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
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
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
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.