So I thought things had settled own. Went to have my pacemaker 'read' and during the conversation mentioned I was fighting a bone infection. Now he is pressuring me to get the thing fixed and even called an infectious disease doctor while I was in the office. Said if I did not get it taken care of it could ruin the 3 stents and the pacemaker would also need to be removed. Now I am trying to get the ortho surgeon to talk to the infectious disease Dr. so that they can move ahead with the pic line and subsequent treatment. Like Cindy said, on this forum, it is a long process, like 6 months. The most serious event, and I do not think it will happen, is that all the hardware in my ankle will need to be removed along with the pacemaker. That will make me pretty much an invalid (sp?) What if they decided to remove my artificial knee??? Sheesh !!! Need some answers.