Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Prayers for my brother, again, please

Tomorrow my brother is undergoing the 4th major surgery on his hip since last May.  He had a hip replacement done in May, by June he realized something wasn't right.  He had a major staph infection.  They opened him up, drained more infectious gunk than you would believe from the hip area (4 liters!), took out part of the prostheses, cleaned the area, put the prostheses back in, and sent him home with antibiotics by iv for 6 weeks.  He was off the antibiotics (off and on) till January.  The infection would not go away.  So, they opened him back up, took out the entire prostheses, and put an antibiotic filled "dummy" hip spacer in its place.  He went home with another 6 weeks of antibiotic by iv.  The past couple of weeks he's been off the antibiotics to see what would happen.  The blood work doesn't look good, but the fluid they drained from his hip last week did look ok.  So, tomorrow, they are going back in.  They will take tissue samples and run tests on them while he is in the operating room.  If they look good, he will wake up with a new hip prostheses.  If it doesn't look good, he will wake up with another "dummy" hip spacer and will go home to another 6 weeks of antibiotic by iv and facing yet another surgery.  He does not think the infection is gone because his hip is hurting again like it did when all this started.  So, please pray that the tissue samples are clear of infection and that this is the last surgery he will have to have.  Thanks

3 comments:

  1. I am so sorry for your brother, Julia. Yes I will be praying for him and you and all the other family members and for your mother.

    Thank you for always posting comments on my blog. You are a very faithful follower.

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  2. Goodness! Bless his heart for having to endure this for so long. In our day of modern medicine, you would think this wouldn't be so complicated. Praying for him!

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  3. I will join you and the others in prayer too. Thank you for keeping us up-to-date.

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