Rotator Cuff Surgery
 

OK, My doc and I have danced around this and we are now at the point where I need to decide when I want to have the surgery done, basically all day outpatient procedure followed by 6 weeks of marvelous pain and no arm usage. Remembering what it was like when I injured it, I'm guessing it probably can't hurt much more than that and it will be as unusable as before.

Now that I need to make the choice I am kind of stalling a bit, the choice of not getting the surgery is there, but the PT really did nothing for me so it is either surgery and probably recover strength and lose pain, or not have surgery and live with the pain and the lack of strength.

Put that way, it's a no brainer, but still, who wants to get anesthetized and surged?

Then, if all goes well and I still have insurance next year, I can do it all over again on the other side. FUN!

They just pull it out, and install a new rubber band through to the other shoulder, right? ;)

The media is all saying maybe the 95 mph fastball isn't going to be your first pitch any longer.

Yeah, well as long as my son stays out of the bus station...

No brainer. Focus on the long term benefits.

Yeah but he's a lefty with a heartbeat so...

Make sure you go somewhere that they will offer you an interscalene nerve block or something similar along with the general anesthetic. It will give you hours of pain relief the first day or so. Don't neglect the post op PT or you will never regain the complete use of your shoulder. If you have any questions about it let me know.

Ugh. Good luck with that, man. I'm sure the long term benefits will outweigh the PIA of having surgery, but it's still not fun.

you'll get pain meds! See? Silver lining!

Thanks folks,
and Merc: YES on the nerve block, the doc was all "I strongly recommend it" I was all "Well, yeah. 'course."

It sounds like the PT doesn't come for a few weeks and I have heard it must become my new god or, as you say, my shoulder won't be so good.

I'll see how I like the painkillers, I've never cared for that particular type of high-- I am disconnected from my body enough as it is, though I understand painkillers have a dedicated and often resourceful fan base.

I loved my painkillers when I had a herniated disc in my neck. I lived for them. My life revolved around them, and especially when I ran out before my next prescription was due. The whole household revolved around them then, let me tell you. My pain was that bad. And the hell I went through when the doc wouldn't renew my prescription just three days early.

I kiss the feet of those drugs. They were my lifesaver until I could get the neck surgery done. Which by the way, worked like a fucking miracle.

I hate painkillers

Vicodin never worked for my double compound arm fracture. I don't get the hype. Never felt much off it, and it didn't help the pain. Everyone is different though.

I've only had Percocet, and I didn't like them. I preferred the pain to the spinning room.

Vicodin didnt work for my pain either. When my problem was finally correctly diagnosed, they gave me OxyCodine. I was taking 10mg every 6 hours. I scheduled everything around that 6 hour timetable. It was tough. I would wake up in the morning with crippling pain, take a pill and wait about an hour or more for it to kick in. Then blissful relief for about two more hours. Then the pain would start creeping back in and get progressively worse until the time I could take another pill. Then the wait for the relief again. I did this for 5 months.

vicodin NO

Percocet YES!

I took Darvocet post-surgery. Is that some sort of offshoot of Percocet?

darvocet is a little bit stronger than advil. IMHO. Not much there. did it help?

Yeah, but I can't remember what dosage I was on. They gave it to me because I refused the morphine (it made me itch so badly I was clawing my skin off, the first time around.)

yeah, mother morphine can make ya itchy - so can demerol. It can make you feel like there are cobwebs on your nose. :)

There is a lot of drugs that will dull the pain in your body, but none that will dull the pain in your head, or your heart. You have to deal with that non-chemically. :eyebrow:

tooooooo true.

No more food or water for me as of midnight tonight. Surgery at 8:15 tomorrow.

Semi ready for it.
NOT.

Good luck!

Good luck man. Looks like it will be starting any minute now.

you'l be back rotating that cuff in no time, I'm sure....

Good luck to you, F3, and to SN.

Good Luck on the surgery foot!

should we rename him rotatorcuffrotatorcuffrotatorcuff?

Bri - I have days when I would swear there are cobwebs on my nose.
Perhaps I manufacture my own Demerol...?

Foot - all the best.
You'll be better than new in no time.
Well, no time to us - a long period of recovery and agony to you. But don't let me bring you down :lol:

Second shoulder surgery of people I know! He had his on Friday. He almost made it through a night of sleep without a pain killer yesterday, so he is already on his way to recovery. Hope everything goes as well with you.

surgery went ok, but was two and half hours not 45 mins. When they got inside they saw what a shitstorm it was. The doc couldn't puul the tendon back so he had to make a bunch of slits (think expanding wire lathe) so he could pull it.

I am just feeling the last effects of the anaesthesia now. The oxycodone is just ok, the fentany/dilaudid and the nerve block were amazing. Catheter, not so much.

Starting to get itchy, took two days to get over dehydration. The staff and docs were all great. I've been sleeping round the clock since Monday.

It's a good thing i've had all that one handed typing practice ;) my left arm will be out of action for 6 weeks.

Welcome back!

thank you for typing at us!!

Heal soon! :comfort:

the fentany/dilaudid and the nerve block were amazing.

Footz on the GOOOOOD Stuff !!!

Catheter, not so much.

Bruno wasn't Gentle ???

;)

Feel Betterer soon Bud !!!

You're going to go into lurker mode aren't you? All reading and no writing.

Maybe you can get one of those fancy phone apps that does voice recognition typing.

Phone: "Did you say, 'that's not sharp it's a golf pin.'?"
footfootfoot: "No!"
Phone: "Sorry. Command not recognized. Try again."
footfootfoot: "That's not a shark, it's a dolphin."

But why do you need to sleep near the clock?

Welcome back dude.

Cause that's where the bed is, near the clock.

so I just have gotten my pain med dosing properly dialed-in. shoot have to go.

man this is so hard. the drugs make days melt into one another, weird dreams, itchy as hell, edema in the arm where the surgery was, and my free-roaming anxiety now setting up shop on the thought-form of "I ripped out my stitches in my sleep"

one day the pain was completely gone, i stopped taking my pain meds for a day or so, feeling great. then the pain came back, not in spades, but back. it's weird how the intensity of the pain ebbs and flows, I'm mostly sleeping, too doped to read, one handed typing is not so great (snicker snicker)

dreams have been truly banal and hyperreal. I'll think I'm taking my meds and it's 2:00am, Then I'll wake up and see it is 11:30 pm and I'm not sure if I should take or have already taken my meds.

My pal has been photographing the progression of the wound healing. When he sends me the pics I'll post some.

Nothing really to report, except bruises.

Foot that all sounds really groovy.
I'm sure living through it isn't.

Oh yes, photos will be marvellous. I've only just forgiven Bri for not taking gory photos of the tube she had in her chest. Great big fuck off bruises will console me.

My dreams are always pretty much out there, but I get my share of banal/ hyperreal too. I can't imagine what they'd be like if I was on your meds. Hey, send me some and I'll let you know :)

Glad to see you back, and thanks for making the effort while you're still in recovery x

Sounds so very weird footie, keep your head together.

After awhile, the one-handed typing will become second nature. You really can get quite fast at it. Which is to say, don't get all macho and insist that your left arm is totally fine and start using it before you're supposed to. Be nice to the poor thing. It's had a hard year.

So I'm dreaming about three almonds wrapped in red foil like kisses. i open my eyes so i can eat them but they aren't there. I'm listenening to lectures bt teaching co. and i hear the sentences as layers in a photoshop document.
I am absentmindedly nudging one foot with the other and i open my eyes and my feet are nowhere near each other. My arms are folded across my chest and i open my eyes and see my arms by my sides.

how this shit is recreational beyond the first tiny orgasm when they kick in is beyond me.

Yeah, that was cool, but much too short-lived.

It could be fun if you were so wealthy that leisure and experiencing things were all you had to occupy your time...

The meds I'm on give me dreams that are so real I can't distinguish them from reality. The good side of that is I've lived more days than there have been yet this year. The bad side is, nobody remembers what happened on a good number of them, even me.

Here is the day after surgery. I discovered I'm allergic to the tape they use to apply the dressing. Big chunks of oozy red skin.

The incisions look nice, itchy as hell today.

You ready to throw the slider?

put me in coach! I'm ready to play.

I hate you. I had a night-long incredibly believable nightmare about having shoulder surgery. Every time i woke up, it took a good while to convince myself it was a dream so I could relax and fall back to sleep ....and then imagine it some more. Right down to the hospital details and the work that backed up while i was out of action. Yes, I have shoulder pain, no, I'm not taking it to the doctor, it's just a twinge. Yes, I will do my exercises more. bah.

Haaaa! :)

Good luck foot3 on your recovery. :thumb:

Happy recuperating! Sorry, I didn't bother to read this thread til now. :( I'm such a cold gnome sometimes. :thepain:

what rx post op?

oh, and how ARE you? :D

Yay Foot, you've done us proud.

Mum found she was allergic to the tape after her breast surgery. The nurse said to her quite sternly, "We did ASK if you have any allergies..."
Mum said (to us not to her) "I've never tried sticking it all over my tits before, have I?"

Talking of Mum I might even email that to her - she loves messy pics (and is miserable as Grandad is in hospital - see Upset Thread :()

5mg oxycodone 1-2/ 4-6hrs

I'm now down to a couple at night mostly to help me sleep, and one or two during the day if the pain ramps up. It's weird how I can go a day or two w/o pain. I seem to metabolize the shit really slowly.
I love that, she should have told the nurse. Sorry to read about your Grandad, it sounds consistent with Dana's experience with elders and national healthcare.

Have you checked to make sure you have both kidneys?

oooh sholder i hope it is the well.

so how ya gettin around there chief (3foot)? feeling pretty good?