Finding Flattop

It’s been two years since I’ve done any travel.  By the time you read this I’ll be on my way or already in Germany for 19 days.  Sae, my girlfriend, and I are taking our first trip together.  This will be a big test to see how my hip handles all the walking.  In the past two years, the furthest I’ve walked at one time is 3 miles.  I’m sure we’ll be exceeding that daily.

I’m excited and raring to go yet apprehensive about how my physical condidtion will stand up.  I’m taking my newly purchased Scenar and hoping it provides all the relief I’ll need.

This trip will be a little different than many of my past adventures as we’ll be basing ourselve’s in Stuttgart.  Sae and I both have good friends there, which we’ll be visiting.  At this time the only planned activity is an excursion to Munich for Oktoberfest.  A friend of ours has corporate VIP seats the opening day in the Hofbrauhaus tent and we are fortunate enough to get two of them.

We have a rail pass and will no doubt do some traveling within Germany while there, but in the true vagabond style, which I love, we’ll be figuring out what else we’ll be doing once there.  This is Sae’s first time to Europe so, she’s excited and I’m extactic about traveling once again.

If time allows, I’ll be making update post about what crazy fun adventures we find our way into.

Hokus Pokus pain go away.  It’s been some time since I last updated anyone on my health status.  It has now been just over two years since my accident and when I last wrote I had attempted acupuncture which worked wonders on the sciatic pain.  However I was still having issues with pain when walking more than several blocks at a time.  I’d given up on the idea of ever walking pain free for more than a few blocks and have been living an altered lifestyle.

Due to a friends recommendation I was introduced to a 30 year old pain management device invented by the Russian Space agency for mitigating chronic pain, called Scenar.  Oddly while the device has been around for decades, is common in most of the world, it has only recently been introduced into the United States.  After 30 years of extensive foreign medical studies, it received FDA approval in 2010 for the management of long term chronic and post surgical pain.  At this stage very few people in the US have heard of it and even fewer are trained in it’s use.

When I first heard about the device I started googling and found very little info in the US and what I did find gave me the sense of quackery.  There are few US websites which cover Scenar and the ones that do are terribly written.  In addition, after extensive research I couldn’t find anyone in the Tampa area who had one or was  trained in it’s use.  I gave up and passed on the idea as some form of mystical magic.   Six months later, through a random encounter I crossed paths with an Australian lady who is a Scenar therapist.  It peaked my interest and back to googling,  I was fortunate and found a lady in Dunedin who had recently been certified in it’s use.

Sue, my Scenar therapist, is an early retiree who has fibromyalgia and was introduced to the device through her physician.  It worked so well in alleviating her pain, she bought one and got trained in it’s use and now does treatments on a part time basis out of a spare room in her home to supplement her retirement.   Let’s just say the situation of a retiree treating me out of her home with a device that exuded the sense of having my palm read to deal with pain didn’t at first turn me on.  I went to my first session two months ago with extreme skepticism thinking, I’ve spent thousands on other things that haven’t worked, I’ve got nothing to loose.

Hokus Pokus, the magic worked!  The next morning the day after my first Scenar session I awoke for the first time in two years with zero pain.  If you’ve ever lived with pain on an ongoing long term basis, the sudden absence of pain without being doped up is almost euphoric.

For the past two months I’ve done one session a week with Sue and it’s had a dramatic positive affect on my life.    I started with sessions on my hip but soon (second visit) incorporated treatement for long term knee pain I’ve had from surgery ten years ago.

All I can say is, before being introduced to Scenar I hadn’t had a day without knee pain (over 10 years) and hip pain (2 years).  Since it’s use I get several days a week with drastically reduced pain and sometimes zero pain.  I still have an occasional bad day and in general it has worked better on the hip than the knee.  After two months of treatments I bought one myself and have had it for a week.  I’m hoping now that I can treat myself more often than once a week it will continue to provide relief and healing.

I’m now a sold believer.  I referred a friend of mine whom had a skydiving accident last year and has had numerous surgeries this year.  She has been seeing Sue for a few weeks and has reported dramtic results as well.  A single session gives her 8 or more hours of euphoric pain relief with no meds.  She’s also reported stabbing pains she used to have daily have completely subsided.  One intersting thing it does is reduce scar tissue.  My surgical scars have gone from very noticeable to barely visible.  You have to really look to even see them now.

So what is the Hokus Pokus mystical Magic thing called Scenar.  It’s a hand held battery operated device that when touched to the skin emites electromagnectic pulses several thousand times a second over various freqency ranges that mimic the human central nervous system and through biofeedback of the bodies response, coaxes the body to release nueropeptides natrually reducing and eliminating pain excelerating the bodies healing process.  (my simplified words from explinations I’ve read).  Some people think it’s a TENS unit.  While it’s similiar, it’s completely different.

If you have recently had a surgery, or have been dealing with short or long term pain, I’d highly recommend you look into it.   Below are numerous links I’ve found on Scenar.  Note, if you are thinking of buying one, get some training on it.  In-spite of all the reading I’ve done, it’s a bit confusing.

www.scenarhealth.com/  Australian site, but best put togehter explaining/showing what Scenar is

http://scenar.com.ru/index_eng.htm – The Russian Manufacturer’s site.  Numerous medical studies on it, some only in Russian.

Where to buy in the US:

www.tomatex.com/

www.scenar-usa.com/

http://www.scenar-america.com/

General Scenar Info:

www.scenar.info/

www.scenarinstitute.org/

www.scenarlife.com/

www.ritmedic.com/

Well, today is the one year anniversay from my hip surgery to repair the torn labrum.  I find myself wondering if it was worth it.  Where would I be had I not went through with it?

The surgery itself was a success according to the surgeon.  For me however, I didn’t see much improvement.  I still had severe pain in my right buttock when walking.  When I last posted I opted for accupunture.  I did 3 months of accupuncture visits and I’m happy to say it elimitated the sciatic pain.  Yea! I’ve only had a couple instances where it’s bothered me over the past few months.  That’s the good news.  The bad news, while the sciatic pain has dissapeared, pain in the side and front of my hip is now more noticable.  It was there before but the sciatic pain distracted me from noticing the aching.  Accupuncture has had no effect on the remainder of the pains.

So, here’s where I’m at.  On a daily basis, most people would never know anything is out of the ordinary.  I work at a desk and short distance walking, ie house to car, parking lot into a restaurant etc don’t seem to bother me.  Anything longer than a few blocks though and aching pain sets in, which quickly dissipates with rest, but restarts with walking.  I’ve discovered that it’s not weight barring induced.  Simply swimming and moving my legs produces the same aching.  I’ve had the occassional day or evening where it hurts constantly, enough that one can’t sleep and surmise it has to do with barometric pressure changes.  Oddly, there is still pressure sensitivity on the right side of my hip.  It still hurts if I lay on my right side for more than a few minutes and I can push on the hip and find the sore spot as well.

I’m a little over 18 months post accident and the furtherest I’ve walked is 3 miles at one time.  I’ve grown somewhat used to the reduced activity lifestyle.  The only other alternative I’m aware of at this stage is spinal nerve blocking, which I wrote about in my previous accupuncture post.  At this stage, I’ve opted not to persue it and am living with lifestyle modification.  Meaning, I avoid things that require extended walking.  No travel plans for me. 

I can still do loads of fun things.  Sailing, and climbing or crawling around the boat don’t seem to bother it at all.   Chores around the house, bending, lifting, moving around short distance don’t seem to bother it either.  Seems weird, I can do all that, yet going for a long stroll is out.

I guess I find myself at 40 feeling like what I imagined it must be like to be 80.  Haven’t had a day since the accident without some sort of pain.  It reminds of of a friends joking claims, “If I wake up and nothing hurts, I must be dead”.

It’s been sometime since I’ve last updated folks about my status. Almost five months ago I had hip arthroscopy completed to repair the torn labrum in my right hip and 6mm of femur bone removed to alleviate an impingement. Was it worth it? That’s still to be determined. After three intensive months of physical therapy putting my overall total upwards of 8 months I’ve become fairly mobile, however not pain free. While I am mobile, walking more than 10-15 min creates a steady pain in my buttocks which becomes quite bothersome. So, in my day to day life, working out of the house, going to the car, into a restaurant etc is no issue. Going for a nice long walk is out. And forget about power walking, it’s only at a leisurely pace. No theme parks for me and no traveling for I don’t know how long as they all require extensive walking. The lifestyle modification, while I’ve grown somewhat used to it, is getting very old. Interestingly due to catering to it, most who see me wouldn’t know anything is wrong. I can still go sailing and do a lot of things which don’t require much walking.

At the three month post op stage my doctor believed I should have been close to 100%, which unfortunately wasn’t and still isnt’ the case. In the past couple months I’ve tried a few different medications (Mobic & Celebrex) producing zero results. Then we attempted a cortisone injection with zero effect as well. The ortho at that stage has lifted all activity restrictions and believes he’s done all he can and from this point forward it’s a matter of pain management. I was then referred to an anesthesiologist which specializes in pain management.

So, I went for a consultation last week and the anesthesiologist prognosis isn’t to exciting. He believes the pain could be coming from one of 20-30 different and/or multiple nerve endings coming from my lower spine into the buttocks combined with some pain in the hip itself. In a nutshell his recommendation is while under mild general anesthesia in an outpatient facility inject a small amount of steroid in the most likely candidate nerve of the possible choices and send me home. A few weeks later if it doesn’t work, go back in and select candidate number two and so on until the optimal nerve location is located. All in all, this doesn’t sound to exciting and could grow exorbitantly expensive, not like my medical bills already aren’t. Adding to it, the maximum duration an injection could possibly last once they find the appropriate location is two months. Meaning, depending on my body, I’d have to get an injection under anesthesia every month the rest of my life.

Not overly enthused about my options I went for a consultation with a Chinese acupuncturist highly recommended by my physical therapist. She believes the pain is most likely a form of sciatica and that with 5-6 sessions there is a 90% chance she’ll be able to alleviate the pain. She’s also informed me if it works I will permanently have to alter my lifestyle as there is no known cure and some activities would re-aggravate it requiring more treatment. 🙁

I’m not real happy about permanent lifelong activity restrictions but in life it’s not what’s handed to you that matters it’s how you deal with it. Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself. Faced with the above options at this stage I’ve chosen to attempt the acupuncture. To date I’ve had two sessions and I”m happy to report thus far it has moderately reduced the pain while making some of it shift. I’m taking this as a positive sign as it’s the only thing in 11 months (that’s right folks the accident was almost a year ago) that’s modified the hip pain in the slightest. Keep your fingers crossed over the next month that continued sessions give greater improvement. If not, I’ll be doing a butt load of outpatient surgical visits.

For those who have been following along, my hip surgery was complete last Tuesday, March 2nd.  As far as I know, it was a success.  The surgeon told my girlfriend after the procedure he was able to complete a repair.  I will see him for my first follow up next week and ultimately won’t know the long term outcome until about six months from now.

In all I was under general anesthesia for around 4 hours with the surgery itself lasting 2+ hours.  In the surgery he stitched a torn flap of cartilage back into place with permanent stitches which will remain in the joint, removed loose cartilage, and cut out a portion of my femur bone to reshape it.  The bone reshaping is why I have 4-6 weeks of non-weight bearing on my right leg.

The first week home has been rough.  I’ve barely moved off the couch other than to go the bathroom.  The day after surgery at maximum dosage of Oxycodone and Tramadol, I called the doc and was instructed to double the normal dosage limits.  This turned into a double edge sword.  It worked wonders in eliminating pain while putting me in a floating euphoric state and causing some severe side effects.  24 hours after remaining on the increased dosage constipation became apparent as is normal on opiates, however more severe was my inability to urinate and while my other pain was relieved I could feel a full aching bladder.  Concern set in when my penis started to turn purple, resulting in another call to the doc.  Stop the meds now was the order and if it gets worse get to the doc for a catheter.  Fortunately, by the next morning normal color was restored and finally I was able to relieve myself.

Just shy of a week from the surgery, the pain has subsided dramatically. I can get comfortable laying on the couch without any pain meds.  Moving or getting up using a walker is still fairly painful and manageable without meds for very short distances.  If I need to be up for more than a few minutes I have to prepare by taking meds in advance.  Overall, the swelling is down and is being replaced by a large bruise on my hip and the sutures are beginning to itch.  I expect as the bone heals in several more weeks I will move onto physical therapy for a couple months.

On an odd side note, while I lay here recuperating from surgery caused by the accident which ended my trip around the world, I noticed, had I not been injured and had I stuck to my original flight itinerary, I would have had the pleasure of arriving in Santiago Chile just before the earthquake struck.   Hmmm…… maybe it’s better I’m home on the couch.