Surgery Update

I must be one of the luckiest people.  This is something I've always suspected.  I found Wayne while on vacation visiting my mother's family in Newfoundland,  I ended up landing him a job at a great company while being a temp office worker when I was unexpectedly expecting, both my births were relatively easy, both my children are wonderfully complicated and decent human beings, when money was tight a solution eventually unfolded, my relationship with my husband rolls with the changes and gets better all the time, and I never broke a bone or had surgery.  I'm sure I could go on and on, and while my life, like everyone else's, has been filled with challenges I've always felt that the winds of luck have always been there at just the right time for me for some unknown reason.  Enter Lady Luck once again.

I went in for my surgery on Thursday for a SLAP procedure.  This injury is basically to the lining of the socket of the shoulder joint, and can also include damage to the area where the bicep tendon attaches. The details of how extensive the damage was were murky, much like my MRI.  How bad were the tears? How many?  Stitches or anchors? Would I react badly to the anesthesia? 6 weeks or physical therapy and a sling...or longer? 

My lucky streak shows itself yet again.  While the "block" didn't take and I woke up crying in pain, the news was actually fantastic.  No tears.  One area of slight fraying that was easily seen to, lots of adhesions from the "frozen shoulder" that were debrided and Pam is done.  Surgery downgraded from SLAP to Arthroscopic Capsular Release. Amazingly, what this means is that I was out of the sling and moving my arm freely, THE SAME DAY.  I'm still kind of in shock.  I'll be back to work in less than 2 weeks, full recovery just around the corner.  Here are the images Dr. Ricci gave me, full of yucky adhesions.  My joint is now shiny and new looking, and will hopefully stay that way a long time now.

But, back to that pesky "block" that didn't work again.  Due to that setback I was in so much pain that it was excruciating to lift my arm, while most patients are moving their arm to keep the shoulder from freezing up again.  I went to physical therapy the day after surgery and my therapist was shocked at how stiff I was and called my condition "exceptionally poor".  Hey, you can't be 100 percent lucky, right?  There has to be some sacrifices, I'll take the unexpected pain and stiffness in exchange for the easier surgery and faster recovery time!

Today it's much looser and the pain is half as bad as yesterday, the contraption I was supposed to be strapped to 3 times a day was picked up by the medical equipment company, and I feel like a kid on the first day of summer vacation.  Today's therapist upgraded me from "exceptionally poor" to "fair".  Pretty sweet improvement in 24 hours, I'll take it!