Update to All

[Guest guest]

Well, here we go again,

I am scheduled for Monday morning @ 9:30 am to hafve my original replacement

knee to be removed and to have the space filled with antibiotic treated

cement for approximately 6-8 weeks and then they do more testing on the knee

and if and only if, the entire infection is healed, will they then schedule

my surgery to put a brand new replacement knee is that has been updated.

Currently, my knee is " weeping " , red, swollen and I can put absolutely no

weight on that leg at all hip to ankle. I thought this would be done on next

Thursday and he said absolutely not, can't wait that long. Shouldn''t even

wait until Monday, but doctors need to be contacted, tests need to be done

and I need to have time with my family. I will be back at North Broward

Medical Center (one of our local trauma centers). Ron asked the doctor how

these things got started and without even taking a breath, my ortho said " It

is my fault, I am the surgeon on record and I take full responsibility for

this whole problem " Deb did everything she was supposed to, I tried in vain

to save that knee and it just wasn't meant to be " . This was not the answer I

was looking for. I had no idea to sue the doctor, but he fully admitted his

involvement in this whole saga. He says that he has never had a patient who

has been so sick. I told him that I was about done wasting time with this

knee and he agreed with me and I told him that it had been a very long road.

He said " just don't forget that every step that I took, he walked with me?.

He was right again. He came in our the weekends he wasn't on call, opened up

the OR on a Sunday morning, came in on Labor Day and never dumped me on one

of his collegues because it was " too " hard of a case. So I did some very

deep looking into his eyes (the Bible says that this is the window into a

mans soul) and all I could see was a caring, compassionate and a man who took

him medical oath very seriously. He has given me 75 mg of Duragesic for pain

and percocet for breakthru pain which I have been taking like I have nothing

else in my system. He tells me that that is also another symptom that the

infection is not gone due to the severity of my pain. He did take fluid out

on Monday (60 cc) and the counts have not changed at all, however, there is a

culture that is pending which he tells me is that something is growing and

they just don't have the sensitivities finished yet. So when he put all this

stuff together, this led him to this latest and final decision.

I will have someone from the family keep y'all up to date, if you would like

about the status of my latest adventure. I know I get kinda boring after a

while and if it is just too much, just let me know, no hard feelings and one

less thing for my to have to do.

Thank you all for hanging in there with me in my quest to better walking!

Gentle, tender, these knees are made for walking, angel hugs,

Debs in FL