Some of you might remember last summer when I dislocated my shoulder. A few weeks after the injury, I started physical therapy and for a little while was going great guns before I hit a plateau. After weeks of little to no progress, an MRI performed in October showed a partly-torn tendon and maybe rotator-cuff issues. Surgery is scheduled for tomorrow morning and hopefully we'll find out what's going on with the damn thing. Wish me luck!
Good Luck! Hope everything goes well.
I feel your pain - I dislocated my right arm. Except, I was a baby, and no surgery was needed (all they simply did, trying not to be gruesome, was try and work around what was broken, and it worked pretty well - it has no problems at all).
Thank you! If I feel up to it after the surgery tomorrow, I'll post how things went, but it might be Tuesday or so.
Good luck! I went through shoulder surgery last July. Enjoy the days post-op relaxing on the couch, enjoy the painkillers, and keep up with the PT!
Well, as it turned out, I didn't have my surgery because of last-minute insurance issues. I won't elaborate, but my surgery is on hold while I seek out another orthopedic surgeon who accepts my insurance.
Quote from: hm insulators on January 18, 2016, 03:05:56 PM
Well, as it turned out, I didn't have my surgery because of last-minute insurance issues. I won't elaborate, but my surgery is on hold while I seek out another orthopedic surgeon who accepts my insurance.
That stinks - and points up another way that our health insurance system does not work well.
Well, I finally had my first consultation with my new doctor, and we have scheduled surgery for March 3. Let's hope it works out this time!
Remember the golden rule: always listen to (and treat well) your nurses. They are the true Primary Care Providers, and can make or break your experience.
Hoping it goes well!
Most likely by the time many of you read this, I will probably be in the OR, and hopefully everything will go okay. I don't do well psychologically with surgery; I find it more frightening than most people, so I'll probably be up all night worrying about it. Wish me luck!
Let us know how it goes. Wishing you good drugs and a speedy recovery.
The name of this thread sounds like a John Denver song.
Quote from: hm insulators on March 02, 2016, 09:58:24 PM
I don't do well psychologically with surgery; I find it more frightening than most people,
Hard to really grasp unless you tell us how frightening you find most people. (!)
There's nothing unusual about worrying about surgery. And fortunately those worries are usually unfounded.
Quote from: bandit957 on March 03, 2016, 08:31:47 PM
The name of this thread sounds like a John Denver song.
Updates almost always make me high.
Quote from: hm insulators on March 02, 2016, 09:58:24 PM
Most likely by the time many of you read this, I will probably be in the OR, and hopefully everything will go okay. I don't do well psychologically with surgery; I find it more frightening than most people, so I'll probably be up all night worrying about it. Wish me luck!
How did the surgery go? Are they making you use the foam block brace thing? I thankfully didn't need to on my surgery last summer because they didn't have to reattach/construct anything.
The surgery was done Thursday morning, and they gave me that foam block thing. It was so heavy, plus it wouldn't stay put and on top of that interfered with my sleep, so Arnold took me to a Walgreens and we bought a sling that is far more tolerable for this wearer. I tried to contact the doctor about my troubles on Friday (I had questions about the medicine too), but there seemed to be an issue with them having the wrong phone number; they said they tried calling me back and I didn't answer. I was home and the phone never rang.
Saw the doctor yesterday for my first post-op appointment. He took out the stitches and gave me a report about what he had found. I had a partially-torn rotator cuff, plus some tendons that had to be put back into place. There was far less swelling, bruising and pain than there was with my hernia repair last year; on the other hand, I wish these surgeons would knock it off with the damn tube down the trachea! Every time they do that, it messes up my vocal cords and they take that much longer to heal, plus they never seem to fully get back to normal. If this keeps up, I won't have any vocal cords left to talk with! (Some who know me might actually consider that a blessing. :-D)
My next appointment is in two weeks, and after that if all is going well, physical therapy.
That's good news, overall, tho I am sorry about the tracheal tube aftermath. (It is kind of important to for them to breathe for you while you're anesthetized, and an endo tracheal tube is the most secure way to do so. If it helps, you can blame the anesthesiologist; surgeons don't usually have much input into tracheal tube use)
Best wishes for continued healing, and onward to physical therapy.
I've started physical therapy just last week. So far, so good.
I'm making ever-so-slow progress. My physical therapy began as passive PT where the therapist does all the movements of the arm, and the last couple of weeks I've been doing "active" PT where I do all the exercises.
That's good that you're in active PT. Hopefully this all gets better for you soon (sounds like it's heading in that direction already)!