hips also. The surgeon also said that he wants my left hip at 100% and then I can start putting more of my body weight on that hip to relieve some of the stress on the right one. Umm ok? So that will make the left one start to wear out faster and who knows...doing that for 2 years or so I could be where I am at now, them talking about replacing it again. But I know doing that will buy me time with the right hip..again at what cost though? Then he said for me to start back up on my RA meds and see if that will help the right hip. How is RA meds going to stop metal from wearing?? I know this is going to sound mean (I dont mean for it to!) I am 27 and I would think that they would be alittle more concerned and try to do more because I am young and I still have 50+ years ahead of me....
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Bryan,
Idk-I see you live in New York. Check with your insurance first; but I think given your age, and history, they might be able to refer you to Johns Hopkins--my orthopedist trained there, did his residency in orthopedics there (part of why I trust him; but other reasons too), and they're the ones who do the best on bone grafts: this might be the best (only) option for you...you're right about the particles.
I know insurance is expensive. You should check out Blue Cross' rates when you have lupus and multiple autoimmune diagnoses. And are part-time oxygen dependent because of EDS-III. But, I pay it because it's cheaper than letting myself be victimized by the crummy state insurance, or trying to pay it all out of pocket--but when I shopped around, I realized that with lupus and EDS, I can't afford to screw around with an HMO, like Group Health or anything other than a PPO. Which left Blue Cross and United Healthcare. If you're signed up with United, I say run like heck-limp like heck, whatever, as fast as possible to the nearest Blue Cross office when the enrollment periods start, and get signed up: my hip surgery next Friday (7.5 days and counting!!! My preoperative MRI is tomorrow: it's going to be the deciding factor if they do the core decompression-Please, God!!!--or a total hip) didn't even have to be pre-authorized, as is with most insurances-the scheduler merely looked and saw what my insurance is, and scheduled the surgery! United, I garauntee, it would have been weeks to a month or so of wrangling, screaming and yelling-maybe a threat or two...lol-to get it approved; and even then, it would be with "Three months of follow-up care after your surgery, and then go back to your PCP." Can you tell I was stupid enough to buy a policy from them? Dumped it one year to date and signed up with Regence Blue Cross/Blue Sheild, and I love them.
No chest pain (figuratively) when I have to consider calling Customer Service (how United justifies calling what they do as "Customer Service," I think "Member torture and inducing cardiac disease" would be more appropriate...), and the BC reps are always pleasant, friendly, and helpful. The are
nice. I've even become friends with one of them-we don't share that fact with BC, but when I fired the PMR doc and the PCP in one day, I text messaged it to all my friends, and she responded first, and goes, "You go girl-right ON!!!" These are the people that work there.
Ok, off track, I know--got the ADHD meds late-sorry.
But definitely look into Mayo or Johns Hopkins. This is so complex that you really need the experts to look at it. I just hope that your insurance would be flexible enough to pay for it. Or if you could get even to NYC, and one of the better hospitals there; I'd have to research which NYC hospital is best with this stuff, but I can and get back to you: I still subscribe to the professional websites that get me this information. Let me know if you're interested. I am happy to help if I can; if you were West Coast, I'd be able to tell you stright off where to go...but this would take some digging...sorry.
But you are undoubtedly in a tough spot. Maybe look into seeing if you could persuade the insurance to cover the cemented ceramic implants? Doubtful they would, but you never know. My friend is still doing great-no complications, etc...
Wow, I know this is hard to hear; but I don't have much in the way of "words of wisdom." And what sucks is I'm in essentially the same boat.
Send me a PM if you wish...