Thursday, April 22, 2004

Stevie’s scheduled 10am surgery was rescheduled to 11:10. We accompanied her to the Piedmont Hospital pre-op (Shepherd and Piedmont are connected via a tunnel) where we were to wait until 1:55pm. Little comfort on the small stretcher until a ~1:15 fentanyl injection (via pic).

We retired to the surgical waiting room. At 5:25 Dr. Moore approached us with good news. He removed the ball of the right hip joint (Girdlestone operation), removed all tissue that appeared infected, added a plate to (hopefully) allow the fracture of the hip to mend, and removed the anti-biotic balls that UAB had inserted. After surgery, to recovery at Piedmont and then to ICU in Shepherd. She will be in ICU for the night for observation.

Pain relief will have to wait until the incisions heal a bit but Dr. Moore believes she will see substantial relief.