Stephanie’s Hip Revision & move 2 handicapped apt

Having to ask for help has always been extremely difficult for me. I have always been one that someone comes to for help, not the one needing it. This past 6 months has taught me that you never know what life is going to throw at you. I had it all together, a wonderful husband and home, a job as dietary director at an assisted living facility, where I really felt I was making a difference in people’s lives and we were making it through a pandemic with ALOT less loss than most facilities had.

A year ago a found a knot on my left hip that I had after a total hip replacement done back in 2007. I was the poster child for a successful hip replacement. I went from being in constant pain from a congenital defect to pain free almost overnight. I got my life back and really didn’t think a little knot could be serious or actually even anyway connected to my replaced hip so I was slow in getting it checked out. I was busy taking care of people and getting them through the holidays while they were on complete lock down and couldn’t even leave their rooms.

I did finally go to my GP to get it checked out, it was about the size of a grapefruit by this time. Ultrasound, MRI, and finally a trip to diagnostic radiology confirmed that this lump was a seroma completely intertwined in my hip joint. The new hip was failing and completely infected. By now it’s late June. Hip revision scheduled and hopefully all will go well and I’ll be back on my feet in 6-8 weeks was the best case scenario. But you know when the dr has to tell you the worst case scenario? Well that’s what I got, plus some. Emergency surgery on July 22 because the seroma has ruptured and is tunneling infection down my leg, followed by removal of my hip implant on July 26. An antibiotic spacer was now trying to rid my left hip and thigh of infection that had probably been there for several years and then the spacer dislocated the first few hours out of surgery. So for the last 4 months my hip ball is about waist level and makes my left leg 6 inches shorter than the right leg.

10 days l go home with a picc line and IV antibiotics 4 times a day. This goes on for 8 weeks, followed by 30 days of oral antibiotics and then a 2 week “breather” for my system. That brings us to today and we are waiting for an aspiration of the joint to make sure there is no infection still there. If there is infection then we start over. Ugh! But if not then we move ahead with a new hip replacement but we’ve got one shot because the bone, muscle, and tissue is so destroyed from the infection and the dr ( who has since gone MIA) who removed the old implant. I do have a new surgeon now, he often uses the words butchered and destroyed when talking about my hip that hopefully he can repair so that eventually I’ll only have to use a cane instead of a walker.

My life for the last 4 months has been in my living room. I’m not able to leave home unless someone is there to walk with me across the yard as it’s dirt and rocks with no sidewalk. That means no going out in the rain or for 3 or 4 days after any rain because of the mud. The bathroom door is too small for a wheelchair or walker to go thru without the door being removed so no privacy at all. It’s undignified as the very least, most women probably understand this, men maybe ?

My husband Paul is able to work only enough to leave me for short periods of time as it’s not safe for me to be alone. We so desperately need to move to a handicapped accessible apartment. I have lost my job that I loved so much. Medical bills that insurance won’t cover are piling up. Any help that anyone could offer is so appreciated. And our deepest thank you to all of you that have helped and the most thanks for those who have Prayed for me.