Not Just Waddling

I started having pain in my left hip almost 2 weeks ago that was just kind of annoying, not really that bad. It progressively got worse over the week to the point where walking, turning over in bed, and generally just bearing weight in my left leg was really painful and I started limping. I finally (at Erik's insistence) went to my doctor on Monday. I know that hip pain is not an OB problem but unfortunately when you're 9 months pregnant every doctor except your OB is scared of treating you, so that's who I went to. Since I work with my doctor we have good communication and I think he understood that I was really hurting, especially since I've had no problems at all so far. He sent me to the orthopedic doctor who saw me the same day and I was really impressed with this guy. He spent at least 20 minutes with me assessing my hip and range of motion with my left leg. I had an idea of what I thought I might have, but he blew me away with his diagnosis. I have Transient Osteoporosis of the Hip. Not at all what I was expecting, especially since I'd never heard of it before! http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00205 This website has some good info on it. Basically the bone density in my hip joint is severely decreased causing intense pain with weight bearing. It's uncommon and only occurs in pregnant women in their 3rd trimester and middle aged men. There's no definitive cause and the treatment is pain meds and trying to stay off the affected joint with crutches or a walker. The only positive thing about this is that it resolves within months after delivery and your bone density returns to normal.

So what does this mean for me? Well, because I work full time and I'm the only employed member of this family I have to keep working until my due date. I'm taking off for maternity leave starting on the 19th of March, which is not what I wanted to do. I wanted to work up until delivery just so I could save up my leave for when I actually have a baby at home. This shouldn't affect my delivery in any way. The ortho guy gave me crutches to use and I do use them at home but I'm too proud to use them outside my house. It's bad enough getting stared at everywhere I go because my stomach is huge, let alone being a huge preggo on crutches. I'm not going to lie, my hip hurts and walking is really painful. I can't do certain things like put my pants on standing up, pick up heavy stuff, or push a stretcher at work. The mornings are the worst and I want to cry when I wake up because I know how bad it's going to hurt to move around and get going. Once I'm going it's tolerable and when I'm sitting it doesn't hurt at all. I'm also really thankful that nothing is wrong with my baby and this doesn't affect him at all. I could have so many worse things wrong with me, I'm still a healthy pregnant person, and it will get better after I deliver. I also have the best coworkers ever who understand and help me out at work. Erik has been a huge help and picked up some of the slack at home with cleaning tasks that I just can't do. I'm trying to keep a positive attitude but sometimes it is overwhelming. I'm not used to having physical restrictions and it really makes you appreciate your health when you start having problems. It's possible that the pain might get worse before it gets better, but I'm a little over 3 weeks until my due date and I know I can keep on keeping on until then!