Hello all,

I'm a W/M age 48 who has recently been diagnosed with AVN of the left and right hips, so here's my story:

In June of this year, I felt a painful twinge in my left hip while putting on my swimsuit. Several days later, my wife and I decided to start walking around the block to get in shape for a upcoming 10 day trip to Jamaica. After 2-3 days of walking, it became clear to me that something was wrong with my left hip.  I went to my Primary doctor who thought I had bursistis and put me on the standard 7 day steriod pack, along with Lortab 7 mg for the pain.That didn't seem to help, so he gave me a steriod shot on the side of my hip. He also took some x-rays, which didn't show anything abnormal. The shot didn't help either, so he referred me to Dr Donald Dewey here in Pensacola. He examined me and told me that I might have AVN but needed an MRI to be sure. Well sure enough the MRI showed AVN in both hips, but the left hip is between stage 1-2. The right hip has no pain yet, but I know it's coming. That's when I went online and found this site. It's the best place I've found for information from real live people with AVN. It gave me the knowledge to discuss my options with my doctor. We have decided to do the Core Decompression surgery on 11-20-09. He's told me that I have a 65% chance that the CD will keep me from needing total hip replacement in the future. Is this expecting too much? Also I haven't discussed it with my doctor yet, but when should I do somethig with my right hip? Before the pain starts?

Tomcat338