Monday, September 14, 2009

Long Term

First of all, many thanks to all of you who sent us your good wishes, by whatever means. It is really appreciated.

It looks like Marie is going to be in hospital for some time. The old hip joint has to come out and of course the area will have to be cleaned thoroughly as there is a lot of mess where it's been breaking up. I always thought titanium was a very inert metal but it appears not to be so. One of the doctors described it as a magnet for bacteria.

To combat the infection Marie is having intravenous antibiotics, plus saline to re-hydrate her because the infection prevented her keeping anything on her stomach.

The hip will come out and all being well, what the hospital call a temporary joint will go in, either on Tuesday or Thursday depending on when the parts arrive. Marie will be in hospital for about three more weeks and then there will be the recovery period at home. You can't bend your hip more then 45 degrees for six weeks. Neither can you drive or walk very far.

By now you're probably wondering what I mean by a temporary joint. This one will be there until all the infection has gone, then in four to six months, it's back in again for the proper one.

Knowing Marie, you can imagine that she isn't too pleased about being stuck in hospital for the next three or four weeks. On the plus side, she has a room to herself, with the luxury of her own bathroom. On the minus side, the food is terrible and the bed is very soft and as well as preventing sleep it's giving her terrible back pain. As well as her normal pain medication they are having to give her morphine for her back.

However, all things considered she's in very goods spirits. All she needs now is a decent nights sleep.

John

1 comment:

Jennysmith said...

My poor poor sweet - once again give her my love. How i wish I could do something.

Glad she's got a nice room and a nice bed anyway. please tell her I was asking after her

bless you xx