Hi Squirrely Jo,

Thanks for asking about me! I appreciate your thoughtfulness. :-)

I'm scheduled for surgery #3 on January 14th. I can't remember what I
said in my last post on this, but basically they are going to take out
the pyrocarbon implant and try a silicone implant instead. My surgeon
asked some colleagues for their input on my case and that was the
general consensus as to what would be best.

I know that the pyrocarbon implants are much better long-term, as they
stand up to wear-and-tear much better; but they don't seem to be
working in that finger, so we are running out of choices. I have read
good and bad about the silicone; I guess the one more encouraging thing
I've read is that even if they do "technically" fail -- i.e. crack or
something -- some patients don't even *know* that there's a problem
because they can still somehow work all right even when something's
happened. That's not always the case, but at least it sounds like if
there *is* a problem with the silicone implant, it won't *necessarily*
be the end of the world. Also, of course, since my main problem is the
implant dislocating, it's at least a little bit encouraging to know
that the silicone ones can't dislocate since they're all one piece!

At this point, I am just praying this will work for me, because I don't
have many other options. The finger can't be fused now, so we have to
find a way to make this work somehow. I'm nervous about it, but I will
also be happy to get it over with again as the dislocated finger does
tend to be sore and it gets frustrating sometimes... and I just want to
know if this will work or not, this time around!

Tracy