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.  :)