Thanks,
@Celle. We have discussed it in length many times. I don't remember all the details, but will be getting them once again from my OS (poor guy...lol). When his scheduler called this am they were scheduling it for the 23rd of Nov, until I asked how many days he has me scheduled to be in the hospital. She told me three days; I realized that would mean I'd have to spend Thanksgiving in the hospital, so picked the option of the 19th instead. It's unlikely I'll be in a full week, so should be home for T-day.
I now remember he had told me three days, and that after those three days we'd see how I was doing and he'd either let me go home or keep me longer if needed. I'll be on an epidural again for pain control, and after a couple of days he'll lower it gradually and see how I tolerate it. If I don't do well without it by three days or so, he'll have a pain ball inserted again, and if that works, I can go home. There's a greater chance the ball won't work this time due to the location of the surgery being partly above where they have to insert the ball, so we are going to be taking it one step at a time. But I won't go home until they can manage the pain, or it lessens enough for me to tolerate it.
The surgery, as I understand it, and don't hold me to the details as it's been a while since he explained it to me, consists of attaching a bone graft and wiring it on to my femur and tibia, in order to stabilize the movement of both bones into the tip of the posts he inserted during the revision. The vast majority (I think he said 99.9%) of people who have this surgery, and end up with some post tip pain, improve over time as their bone remodels and fills in the gap. Mine didn't, so my bones continue to hit the tips, which causes a great deal of pain.
As he explained it, our bones bend a bit, but the posts are solid and don't bend at all, so as I move, my bones hit the post tips. As your bone remodels, the post and bone basically become one and no longer clash.
To top it all off, due to my gimpy walk, some previously unknown spurs that are on the top of my left foot have flared up and are causing me a great deal of pain there too. He thinks they'll settle back down once I'm past the surgery and walking better. I messaged him this afternoon to ask if they'll definitely settle down, or if there's a chance they will remain painful, and if we should, or even can, consider removing them at the same time.
We did talk about recovery, but I don't remember all the details, so will be asking him those questions, along with probably a bunch more.