HIP SURGERY

Eileen’s eighty-five-year-old mother traveled two hours yesterday morning to St. Mary’s Medical Center in Evansville, Indiana to repair a hip that didn’t heal after being fractured earlier this year. There she will undergo a hip replacement surgery to a hip that already has a rod in it.

It’s unfortunate that she has had to have the additional surgery; it’s also unfortunate that she has to go so far from home to get it done. I suppose one of the disadvantages of living in rural America is the paucity of nearby doctors that the family is comfortable with doing the surgery. Circumstances are stacked against Eileen’s mom but she is a strong woman. She would welcome any and all prayers.

The surgery went well for Eileen’s mom and Eileen will stay in close contact with her. Eileen talks to her mother almost daily and she will be visiting her in the hospital Wednesday morning. If all goes according to schedule, Eileen will spend the day and night with her before bringing her home on Thanksgiving.

As we head up to Illinois late Tuesday afternoon, we will go right through Evansville. However, it will be about one o’clock in the morning. We’ll continue to Eileen’s mom’s house where we’ll spend the rest of the night. Eileen will get up in the morning and take her mother’s car back to the hospital. Our oldest son’s family will arrive at Eileen’s mom’s house Tuesday night, several hours before we arrive. I’ll spend the next day with them before heading to St. Louis in the late afternoon to pick up our oldest daughter from the airport. There will be a lot of moving parts to this visit but one of the most important is that Eileen’s mother recovers well.