Tuesday, April 20, 2004 11:00 am

Stevie the “biter”.  Sponge bath à much flipping of the body à excruciating pain à lashes out.  Four victims thus far – Susan and I are in this elite club. Pain relief is coming in the form of a Girdlestone hip operation (see note below*) Thursday.  In this case, the results of the Girdlestone will be “temporary” eventually followed by a hip replacement. 

Dr. Moore who will perform the Girdlestone suggested that the hip replacement will not come for several months, as the infection continues to concern him, and likely best done in Auburn.  The current hip prosthesis of choice for active, especially young adults is ceramic on ceramic (http://www2.stryker.com/jointreplacements/sites/trident/patient/pat_tech.php).

The center is pushing Stevie and in spite of the pain is going to her scheduled therapies.  We (Susan and I) have been asked to remove ourselves during therapy as not to distract her.  Her therapies begin at 8:30am with breakfast and end at 3:00pm with a half or full hour rest break at lunch.  Susan and I are now on nine hour shifts Midnight to 9am, and 3pm- Midnight.  When in bed a locking strap loosely prevents her from attempting to get out.  She is quite good at transferring to her wheelchair or portable potty – with stabilizing help – using her left leg.  She initiates the 1-2-3 counting that proceeds any such move. Such transfers are quite painful and she needs help adjusting with her nearly useless right leg. 

Monday we attended an excellent lecture “Family Orientation for Brain Injury and Recovery”.  There is a well understood progression in brain injury patients.  The unanswerable question remains how far along this progression will Stevie be able to go.  Wednesday is our Medical Conference when we will explore Stevie’s specific injuries, discuss therapies and, hopefully, prognosis for recovery – that is we will annoyingly continue to ask that unanswerable question.

 

Auburn friends and family have zipped up I-85 to see her bringing her alive as we cannot. 

Beautiful plants and flowers from our and her loving friends and family adorn her room. 

 

We continue to be so thankful for the continuing shower of support, thoughts, prayers and love. 

 

        Susan and Steve

 

* The Girdlestone hip operation is an excision arthroplasty of the femoral head named after the first Nuffield Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Oxford. It is a treatment for osteoarthritis of the hip.

After removal of the femoral head a fibrous joint forms between the acetabulum and the femoral shaft. The procedure offers excellent pain relief and good stability at the cost of reduced mobility.

The equivalent of the Girdlestone hip operation is one of the steps in hip replacement surgery.