Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Shoulder surgery a success!

Yesterday I spent the morning in surgery almost four months after my accident with a wonderful doctor who was seeking to reattach an overlooked bone fragment and the associated rotator cuff muscles to my left humerus. Without these, there's no way for me to lift my left arm. I'm pleased to report that the difficult procedure seems to have been successful. The surgeon was able to save and reattach part of the bone, some of the muscle and a few of the tendons. There's no way to know how much mobility will return until I go through physical therapy which will not begin for another six weeks to give the bone enough time to heal. In the meantime, I need to keep my left arm immobilized in a sling. When therapy begins it will be a bit like Goldilocks; if I push it too hard, the muscles may detach and if I don't push it hard enough, my shoulder may stay frozen. I might also need an arthroscopic procedure once the bone is healed to increase the range. And so it goes.

Pain management has been a challenge this time around. Since I've been taking a low dose of medication for some time, I seem to have built up a degree of tolerance and so the dosage the doctor prescribed did virtually nothing. We finally dialed in the correct dosage by 10:30 last night, so there were a few rough hours in there. Let's just say that I have a much better appreciation of Jessie's forays into natural childbirth as a result.

Looks like my plan to get back on the bike again in March is still on track.

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