A New Hip and a New Walk

27 February 2014; Up "Nawth" --

As a belated Birthday Present, younger daughter, "Nancy Nurse", underwent her long-awaited surgery to replace the hip joint that was injured about 25 years before. She had been "too young" for the artificial implant previously, but this was probably just as well as the technology has improved over the intervening years such that this implant will last for the rest of her life. The "prothesis", as it is called, is made of sintered metal (Titanium?) so that in the natural bone-healing process, the bone "grows into" the pores in the sintered metal and thus becomes a permanent part of her hip. In the similar surgery a couple decades ago, the prothesis was a solid metal part and was "glued" into place using something like Dental cement. This cement weakened over time and the attachment became loose and required a second surgery to ream out the Fibia and replace the metal part with one slightly larger.

As most readers of this BLOG know, "Nancy" had a decided limp [progressively more pronounced as the years went by], due to the pain [also increasing as the years went by] associated with the deterioration [also increasing as the years went by] of the bones in the two intersecting body parts: the Fibia and the Pelvis. Her Physical Therapist told her that the most important reason for her to faithfully use her walker to move about during her rehabilitation was to help her overcome the "habit" of limping.

As a caring Father, with nothing to do but interfere in the affairs of my Children, Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildren, I went up "Nawth" to spend time with "Nancy" when she came out of ICU. [I would have been there earlier, before she went into surgery but her Surgeon moved her time to earlier in the day before she could let me know.] She countered with an offer to have me stay overnight in a luxurious suite in the hospital, reserved for special donors to the funds to build this new facility.

Her room, on the 10th (top) floor had a view of Mt Baker to the North.

And down the hallway on which she took her first walk later that same morning, she had a view of their Buffalo Farm (Bisondalen) across the Snohomish River and its sloughs, one of which their acreage abuts. See center of the photo on left.

Her first walk was not recorded because the camera's owner forgot to bring it up from the parking garage! But by the time she was doing her third walk (still the day of her surgery!) I had my camera handy for these images. 

Although she was having some pain (from the "carvings" on her skin and muscle to gain access to the hip joint), she declared that there was no longer the deep, grinding ache of the bone-on-bone irritation that she had suffered with so long -- and as recently as earlier this morning when she came into the hospital for the surgery! So she stopped to "ham it up" with this "glamorous" pose (right).

Finally, no adventure involving one of the Zimmerman Clan is complete without at least one photo of the subject in the "Classic Zimmerman Pose" -- one foot up on something: a rock, a log, ... a hospital bed rail?

Major Surgery -- The Grand Mother is Recovering

Ides of November; Doctors' Offices, Hospitals and Home --

Shakespeare wrote a line, "Beware the Ides of March", but Grumpy has plagiarized this line to say, "The Ides of November have been almost as bad." 

On 7 November, the Grand Mother had an Endoscopy [accent on the first "o"], in which a camera was poked down her throat into her stomach to view the lining, and a biopsy was taken of a swollen ulcerated area partially blocking the outlet of the stomach.

On Wednesday, 9 November, we went for the reports by an Oncologist and a Surgeon -- the biopsy had revealed that the tumor (the cause of the swollen, ulcerated area) was malignant. Surgery was scheduled for the following Wednesday, 16 November.

Waiting to hear the Oncology and Surgeon diagnosis and plan

Early the next morning, the Grand Mother told Grumpy that she had lost her supper of the night before and that she felt  major distress in her stomach; this meant that nothing was going through, and so off to Urgent Care we went. After a couple hours' testing and consultation with a doctor on duty -- who just happened to be the Surgeon with whom she had talked several hours before! -- she was ordered transferred to the hospital next door for emergency surgery.

Julius Caesar was assassinated in Shakespeare's play; the Grand Mother came too close, for Grumpy's comfort, to "cashing in her chips" that Thursday night following laparoscopic removal of the large cancerous tumor which had ulcerated the wall of her stomach, and had also blocked off the exit, causing the distress she had endured that morning. Half of her stomach, as well as the duodenum were removed with all of the cancer, including three lymph glands that also contained cancer cells. Thirteen additional lymph glands were also removed, and were determined to be "negative" for cancer cells; her surgeon reported that the boundaries of the tumor were free of extensions. This information suggests that her body is now completely free of cancer. This is an excellent prognosis for her future! 

[So, she can safely withhold her secret Lemon Meringue Pie recipe from Grumpy awhile longer without fear that it be lost to posterity.]

After the surgery, she had difficulty resuming breathing as she was coming out of the anesthesia, but the skilled surgeon and others in attendance, with same assistance from a positive breathing apparatus, were finally able to get her breathing on her own after about an hour of effort.

The Grand Mother in ICU [note tubes and monitor wires behind her neck]

Mother came home on Monday -- under normal circumstances, she would have been moved to a qualified nursing home until she was able to act completely independently. However, with two daughters (one a licensed Registered Nurse), her doctor deemed that she would be better off at home than any place else! [And, she told Grumpy that she was "thinking about" making Peanut Butter cookies for him, and that she "wanted to" bake him a Lemon Meringue Pie! Now, how great is that!!]

 

[I wonder if the removal of that cancer somehow deluded her mind? Could she have forgotten all the transgressions of which Grumpy is always so blatantly guilty?? Maybe that cancer was also a "memory chip" that, once removed, was no longer readable!!]

Finally, on the fifth day of being back at home, and eating liquefied and "mooshy" foods, the great day we were all awaiting arrived: Proof that "all systems are go!"

After

Before

These "before and after" pictures tell the story; a great celebration was held with dancing in the streets (surely somewhere), fireworks (aplenty), and of course hugs and kisses.

More stories may be told in the future days as the Grand Mother reaches her full capacity to monitor the Grumpy's activities and mischief; who knows what may transpire?! 

Stay tuned!!