The Tale Continues To Shift

Well, as of last night's blog, we were staying through the weekend and headed home after the weekend. That change to plans changed, too! We will now be here for an undeterminate time, it appears.

When we met with Dr Emerson this morning and he reviewed the results of the aspiration from yesterday, he was not at all happy with what they had found. Although Sharon is not running a fever or showing any outward signs, there is an infection going on in there. It is very low grade and is possibly the cause of this prosthesis having failed. SSSSooooooooo! Here we go again! Shades of '91 and '92 again!

Monday, she goes into Presby for the old prosthesis to be removed. He will replace the present device with a build-up of a cement type stuff with a cup attached for the femur ball to fit into. This will space the leg, keep it from just flopping around like we had last time, and will be a temporary useable fix for the situation. It is of an antibotic-impregnated material that will go after whatever the infection is from the inside. There will be a line installed for us to administer some serious "drugs" to go after the little things from the outside. One major advantage this time is that she will not have to be intraction with no joint support at all. That got really old really quickly last time.

Sharon will probably be in the hospital for a week to 10 days and then come back to Extended Stay instead of a trip to therapy. We will stay here until Dr E clears us to head back to Nashville. That trip will happen when he feels that we can get the proper support for what is needed back there. Lab work will done weekly to see if and when the "stuff" is cleared up. When things are clean again, then we will have a new permnanent prosthesis built and installed. That could be 3 to 6 months or it could extend over a years time! At this point, there is no way to predict a hard timeline. We only know basically WHAT the events are, not WHEN they will happen.

Yes, this is a bit of a shock to our systems, but I will confess that somewhere in the back of our minds, we were aware that this was a possiblity that we really did not want to even breathe about. I'm not real sure if the familiarity with this experience is a conforting knowledge or not! As well and knowing the steps, we also know the "dreads" that accompany that knowledge.

We're counting our blessings! As we've been in and out of the doctors office and the hospital this week enough to KNOW without a doubt that we have been so blessed over our lives. Our immediate future looks a little rough, but we can see the end of the tunnel out there. Many we have met this week, do NOT have that bright a light to look forward to.

Cheers!

Joe