Dislocated my right shoulder last week!

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Did a great job of it, too! Here's what happened:

Last Tuesday, I took a day trip up to Flagstaff from Phoenix; didn't do any detours, just the straight shot up and down I-17. Went hiking in the mountains and visited Lowell Observatory. I got home about 10PM, and just as I was opening the door to my second-story apartment, a blue plastic canteen fell off a chair and rolled toward the edge of the walkway. The canteen looked like it was going to slip beneath the bottom of the railing and fall to the ground floor, and not wanting to go back downstairs, I made a wild, off-balance grab for it and hyperextended the arm. The pain was the worst I think I'd ever felt and I realized I had done something terrible to the shoulder and I howled! A bunch of neighbors came out, including Arnold Torres, the fellow who helped me post-hernia-surgery. Somebody called the paramedics but because this wasn't really a life-threatening emergency, we decided against the ambulance. Getting me down those stairs was tricky, though! It took four paramedics plus four neighbors to get me downstairs, with me howling as the pain was absolutely excruciating.

Arnold drove me to the hospital, and to make a long story short, the ER technicians tried to "reduce" the dislocation but the pain was too intense. Ultimately, I was put under anesthesia for the procedure the next afternoon, and I finally went home Thursday. So here I am, with right arm in a sling--it stinks only having one arm really usable! But once again, Arnold has been of great help with the cooking, showers and the whole works!

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I have an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon tomorrow afternoon and I'll find out more about how things are going. I was originally slated to see him Monday afternoon but he ended up being swamped at his hospital with lots of fractures (the secretary who called to cancel the appointment said that they must be having a sale on fractures ).

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Okay, here's the scoop: Yesterday afternoon, Arnold took me to the orthopedist, and the first thing was a few X-rays at his office. This was the noisiest damned X-ray machine you've ever heard! Kerchunka-kerchunka-kerchunka! apparently all day long whether or not the machine was being used. The technician explained that this had been going for about a year and because the machine is so old, they can't get the parts to fix it. (Uh, whatever happened to, I don't know, buying a new one? ) A bit later, Arnold, the technician and I were laughing about the machine.

The doctor came in (even with the exam-room door closed, you could still hear the X-ray machine going kerchunka-kerchunka-kerchunka in the background). He was happy with the X-rays and that the shoulder is healing nicely, although now the upper arm muscles are weak and my right elbow is stiff because of the arm being in a sling all this time. I'm able to leave the sling off at times when I'm at home, and next Friday, I'll start physical therapy two or three times a week for about six weeks. I see the doctor again after I'm done with the therapy.

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Had my first visit with the physical therapist last Friday. She did little more than take measurements and provide me some arm exercises. Yesterday was my first real work with her, and she had me do the same exercises I'd been doing at home, plus a couple of others, including one where I use an oversize rubber band for strengthening the arm muscles. Just the one visit helped quite a bit with my arm's flexibility, and I'm going to see her two to three times a week for a month or so.