lydamorehouse | (Reply)

From:

You shouldn't feel sorry. I was really, REALLY glad to have an option that would basically bring me back and forth to LaCrosse in one day. (I'll be taking the train home tonight.) That has SAVED MY BACON!!!

And, as for my dad, yep... that's basically the deal. Because he has this infection that's settled into his bone, they have to do this first step with the spacer. Then, once all the infection is gone, they can do the "real" hip replacement surgery.

I believe that with the real deal, he'll get both ball and socket replaced. Right now, they're only replacing the ball joint and some of the bone... which is a bit of a bummer because the socket has gotten worn down and the MD is a bit worried that it won't support full weight and the ball joint will "slip out." (But that wouldn't be an end to all hope, just a differnt, slightly more painful recovery with a lot less weight going on the foot... ie a walker instead of crutches/cane.)

On the up side, the doctor, who is an extremely gloomy gus, seemed down right positive about how well things went. So fingers crossed.