Hi jake, fingers crossed your cousins procedure goes well. My husband is currently without a hip following an infection in his hip. He has also had the spacer device fitted in the hip area, which I assume is the device you mention which contains antibiotics. This is usually left in for a few months to allow the antibiotics to be released into his body. He will be able to walk with the spacer device, albeit a bit slow but with time and patience he’ll learn how to adjust with it. Hopefully after this time, they’ll remove it and put in a new hip joint. Good luck to your cousin.