Appointment With My Surgeon
[ Thursday January 8th 2026 at 12:47 pm ]
I have finished an appointment with my surgeon that lasted about 40 minutes. The best of the appointment is that the artificial hip is no longer attacking and injuring me several times a day. This took 1 minute to communicate to my surgeon. The other 39 minutes were an unpleasant but very necessary discussion to try and figure out what to do after trading 1 problem for 2 new problems.
The fluid that was draining from my April 2nd 2025 incision came back to life following my November 26th 2025 surgery and began draining again on December 19th 2025. This is way out of the ordinary. I searched online for doctor authored and then peer reviewed by a different doctor on how to manage difficult seromas before today's appointment. I wanted to be able to have a reasonable discussion, be able to understand what my surgeon would talk about and come to an agreement with this since it is my body. Ultimately a "worse case" scenario is that a seroma takes 1 year to resolve itself. This is annoying. In my case it is painful. But after talking this over with my surgeon we don't think it is an infection. I am prepared to "kick the can" down the road until April 2nd 2026. The nuclear alternative option is to have another surgery to try and fix this. The problem would be that a new seroma forms and I am right back to the current problem. I am prepared to wait another 3 months and see what happens.
I have asked what to me is the obvious question: Should we be using a wound vac to force my incision to heal from inside out. This is a possibility. This is a step we would definitely take before trying to resolve this with another surgery. Normally a nuisance seroma is managed by a plastic surgeon. My surgeon is going to make some inquiries on how to help me and what they think is best for me.
On December 27th 2025 my November 26th 2025 incision formed a seroma. Based on everything I learned with my April 2nd 2025 seroma I made the decision to just let it be and not be concerned about it. I didn't have the signs of an infection. It seemed reasonable to just let it drain. In the event I start to run a fever I'd go to the nearest hospital emergency department for further assistance. My surgeon didn't act surprised that I took this decision. I think he was happy that I had been learning as going through this process. At the moment we are hoping this will resolve itself in the near future. The hip joint operated on April 2nd 2025 has had 7 surgeries. My November 26th 2025 hip joint has only been operated on 3 times. I am hoping my body will respond proportionally and my November 26th 2025 seroma won't linger on.
I was prescribed a medication to ease muscle spasms following my November 26th 2025 surgery. This had become problematic with my outer thigh muscles throbbing while the seroma fluid drains. It has been absolutely exhausting. I am allowed to safely take a higher dose of the medication I was prescribed for this. My surgeon is willing to renew this medicine in the context of recovering from surgery. It is incredibly physically draining having this happen. However if this is the cost of the surgery to replace my right artificial hip I am okay with it. It should only affect me for a few more weeks. As I heal and build up some muscle strength my outer thigh muscles throbbing should come to an end.
My right knee joint popped on December 19th 2025 and then two more times. Each of these instances caused significant pain. About 10 years ago I had a doctor tell me knees are allowed to pop without pain and it isn't problematic. But when a knee pops followed by pain new damage has occurred. As a result of the damaged caused by these 3 instances my right knee joint popping means I am not able to do the planned physiotherapy. I needed to ask my surgeon "what now".
Prior to this appointment I did a bit of digging. I found a possible pathway forward. However I needed my surgeon to buy into this or it wasn't worth pursuing. When a person stands up their joints make a type of lubricating fluid. The surgeon that replaced my hips told me this continues to be a thing even when you have artificial joints. With arthritic joints the lubricating fluid isn't enough to stop pain. In 2017 a medicine with this fluid was injected into both of my knee joints. This medication isn't covered by the Province of Ontario Canada's health insurance. It was $400 a knee for the medication. The family doctor I had at the time explained to me this medication wasn't effective when it first started being used. But the pharmaceutical companies kept up their research and development. What was available in 2017 was reasonable and there as hope it would bring me relief. It was miracle-like during the initial 20 hours. I could freely move my right knee joint. But the lubricating medicine lost it's effectiveness by hour 24. A typical result is 3 months of relief. An outstanding result is 6 months of review. If a knee is too far gone a person experiences what happened with me.
If this medication had been injected in my knee once a day it would have made a big difference. The research and development into this medicine has continued. There is now a gel that is applied to the skin around the knee joint. The idea is the same as other pain management gels and patches people use. The idea is for the skin to become saturated with this lubricating medication and deliver the medication to the knee joint ongoing instead of a 1 time injection like I had in 2017. This makes sense to me based on how my knee joint responded in 2017. This gel medication costs $15.96 CAD. This should last 4 months. The pros far outweigh the cons to try. A trial period needs to last 6 weeks. My surgeon is on board with me trying this. The only caveat is that he asked me not to get my hopes up.
The other pathway forward my surgeon is asking me to consider is being assessed for knee denervation. The idea is that crucial nerves that send pain signals to the brain are burned so pain isn't experienced. This only stops a percentage of the pain. The mechanics of the knee are not affected. This means the deterioration of the knee joint will continue even though it is not being felt. The hope is that this brings between 2 and 5 years of relief. I have a pain management about on January 13th 2026. I will discuss this with my pain management doctor at that time. My thinking is to have the consultation for this. Then come back to my surgeon with questions.
We also spent time talking over the pros, cons and other concerns of replacing my knee. My surgeon wanted to freeze my knee in summer 2024 to confirm the pain was in fact coming from my knee. Freezing the knee blocks out pain from everything that is removed during a knee replacement. In terms of getting rid of pain a knee replacement would work. The problem with knee replacement surgery is that patients want to hit a "reset" button. If knee isn't totally destroyed with arthritis the satisfaction after a knee is replaced isn't as high. I don't think my surgeon considered me specifically when he quoted the statistics to me. My right knee joint started having problems when I was 14 years old and has been an ongoing concern since when I started trying to recover from my September 17th 2007 surgery to rebuild my left hip. My surgeon is willing to further consider knee replacement surgery and have another conversation with me about this. I hate myself for being thorough. I have become goal oriented. The medication to lubricate the knee joint and the knee denervation both only buy time. I am already well aware surgery isn't to be undertaken lightly. Replacing a knee joint is a much more involved process than hip surgery. I am interested to see how the next few months play out.
The other thing that was easiest to address is that I again have pus coming out of my right ear tear duct. I asked if an antibiotic will bugger up the healing process of my November 26th 2025 incision or if the medication used to treat my right eye when it became infected a few months ago will change the fluid color coming from incisions and making it harder to treat me. My surgeon has said no to both questions. I need to pursue this during the coming days to get the infection under control.