Thank you for your suggestions, @shenriq. I did quite a bit of online research about treatment options once my infection was diagnosed, as well as speaking with my infectious disease specialist. There are a lot of medical journal articles online that looked at this, and it seemed quite clear that non-surgical treatment (antibiotics only) was really only an option if the infection is discovered and treatments began within just a few days of the onset...otherwise, surgical revision is required to address the infection. There were a number of journal articles, particularly from the UK, where they compared single-stage and two-stage revisions for infected hip implants. From what I saw, the two-stage (two surgeries and the antibiotic spacer) had significantly better success rates than just a single surgery to swap out hardware.

As far as mobility, and as my ortho explained, that really varies from patient to patient. For me, it's now been 8 weeks since they removed the infected joint and implanted the spacer and I'm still needing to use a walker or crutches to get around. I've briefly tried using just a cane, but that still puts too much weight (and pain) on my right leg. For the most part, there's no pain when I'm not moving around, but movement is slow and still always comes with some degree of pain. When I'm at home, it seems the walker is just more convenient than crutches most of the time. Fortunately, I have a job that allows me the opportunity to do some work from home/electonically but I've been wanting to get out of the house. So this week I began going into work for 4-5 hours a day and using crutches to get around when there. I've been having my wife or son drive me...I'm in no condition to be driving a vehicle for two reasons: my right leg doesn't have the strength or agility to safely control the gas/brake pedals and I'm also still taking narcotic pain meds. While I've been able to reduce the amount of meds I've been taking, there is no doubt my judgement and reaction times are still compromised to some degree (especially with our icy roads).

But, after just two days of going into the office, I've had a little swelling return and my joint is much more stiff and painful than it had been before. So, I'm home resting it today. Maybe I'll get a little more mobility if I just keep at it, but I think this is most likely as good as it's going to get until I get a functioning hip joint re-implanted. Next week, I think I'll try going into the office every other day (MWF) and see if that works better.

On Friday this week, they will draw out (aspirate) and culture some fluid from my hip joint to make sure the infection is/remains clear. My re-implantation surgery is scheduled for Feb 14, if everything contiues to look good. It's frustrating that it's still more than a month away (and will be almost exactly 3 months from the first surgery)...but as I mentioned before, longer waits before re-implantation should hopefully provide some more assurance that the infection is truly gone.

@janelaine, I hope you're doing well. Is your second surgery on the calendar yet?

Best,
Art in AK