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...
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