Hillary’s Updates

The hip replacement was on schedule for Wednesday and it went good. The surgery was about 3hrs long. The ball and cup were replaced with a ceramic prosthetic, the femoral stem was not replaced. Her body was reacting to the metal in the ball and cup. The Dr. said she could get 30+ years out of this one. She got to go home Saturday afternoon. She is feeling okay and says that this one feels different than the first, it hurts more and feels heavy. She has about an 8 week revcovery period. Please keep her and Indi in your thoughts.

It has been almost 2 years since Hillary’s first hip replacement and there are complications. The hip will have to re-replaced with a ceramic prosthetic one instead of the metal on metal one. Apparently Hillary’s body is rejecting the metal which is rare but can happen. The surgery is scheduled for Aug 19th 2009 and will be longer than the first replacement. It will be done in Charlotte NC. Please keep Hillary and Indi in your thoughts, another road of recovery yet again.

September-December 2008
It has been a year since the hip replacment and it has taken very well. Her pain level in that new hip is gone but know there is more pain in other areas that she is feeling more. Her leg where the femur was broken and the knee below that are giving her lots of problems. There is also a problem with her back, it has “gone out” several times and she is unable to do anything, it involoves muscle spasms and sharp shooting pain. The medicatios she is on don’t do anything for pain relief. She has been living in chronic pain for the past 2 years. She is trying to get into a pain managmennt clinic, but her doctors have not referred her.

Disability has not been approved yet, not sure what the lawyers are up to. Also the NC crime victims compensation has been denied 3 times and is now going to supreme court, the reason for denial “no financial losss”. Sounds crazy since Hillary hasn’t had a job since her accident.

September 10, 2007
Today was Hillary’s hip replacement surgery. The surgery was about 2 and a half hours long. It took the surgeon a little longer on her becasue there was a lot of scar tissue in her hip from the intial injuries and broken bones. She lost some blood but it was transfused back in later on in the day. The surgeon said the bone that was removed was very rough looking and soft (not good). and that the pain Hillary was having was very evident in what he took out.

Hillary is doing very well, she is taking pain meds so she can’t feel anything yet, only that it feels like a deep scratch. On Tuesday the physical therapist got her up on a walker. She also can eat some food.

If everything stays postive she will go home Wednesday afternoon! Thanks for being there Graeme.

Full recovery will take 6-8 weeks, that is a long time not to be able to cross your legs or bend down.

July 27, 2007
Hillary’s surgery is scheduled for September 10th 2007

July 15, 2007
Hillary will have a total hip replacement on one of her hips in September 2007, This will be done in Charlotte, NC. Check back for the specific date. Keep her in your thoughts that all goes well.

April 29, 2007
Today is a year since the accident. Hillary is still recovering from her injurires. It is so sad to see how much Hillary has had to deal with for the past year. Hopefully she will make a full revcoery and be able to put most of this behind her. Please keep her in your thoughts

November 22, 2006
Hillary had surgery today. Everything went well, the surgeon placed 2 small screws in her knee to hold up the rod runnnig up her femur. It seems the break in her femur had collapsed from removing the screw a few weeks ago (it was too big anyway) and now the bone has to heal all over again. These screws will probably be permanent. She was in “the worst pain I have ever felt ” an immense amount of pain upon waking up. But luckily there are strong drugs in this world and a great invention called crutches and importanly Hillary is the strongest person I know.

November 20, 2006
The metallic blue screw that was extracted from Hillary’s knee -a mere 2 weeks ago -is going back in because her knee is the size of my head. The rod in the femur has slipped down behind her knee cap! Supposeldly the break in the femur wasn;t healed enough and collapsed or something causing the femur rod to shift? it’s crunchy to bend and pretty painful and you can even see the end of the rod moving in the knee when it bends-pretty gross-so wish Hillary luck this wednesday-She’ll be going under again-her favorite thing!!!!!

November 8, 2006
Today Hillary had surgery to have the screw removed from her knee. There was really no need to keep it in any longer and her knee is healed enough. So it came out. The surgery went fine, anesthesia was fine,she was only at the hospital for about 5 hrs. Her knee is in a big bandage and it hurts a lot, so she can’t walk on it. But she can take the bandage off in 48hrs.