I heard yesterday about another teacher who had shoulder surgery. The person telling me said, "She was surprised at how painful it is." Well, for those of you anticipating shoulder surgery, you need to accept this fact. The first two weeks are very painful!
It has been 10 weeks for me now, so I do not remember some things from those early weeks. I should have been writing about it sooner, to be more accurate, but for a long time I didn't feel up to it. Typing was actually quite hard at first.
My experience --
Week 1: I got to the hospital at 6AM, and left at about 5PM. I was the last one in the post-operative outpatient room. I felt sick and dizzy when I tried to stand up or move. That quick acting pain med they used in the recovery room was really nice! Shot it right into the IV. I'm allergic to morphine, so they couldn't give me that. They had to shoot me up with some nausea medicine , too. My poor husband! He had gone to work expecting a phone call in a few hours to come get me. He finally just came to the hospital around two, and ended up having to wait with me until I was able to get to the car and get home. I think he went to the drugstore during that time to get the prescription pain meds.
They gave me hydrocodone. I took that consistently for four days. And I used ibuprofen in between after about three days. After I got off the hydrocodone, mostly because it made me feel nauseous all the time, I remember I took some "night time" ibuprofen during the day once, just so I could try to sleep (that was my mom's suggestion, and it was a good one!). And I took it at night, about every other night for the first week.
There was this bulb attached to my sling that had a tube running up into the shoulder wound. They told me before I left the hospital that it had pain medicine that would leach into the shoulder over the first two days to provide longer pain relief over the worst two days. Also, I had a nerve block in my shoulder to numb that part of my arm for the first day or so after surgery.
I didn't even try to lay down in my bed for the first two weeks. Learn to sleep in the recliner!
Learn to live with an ice pack. Two ice packs, really. One in the freezer while the other one is on your shoulder. The ice really helps the pain. Numbs it some, and keeps the swelling down a little.
I had surgery on Thursday. My husband took off the bandages for the first time on Saturday night (according to the doctor's instructions), and took out the bulb pain reliever tube.
I only threw up once, Friday morning.
I thought I would enjoy watching television or movies, or reading books this first week. Didn't happen. Just slept and took pain meds, went to the bathroom with assistance, and didn't eat much. Holding anything in my right arm was impossible.
The first session of physical therapy came just four days after the surgery, on Monday. Getting dressed was a real challenge. Up to that point, I had just been in a nightshirt. Don was at work, so I had to dress by myself. Must have taken a half an hour! I was still in a daze. They put me in the chair that moves your arm passively for about a half an hour, and then manipulated it by hand for a few minutes. Then they stuck the electrode on me and iced and zapped the shoulder for 15 minutes.
Learn to live with everything taking at least twice as long as it normally does.
I thought I would still be able to teach my online class, but typing was so painful, it was impossible. I had to call for a "sub." He took the class for me for about five days, and then I tried to get back online. Even then, it was very difficult.
I was going stir-crazy after about six days of being cooped up in the den, so I went for a walk, about a quarter mile to a friend's house. Don came and got me to drive me home. I think I was still really out of it.
Week 2: I went back to work on my 11th day out of surgery. That was OK. I don't have a really physical job. Any time I needed to write something on the blackboard, I just asked a student to do it. I was still taking three ibuprofen every four hours. I took that much for at least three weeks.
It was funny; I saw one of my students from last year, and he asked me about what happened. And he suddenly said, "Oh yea, that time you couldn't lift your arm to write on the blackboard." (I injured my shoulder back in May.) It was cool that he remembered that.
Stitches came out at the end of the second week. They took a post-surgery x-ray of my shoulder, and I found out for the first time that I had six 5/8-inch titanium screws added to my physique. Light bulb goes on - no wonder it hurts so much.
Physical therapy for the next four weeks, three times a week, in the chair for an hour, manual manipulation by the PT for a few minutes, then the electrode zapping with ice for 15 minutes. That was it. All passive motion.
I have to stop now. It's Thanksgiving Day, and I have to start cooking. I found out at 6:30AM that I can't make bread very well with my left hand; can't kneed the dough with my right hand yet. I did try a little...
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Shoulder Surgery Recovery: Weeks 8-10
By this time, a lot of people are so comfortable with their arm, that they have received the okay from the doctor to quit wearing their arm restraint, and are doing some pretty vigorous stretching and weight resistance exercises to rebuild the muscles around their repaired shoulder.
Not so, me. There have been many times over these past three weeks when I have asked myself, "What have I done wrong?" And the faithful physical therapist (PT) keeps telling me, "Different surgeries recover at different rates." As far as I know, I have done nothing to re-injure my arm or damage the repair job Dr. Faggard did back in September, the 17th. I don't remember a lot of dates, but this one I think I will always remember. I haven't looked at the calendar to count weeks once since the surgery, but I know that it has been exactly 10 weeks since that day. Wow.
I get jealous when I see other people in physical therapy who had their surgeries weeks after mine, and are already doing movements and exercises I can't do yet. Have to knock myself on the head to get those thoughts out of my mind.
I did try a new machine yesterday, much to the PT's consternation. They have one of those arm bicycles, that uses water resistance. So I got on there and started doing it, just to see if I could do the motion, and I could! The PT let me push it around (with very minimal resistance) twice before she made me get out of that machine. She said I may start doing that one next week. :)
So I see the doctor again next week, and that's when the PT hopes that I will be "set free" to start more aggressive rehabilitation. She hopes I will be able to start using a pulley system at home to start stretching my shoulder every day. She said that would bring back a lot of mobility.
This week I've been doing the biceps and triceps exercises with a light resistance, and I started some back strengthening (using those elastic colored strips, pulling backwards, elbows in, squeezing the shoulder blades). Also using the elastic to start some rotation exercises, pulling and pushing my arm across my body and then away from my body. I don't have much rotation yet.
I'm beginning to think that the doctor doesn't tell you how painful it's going to be before the surgery, because he doesn't know. Everyone is different; every surgery is different. But I still wish I would have been better informed. At least, it seems that way now. Before hand, would I have wanted to know what it was going to be like? Maybe that would have only made it worse.
Sleep: Still tenuous. I had two nights of eight hours this week. I can make it in my own bed until about midnight, then I move down to the recliner for the rest.
New Benchmarks: I can brush my teeth with my right hand now! (Or for most of that process.) That is cool. Also, I can use my right arm to use a utensil to bring food to my mouth. That happened in Week 9. All of a sudden I realized I was eating a bowl of soup with my right hand. Very cool. It got tiring after a while, but it was quite a positive realization.
I can touch the lower half of my face pretty easily now. Back to a two-handed nose blow! I tried to "tweeze" my eyebrows yesterday, however, and I can't get my hand that high yet.
Since they told me not to try to lift my arm so many weeks ago, I haven't been trying. However, in the evenings these past two weeks, I haven't been wearing the restraint around the house, and I find I am using my arm more and more for regular activities. I can't actually hang a hanger in my closet yet. My arm gets about three quarters of the way to the bar and then stops. Still can't reach around my back at all.
So I'm close to the end. At the beginning of this experience, the doctor told me it would be a 12-week recovery for me. I didn't really understand what that meant, and I still don't really. Because I know that in two more weeks, I'm still not going to be able to draw my bow. I'm not sure when that will happen. January seems to be approaching very quickly (indoor leagues start in January). I thought I might be able to shoot then, but now I'm not so sure. One more month? Maybe!
My emotions spring from despair to hope and back again almost daily. Some days I still have a lot of pain (like after the PT stretches my shoulder out of the socket!), or after I start some new exercises. But some days are just awesome, and I don't have much pain at all. I have succumbed to taking Ibuprofen again when the pain is more noticeable. There is a teenage boy who got surgery about four weeks ago in my PT group. He hasn't been experiencing any pain since his second week. Maybe being close to 50 has something to do with my recovery time. And those six pesky screws! He didn't have any screws, but the doctor did use some "ties" to repair his shoulder, football injury. This young man hasn't had trouble sleeping since his second week either.
Another positive: My handwriting is very legible with my left hand now! (I mean on the board in the front of my classroom). I have progressed to at least 6th grade handwriting with my left hand! Quite an accomplishment. So, anything is possible. :) On a desk down low, I am fine using my right hand for writing now. It is just on the board I have to use my left still. Typing gets tiring after awhile, if the keyboard is not low enough. If it's low, typing is fine.
I can see the light recovery at the end of the tunnel. :)
Not so, me. There have been many times over these past three weeks when I have asked myself, "What have I done wrong?" And the faithful physical therapist (PT) keeps telling me, "Different surgeries recover at different rates." As far as I know, I have done nothing to re-injure my arm or damage the repair job Dr. Faggard did back in September, the 17th. I don't remember a lot of dates, but this one I think I will always remember. I haven't looked at the calendar to count weeks once since the surgery, but I know that it has been exactly 10 weeks since that day. Wow.
I get jealous when I see other people in physical therapy who had their surgeries weeks after mine, and are already doing movements and exercises I can't do yet. Have to knock myself on the head to get those thoughts out of my mind.
I did try a new machine yesterday, much to the PT's consternation. They have one of those arm bicycles, that uses water resistance. So I got on there and started doing it, just to see if I could do the motion, and I could! The PT let me push it around (with very minimal resistance) twice before she made me get out of that machine. She said I may start doing that one next week. :)
So I see the doctor again next week, and that's when the PT hopes that I will be "set free" to start more aggressive rehabilitation. She hopes I will be able to start using a pulley system at home to start stretching my shoulder every day. She said that would bring back a lot of mobility.
This week I've been doing the biceps and triceps exercises with a light resistance, and I started some back strengthening (using those elastic colored strips, pulling backwards, elbows in, squeezing the shoulder blades). Also using the elastic to start some rotation exercises, pulling and pushing my arm across my body and then away from my body. I don't have much rotation yet.
I'm beginning to think that the doctor doesn't tell you how painful it's going to be before the surgery, because he doesn't know. Everyone is different; every surgery is different. But I still wish I would have been better informed. At least, it seems that way now. Before hand, would I have wanted to know what it was going to be like? Maybe that would have only made it worse.
Sleep: Still tenuous. I had two nights of eight hours this week. I can make it in my own bed until about midnight, then I move down to the recliner for the rest.
New Benchmarks: I can brush my teeth with my right hand now! (Or for most of that process.) That is cool. Also, I can use my right arm to use a utensil to bring food to my mouth. That happened in Week 9. All of a sudden I realized I was eating a bowl of soup with my right hand. Very cool. It got tiring after a while, but it was quite a positive realization.
I can touch the lower half of my face pretty easily now. Back to a two-handed nose blow! I tried to "tweeze" my eyebrows yesterday, however, and I can't get my hand that high yet.
Since they told me not to try to lift my arm so many weeks ago, I haven't been trying. However, in the evenings these past two weeks, I haven't been wearing the restraint around the house, and I find I am using my arm more and more for regular activities. I can't actually hang a hanger in my closet yet. My arm gets about three quarters of the way to the bar and then stops. Still can't reach around my back at all.
So I'm close to the end. At the beginning of this experience, the doctor told me it would be a 12-week recovery for me. I didn't really understand what that meant, and I still don't really. Because I know that in two more weeks, I'm still not going to be able to draw my bow. I'm not sure when that will happen. January seems to be approaching very quickly (indoor leagues start in January). I thought I might be able to shoot then, but now I'm not so sure. One more month? Maybe!
My emotions spring from despair to hope and back again almost daily. Some days I still have a lot of pain (like after the PT stretches my shoulder out of the socket!), or after I start some new exercises. But some days are just awesome, and I don't have much pain at all. I have succumbed to taking Ibuprofen again when the pain is more noticeable. There is a teenage boy who got surgery about four weeks ago in my PT group. He hasn't been experiencing any pain since his second week. Maybe being close to 50 has something to do with my recovery time. And those six pesky screws! He didn't have any screws, but the doctor did use some "ties" to repair his shoulder, football injury. This young man hasn't had trouble sleeping since his second week either.
Another positive: My handwriting is very legible with my left hand now! (I mean on the board in the front of my classroom). I have progressed to at least 6th grade handwriting with my left hand! Quite an accomplishment. So, anything is possible. :) On a desk down low, I am fine using my right hand for writing now. It is just on the board I have to use my left still. Typing gets tiring after awhile, if the keyboard is not low enough. If it's low, typing is fine.
I can see the light recovery at the end of the tunnel. :)
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Week 6 - 7: Rotator Cuff Surgery Recovery
Week 6 - No pain meds in Week 6, so more discomfort, but tolerable. Blew my nose with both hands, but it was awkward, so I went back to the one-handed technique. I did actually begin to use my biceps in physical therapy. They gave me one of those long stretchy rubber strips (the yellow one - the least resistance) and said I should do biceps curls by standing on one end of the strip, and then triceps exercises, hooking the strip over a door frame. I am supposed to do this every other day. My arm aches quite a bit the next day.
I was trying to think what differences there were this week, and I couldn't come up with much.
Week 7 - I've actually taken Tylenol and Ibuprofen this week. One day at school I lost my resolve and took some Tylenol. Then on Friday, I was bending over to put food in the dog bowl, and I must of twisted wrong, because I pulled a muscle in my lower back... It was really a relief to be able to take Ibuprofen again. I'm really just a big baby when it comes to dealing with pain (actually, I'm a big baby in a lot of ways, says my husband!). :) Here's the dogs we feed every day.
Got another lecture from the Physical Therapy people. Their message, "No, no, no!" No, I can't try to shift my car with my right arm. No, I can't try to put on my seat belt. No, I can't do any exercises requiring me to lift my arm. No, I should not be stretching on my own. No opening doors, no carrying groceries, no milk gallons, no stacks of books... Anything that requires me to bare weight with that arm is still out. I did try brushing my teeth again with my right arm, but it didn't work very well.
Along with losing my strength in that arm, I have also lost my coordination. Also, there is still little to no rotation in my shoulder, so my arm just doesn't work right. You'd be surprised how many motions require some sort of rotation at the shoulder.
They said that shoulder surgery is one of they types of recoveries that you should not try to use the joint ahead of schedule. My tendons are apparently building new sources of blood supply, and will be at the weakest at 12 weeks out of surgery. So trying to "push through the pain" to use the arm at this point will only lengthen my recovery time, and possibly damage the corrections the surgery put in place, according to the PT people. They said that time would come for me, just not yet. Five more weeks for me. Maybe by Christmas I'll be using my arm "normally" again.
I'm hoping to be able to pick up my bow again in January. We start indoor leagues then. I really don't know if I'll be able to draw my bow. If not, I'll borrow a baby bow just to get the muscles moving in the right direction again.
Have to include a picture, so here's one of Don at our "Broadhead Shoot" in August.
So I adopted a new "no use" policy Friday night when I got home from physical therapy. Then Saturday I went shopping. :) It was tough holding all those hangers of clothes and looking through racks with only one arm (I was not totally successful in not using the arm). And trying the clothes on was awkward (as usual!). But I came away with three skirts - black, dark brown, and a striped blue/tan (everything was more than 50% off, Veteran's Day sales), one jacket, one vest and one tank top. I felt successful, and did not spend that much.
Then we stopped by Cabelas, and we bought a pair of binoculars. All the top girls at the Traditional World Championships used binoculars. I figured I needed to have a pair, too. Maybe that would help be break into the top three next year. :) I don't know if I've written about the championships. I earned fourth place. Those women were sooooooo good!
Sleep has not been good this week for some reason. The amount of time I have slept in my own bed has cut back to two hours a night (it was 4 hours before). Then I am waking up more often at night, too. The PT people said there would be plateaus. Guess I hit one this week. Don gives me backrubs most nights before I go to sleep. Those feel really good. I told him it was an important part of my physical therapy. :) I don't think he believes me.
When I put in the picture, my paragraphs all got mixed up. Hmmm... oh well. Have to get into my online class now and do some grading!
I was trying to think what differences there were this week, and I couldn't come up with much.
Week 7 - I've actually taken Tylenol and Ibuprofen this week. One day at school I lost my resolve and took some Tylenol. Then on Friday, I was bending over to put food in the dog bowl, and I must of twisted wrong, because I pulled a muscle in my lower back... It was really a relief to be able to take Ibuprofen again. I'm really just a big baby when it comes to dealing with pain (actually, I'm a big baby in a lot of ways, says my husband!). :) Here's the dogs we feed every day.
Got another lecture from the Physical Therapy people. Their message, "No, no, no!" No, I can't try to shift my car with my right arm. No, I can't try to put on my seat belt. No, I can't do any exercises requiring me to lift my arm. No, I should not be stretching on my own. No opening doors, no carrying groceries, no milk gallons, no stacks of books... Anything that requires me to bare weight with that arm is still out. I did try brushing my teeth again with my right arm, but it didn't work very well.
Along with losing my strength in that arm, I have also lost my coordination. Also, there is still little to no rotation in my shoulder, so my arm just doesn't work right. You'd be surprised how many motions require some sort of rotation at the shoulder.
They said that shoulder surgery is one of they types of recoveries that you should not try to use the joint ahead of schedule. My tendons are apparently building new sources of blood supply, and will be at the weakest at 12 weeks out of surgery. So trying to "push through the pain" to use the arm at this point will only lengthen my recovery time, and possibly damage the corrections the surgery put in place, according to the PT people. They said that time would come for me, just not yet. Five more weeks for me. Maybe by Christmas I'll be using my arm "normally" again.
I'm hoping to be able to pick up my bow again in January. We start indoor leagues then. I really don't know if I'll be able to draw my bow. If not, I'll borrow a baby bow just to get the muscles moving in the right direction again.
Have to include a picture, so here's one of Don at our "Broadhead Shoot" in August.
So I adopted a new "no use" policy Friday night when I got home from physical therapy. Then Saturday I went shopping. :) It was tough holding all those hangers of clothes and looking through racks with only one arm (I was not totally successful in not using the arm). And trying the clothes on was awkward (as usual!). But I came away with three skirts - black, dark brown, and a striped blue/tan (everything was more than 50% off, Veteran's Day sales), one jacket, one vest and one tank top. I felt successful, and did not spend that much.
Then we stopped by Cabelas, and we bought a pair of binoculars. All the top girls at the Traditional World Championships used binoculars. I figured I needed to have a pair, too. Maybe that would help be break into the top three next year. :) I don't know if I've written about the championships. I earned fourth place. Those women were sooooooo good!
Sleep has not been good this week for some reason. The amount of time I have slept in my own bed has cut back to two hours a night (it was 4 hours before). Then I am waking up more often at night, too. The PT people said there would be plateaus. Guess I hit one this week. Don gives me backrubs most nights before I go to sleep. Those feel really good. I told him it was an important part of my physical therapy. :) I don't think he believes me.
When I put in the picture, my paragraphs all got mixed up. Hmmm... oh well. Have to get into my online class now and do some grading!
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