8cm on femurs - Dr. Mahboubian

DAY 5
This is the day that my life started becoming a nightmare. Everything was good during the morning.  Woke up, took my Xarelto, Vitamin D and Calcium. Spent a little bit of the morning time in bed, and then moved up to the wheelchair. So far, staying in bed was the worst. Keeping my legs 180° caused lots of pressure on my knees, front and back. I think the pain in the back of the knees was related to the very big bruising I had (will upload an image soon).
By afternoon, I was sitting in the living room when I started feeling a discomfort on my right buttock. It felt as if I could feel the screw touching my butt. I sent an email to the doc and he promptly responded telling me to apply ice packs on the area, as it might've been a little bit more inflamed. I did and it helped for a while.
The real struggle started during the night. Around 8PM I started feeling a slightly sharp pain on my right leg. I could sense there was a specific spot; if I touched it, my body would shake in pain. Heard they call it a tender point.
The pain only intensified as the hours passed. Norco only lasts about 1h on my system, so I couldn't rely on that. Around 11PM, the pain was such that I was sweating and shaking. I took my temperature and it showed 101.6° F, which is considered fever. I read the manual I was given after being discharged from the hospital to try and find what to do. Ended up reading about something called 'compartment syndrome'. There were about 10 items in the symptoms list and it recommended going to the ER if you experienced at least one of them. I was experiencing 7. So, right before midnight, I was calling Uber to go to the ER with my folks.

I hope you are doing well. Glad you decided to get checked out. Compartment syndrome is rare with femoral surgeries. Please tell us how things ended up.

Wow, sorry to hear that this happened. I'm guessing you're better now since you're writing about this after the fact, hope that it went smoothly.

could be fat embolism syndrome.
that usually starts with a fever. hope everything is well

DAY 6
Getting to the ER was a little bit complicated, mainly because by the time the Uber was at my place, the slightest movement on my right leg would make me want to die. The pain was really intense, easily 10/10. I tried getting accessible vans with elevator for wheelchair patients but at midnight it was really an impossible task. I was really desperate to get to the hospital so I would beg the Uber driver to take me if he denied it because of my condition.
Fortunately, he didn't. I was able to lean on the door with one hand and on the seat with the other hand, and pulled myself up. Pain was intense but my desire to get to the ER was bigger. I had to sit diagonally, with the healthy leg touching the ground and the other one resting on the seat.
When I got to the ER, I got even more desperate. So many people in the waiting room. I checked-in and told them I had done a surgery at that same hospital about 5 days back. After a few minutes waiting, they called me to triage, and then was sent to do some blood tests and chest X-Ray -- they wanted to make sure I didn't have pneumonia (). I was then told to wait about 45 minutes for the results to come out.
I waited about 10 minutes in the living room when the pain got really unbearable. I thought I was going to faint. My leg was hard as rock, I was sweating a lot and had a hard time breathing. That might've been the anxiety kicking in but I decided to call Dr. M. I found out he has someone available 24/7 to call him in case of emergencies. I called and told that I was in the ER, and desperately needed to talk to him. They told me that I should have someone in the ER calling them instead.
When I hung up the phone, I completely freaked out. I knew I would wait a lot and the thought of losing my leg to compartment syndrome just kicked in so bad that I completely lost any shyness or insecurity that I usually have. I rolled myself into the triage room again and asked to talk to the same person that first saw me. I begged her to please call my doctor's office to tell him that I was there and that I might've had compartment syndrome. It was just a guess based on a bunch of common symptoms in a manual I was given by the hospital itself upon checking out, but it was definitely worth checking. She saw how nerve wreck I was and called someone to check up on me instantly. They put me in a bed and asked to see my legs (I had some long pants on). As soon as they saw how bad it was, I was immediately sent to a private room to be seen by a doctor. They first put me on IV to give me some pain killers. I honestly tried taking Norco but it simply didn't work.
The night was endless. I did several exams (blood tests, urine tests, X-Ray, Ultrassom) to try to get an idea of what exactly was happening. I was ok after the painkillers kicked in through the IV, so the pain was manageable, but I was still really nervous about the possibility of needing another surgery. This is a completely unknown territory for most of us, because even though we spend hours and hours on this forum reading diaries and other patient's experiences, everyone of us may go through some unpredictable things.
It was around 7AM when my results came out. And guess what... nothing. Precise nail was fine, no blood clots, no infection and no compartment syndrome. All major concerns were ruled out, which left only one explanation: some blood vessel was leaking and caused a major internal bleeding. Just so you have an idea, I measured the diameter of my left leg at some point above my knees and it was 38cm. On that same spot in the right leg it was more than 45cm.
By the time I was discharged from the hospital, I still couldn't move my right leg anymore. Copy-paste the same history about how hard it was getting an Uber back home, and then by 8AM I was back in my bed. The rest of the day was just shoving down Norco every 4 hours and ice packing my leg. Part of me was relieved that it wasn't anything that would require intervention, but part of me was mad for putting myself through this. For not overthinking things that could go wrong. For underestimating the whole process. In a matter of hours I had my right leg outgrow my left one by lots of cms and I would just think how fked up this is. It was the first time in my life going through something so major in my own body, and it was definitely the most intense pain I've ever felt. During the entire day I felt the urge to call the doctor's office but I knew it wasn't going to change a thing. I knew I just had to fight the pain and my body would eventually heal.
And so I did. I spent the entire day in bed. It was a Tuesday, and my follow-up with Dr. M was on a Friday. By Friday, I had to be healthy enough to start the whole lengthening process. It was going to be some tough days -- the toughest ones in my life, I would argue.

No fking way dude, I was diagnosed with the pelvic tilt back in highschool now you're telling me that hospital fees can be covered by insurance?! If this isn't a sign then I don't know what is...good luck on your recovery my friend.

Damn reading this is pretty discouraging, you can get through it man! also, I am noticing that most cases of extreme pain seem to be with femurs. anyone else?

Quote from: lickerish on April 19, 2018, 06:26:44 AMDamn reading this is pretty discouraging, you can get through it man! also, I am noticing that most cases of extreme pain seem to be with femurs. anyone else?

Well, at least recently, the people describing pain levels of 7~10/10 have all been femur patients. That's my impression too, at least.

Fallen: I'm very glad it was nothing major. Good job being a warrior through that 10/10 pain, the Uber cabs, and the ER visit. A lot of the people here doing internal femurs hired caretakers. Did you consider doing that too? Or are your parents going to be with you for the whole process? EDIT: I read this in the OP again, but I'm going to keep my post as it was: "My mom will be here with me for 3 months, so she will help me with everyday things."

I hope you can remain strong until Friday. Don't be afraid of reaching out to your doctor by mail or phone even for trivial things. This is a ridiculously invasive and expensive surgery.

What a twist!

So were you able to get in touch with Dr. M to let him know about your issue? It seems like something the emergency physician should have called Dr. M about for further guidance/consultation, especially if you have an obvious thigh size discrepancy, decreased leg function, and possible occult bleeding. I'm sure Dr. M wouldn't mind you coming in earlier to the clinic the next day for outpatient assessment.