Not new, but asking for thoughts and prayers

Hey gang,
I'm not the newest person to the threads, but I was hoping to ask for kind thoughts and prayers this coming week. My wife has to have major hip surgery -- a resection arthroplasty -- which means that the surgeon will be taking out the artificial hip joint she has had for about 10 years and putting nothing back in. Susan's pelvis is too fragile for another rebuild, so they have no choice but to leave her with half a right femur. She will have nothing in her pelvis on the right side after this, and MAY be confined to a wheelchair for a long time. We're going for a walker after long hours of therapy. That is for the future though. Susan has had four hip replacements, and the last one included a substantial amount of cadaver bone installed in the pelvis. Well, the pelvis has just deteriorated, and here we are.
Before anyone talks about second opinions and such, please understand that the surgeon we're seeing is the chief of orthopedic surgery at Stanford University, pretty much the go-to guy for any sort of specialized surgery in the west half of the USA, and one of the leading experts on hip recovery surgeries in the world (his name is Dr. Stuart Goodman if you're curious).

Anyhow, pray for us if that's your thing, think kind thoughts, sacrifice a goat, whatever you're willing to do to make our karma more positive in this. We leave our town for Stanford on Tuesday, June 8, and Susan checks in on Wednesday June 9.

Thank you.

 

kind thoughts all the way, hope all goes well for her, ray..

 

Hi Hummel, wishing you all the best on this tough chapter of your life

 

Hummel, your wife and you are on my prayer list.

 

I will give it my best!

 

geezo man ! yes our prayers are with you Hummel and your bride. nothing can be done with a rebuild via plastics ?

be strong

 

I hope for the best for you and your wife, Hummel.

 

hummel, my prayers and thoughts are with you and your wife . Keep us posted on how she's doing. We're all like family here.

take care

 

Prayers will be said here for you and yours.

 

Hummel

You and your wife Susan will be in our prayers for a safe trip there, a successful surgery, quick recovery and an easy and quick recuperation.

The good Lord willing, all this will come to pass.

God Bless,
Andrew

 

Greetings one and all,
Well, we're back. Susan had quite a series of unpleasant things (and some really nice ones) happen. Okay, to start:
Tuesday: We arrive at my sister's house in San Jose, saw lots of cute bunnies, deer, and, a hawk, which ate one of the bunnies in front of my 2 year old grand-nephew who thought it was the absolute coolest thing he had ever seen.
Tuesday night: We check in at the local residence inn, nice place, no TV, crap. Susan calls and confirms her 7:45 AM tee time (pardon the golfing-medicine-doctor joke). Hospital says, "OK! See you then!"
Wednesday morning: Sak and Susan get up at 0500, shower and trundle off to hospital where Nice Nurse tells us, "We're sorry no one called you, but your surgery time has been moved back 6 hours. You can wait in the hospital, but if you leave the grounds, you lose your spot." We are irate, but don't leave the waiting room. Not leaving turns out to be a GOOD thing.
Wednesday morning (a bit later): Nice nurse comes out, "We had two chickens not show up for their surgery. You're up!" Yea! Susan goes into prep, Sak goes into HIGH ANXIETY STATE. I tell you, NOTHING makes a man more crazy than knowing his wife is in danger and there is absolutely ZIP he can do about it. Married men chime in here, please? Am I right?
Wednesday an indeterminate time later but about 4.21 epochs of waiting: Dr. Stuart Goodman comes out and tells Sak that they got the whole assembly in one piece. The errant screw that caused the whole problem came out like a charm, and there is NO infection (they did something like 14 cultures along the way). YEA! More waiting while Susan is in post-op. Mind you, I am popping vicodin ES like M&Ms, ok?
Wednesday early evening: Susan gets out and goes to the ortho wing of the hospital where we meet her caretakers. I recommend Stanford with, as you will see later, one reservation. Family comes to visit. All is well.
Thursday all day: Susan is wracked with spasms. For those who missed it, or maybe I didn't say it, Susan has mild cerebral palsy on the right side, same side as hip procedure. CP causes mild muscle contractions. Now imagine involuntary muscle contractions around where you just had a major incision. The medical team assesses this and Susan is now on the following pain meds:
Morphine Sulfate extended release 3 180mg pills 3/day
12 mg dilaudid every 3 hours
10 mg percocet every 4 hours
1 mg dilaudid IV push every 3 hours
5 mg valium IV push emergency spasm counter.
Basically, you should feel free to say, "HOLY CRAP!" ok?
Friday: A REALLY good day. Susan is sitting up in a chair. Family comes to visit and brings two killer pizzas (real NY style pizza out here in CA, we LOVE it) and Susan is feeling good. Oh, by the way. A side note here . . . my oldest brother is gay, and his partner is 1. quite wealthy, 2. the CEO of a small but international corporation, and 3. away a LOT of the time flying around on business (he has 2.2 million miles on his charge card). I got to stay in his house while Susan was in hospital and he was away on business. So, sorry Susan my love, but SAWEET! hehe
Saturday: Susan feels so good she gets discharged, and this is where that one reservation comes in, and it is a BIG one. They gave us the WRONG prescriptions for Susan -- all of them, pain meds, blood thinners, everything. And the pain scripts were triplicates (for those who don't know, in the USA, a "triplicate prescription" means it is a highly controlled substance. While some of these can be called in to the pharmacy, the vast majority of them must be hand carried in the store. Needless to say, all of Susan's pain scripts were of this latter, more controlled type.). Now this is a REALLY bad thing. Susan already has a lot of the extended morphine, and I have a lot of vicodin ES, so we're going to try to get through til Monday when we can get to our primary care MD for scripts.
Basically, Susan is doing well. She will be pretty much wheelchair bound forever, with a walker for short trips (like to the loo). That doesn't matter to me at all. I love her, and will love her forever, and she is still my favorite paladin.
Thank you everyone who was kind enough to send good thoughts and prayers to us. They made a difference.
Peace.

 

Well Hummel i'm sorry to hear that she may never walk again. But i'm happy that she made it and is doing well. She has a good husband with her who will take good care of her.. so she's gonna be okey

 

Your dedication to your wife is admirable and something despite my age, I have not seen to much in older couples.

I hope your wife does get better and that she does not go through to much pain to get there. Also thankyou for the updates, if it is at all possible please keep us continually up to date.

 

You sir, define the meaning of a great husband !!

I have a disabled sister that has the same problems. In 2006 she feel and broke her hip. She too is wheelchair bound except for short trips on a walker. She had a severe head injury at the age of 4, but at her age of 58, she still smiles and is THE sweetest person on earth.

God bless you and your wife.

Steve

 

Ouch sounds serious. My families thoughts and prayers are with you and wife m8.

 

Hummel,

I too missed this thread earlier, but you and your wife are in my thoughts and prayers as she recovers from the actual surgery and you go through the changes around you. Having MS, I've experienced times of not walking so understand the frustration that she will have on occasion when she just wants to get something without bothering you. She is very fortunate to have a devoted husband who is and obviously will be there for her. I wish you both times with laughter and peace.

 

Shucks gang, I'm just a guy who's lucky enough to love his wife. Thanks for the salutes and all, but they weren't necessary, and they WERE a surprise. Thank you again. See ya around the boards.
Hummel