Thank you all so much for your support. I am finally home.
I had a really huge hematoma. Not only all the fluid I gushed that first Friday, but when they went in Wednesday there was still a huge pocked up into my groin. They cleaned it, scraped it, hosed it down in antibiotics, and gave me a drain for 2 days to be sure it was done.
Or at least, encourage it to be done. My surgeon says hematoma can be weird, reoccur, and don't follow the rules. It is possible it will come back, but we hope not.
Because my body opened a wound to relieve fluid pressure, the staph bacteria that is perfectly normal on our skin got inside. Staph inside is particularly bad for prostheses. If the new artificial hip gets tainted, staph makes a coating on it that is impossible to clean off. My infection was caught extremely quickly, but longer term IV antibiotics are called for to make absolutely certain there is no infection incursion into the joint capsule. There were no indications of any deep infection, but they can't really be certain.
This means iv antibiotics. My infectious disease specialists are still discussing how long, exactly, is the right amount of time. If it had been an infection without prosthesis, that would be 2 weeks. If they think there was a deep incursion, that is 6 weeks. It will definitely be at least 2 weeks. I'll find out Tuesday the final call.
I have a pic line in my arm for long term IV antibiotics. Those are annoying, but unfortunately this is not my first time with one, so I know the drill.
All this means I went into the hospital Wednesday morning for clean out, and I just got home
last night. They had a plan by Friday, but I was held hostage by insurance red tape and approvals for home IV infusions. They were barely able to put all the pieces together yesterday in time to get me released.
The hospital took excellent care of me. The nursing staff were really great people. There was enough staff that I was able to get up and walk regularly, although not nearly as often as recommended. The kitchen did not impress, but they didn't trigger my listed food allergies, so they get kudos for a careful kitchen.
Beloved husband has been great through the whole mess. And every day when he visited, he'd go to a restaurant across the street from the hospital and being me some extra food that was safe to round out the very skimpy hospital meals, once you take out all the food I can't and won't eat. That made all the difference.
Being in a hospital when you are not in a lot of pain or very sick is stressful and tedious. I am really glad to be home with husband and cat, my shower, and most especially my bed, and my kitchen for real food that better supports my nutritional needs for healing.
United States
Keeping you in my thoughts and sending healing virtual hugs. 
no place like home! "--especially one with a loving caretaker husband and a CAT.
