We have a date!!

What an eventful day!

My surgeon realised it's definitely crunch time.  He'll see if he can replace the ball of my artificial joint with a smaller one to make it fit better given the idea is to replace at least the ball anyway to attempt to beat this infection.

If it is indeed an infection.  The Dr isn't sure.  These things are very hard to diagnose.  He said he wont be removing or replacing the stem of the prosthesis unless it's loose since in his experience he has never seen or even heard of an infected stem that wasn't loose.

I'm still keen he rips it out.  If it's a very slow growing infection, it mightn't loosen for another year or so and we'd be right here where we started.  I'll have to plead my case in theatre.

He'll also give everything a good wash out and cut out any dodgy looking bone and tissue and send swabs and samples to pathology.

I'll have IV antibiotics for a few days and depending what's found and how it looks, he might have one of the infectious diseases docs to come see me in hospital.  If that happens they will figure out what my antibiotic treatment will be at that point but he warned me whatever it is it would probably last 6-8 months if the infectious diseases people get their hands on me!

He couldn't commit to how long I'll be in hospital but he did say it could be quite a while depending what they find.

Usually after the consent forms are signed, his secretary finds a spot on the operating list (which is currently a month away!) but he said he'd get me in sooner and was true to his word.

I burst into tears when I asked whether another anaesthetist was available and how absolutely awful the usual one is.  I've had the misfortune of having him 3 times!  he keeps promising to retire but he never does.  Mr B was naturally very concerned and looked up his operating schedule himself on the computer and found me a spot on Tues morning!

I could have kissed him.  The catch is that all this depends on whether the hospital can get my spare parts in by then!  The secretary made some calls and turns out they need to come from Sydney.  I'm dreading a call to say they can't do it! 

Mr B rarely does morning surgeries too and they're so much better especially if it's an overnight stay.  If the anaesthetic block is done right, it can provide pain relief for up to 12 hours so if you have a late afternoon op, it wears off only hours before you are supposed to be discharged and don't have a good feel for what the pain is like.  I always stay at least an extra night for this reason.

I have so much to do!  I've bought a few extra pairs of nice jammies.  I always do when I go into hospital and my collection of "good" jammies is adding up but given I have an open-ended stay I needed a few more.  They all need short sleeves to accomodate the whopper of a dressing and temporary plaster they always use.

I've bought the newest Shopaholic book and I'm going to exercise every ounce of self control not to read it before tuesday!