I received and email from Pat in SNJ telling me that I needed to let my 2000
plus friends on Lactnet know the current status of my hip.
I haven't wanted to clog up the list and this has gone on so long I was
afraid that everyone was getting pretty tired of hearing about it-I know I
certainly am tired of the whole thing! So is my poor family.
I hadn't realized that the last time I let you all now how I was doing was
way back in June.
In early August after I returned from ILCA, I began running fevers some times
as high as 104.0 F  My new doctor decided to culture fluid from my hip. He
insisted that the cultures be incubated for 10 days. (the ones taken in
surgery in Jan were cultured for only 3 days and were negative for pathogens).
These grew 2 different kinds of staph both gram positive.  Apparently I have
had an infection in my bone since 1997!
The plan now is to go in on October 12th and take 2 frozen sections and if
there are more than 5 WBCs per high powered field: everything is coming out
of my hip. That means all the artificial parts).  I will be on IV antibiotics
for months again. On the outside chance that the frozen sections don't show
an active infection, they will go ahead with the bone transplant as planned.
The doctor doubts that it was a lab error, but because taking everything out
is dangerous he wants to be absolutely sure.  Also he doesn't want me to take
any antibiotics now to keep from altering the results. The biggest risk is
that my femur will shatter. The stem from the femoral prosthesis ends bout 2
inches above my knee.
So I have been on oral morphine since the neurologist heard I had an
infection in the bone. It has made life a little easier, while I wait. I go
for my pre-op appointment on Thursday and go in for surgery the following
Tuesday. I won't know exactly what they did until I wake up.
I pray that this is finally going to put an end to this. I won't be able to
walk on it and they may not be able to put it back together at some future
date. But at this point in time I DON'T CARE.
Thank you all for your concerns and prayers. As I have done in the past, my
daughter Rachel will try to keep everyone updated. She will be checking my
email everyday.
Marie Davis, RN, IBCLC

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