Thursday, April 14, 2011

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Nana returns for surgery

From my dad, mostly:


Hi everyone. Tuesday started out full of optomism.  A followup appointment with the Orthopedic Surgeon was going to promote Sue to the advanced PT and comfort of the LLU Rehabilitation, Orthopedic, and Neuroscience Institute.  However, the XRays were bad news.  While the long screw from hip to hip was working fine, the two shorter screws  put in the front bones of Sue's pelvis had worked loose and were no longer holding on very well to the bones.  So Wednesday Sue had Round 2 orthopedic surgery.  The short screws were removed, and an external fixation hardware device was installed - a pin/rod through the skin on each hip screwed into the bone, with a curved carbon fiber bracket connecting the pins across the front.  This should do the job of holding the lower anterior bones of the pelvis together so the fractures will heal. 
Sue was in surgery from about 3 pm to 6 pm, in recovery until 9:30 pm.  More to come in a day or two.

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