Three Weeks of Updates (Left Shoulder Surgery Recovery)

Hi blog,

Finally time for the update! Since I'm still having a bit of a hard time typing, I'm going to give you updates as I've been giving them to friends of mine since the surgery.

10/28
The surgery went really well. It took half as long as the right shoulder did last time. I had a nerve block so I'm not in any pain and hopefully I'll be able to go home in the morning! Typing is a bit of an annoyance cause I've only got one arm, the left arm is immobilized by my uber sling and I can't really feel anything in that arm anyways. I don't need painkillers that much because the nerve block means I don't feel anything. All in all, things are looking great and I'm guessing recovery is going to come along nicely!

11/1
I got home yesterday, I had to stay in the hospital a couple extra days because the pain got really bad and I couldn't leave until it was better controlled. The nurses and doctors didn't really help much with the pain because they didn't listen when I told them I have a very high tolerance for pain medication, so I kept getting doses for normal people, which did very little to actually control my pain. I got through it though and got out of the hospital. It's manageable now so I'm resting at home and able to do a little bit already. The doctor says everything looks really promising so far. It might even heal better and faster than the right shoulder, so it's all going well so far. 

11/4
I've started doing at home PT which is going well. The range of motion is decent and it actually doesn't hurt too much to do the exercises as long as I keep it calmish. The therapist I'm seeing says that it's definitely better than the right one was at this stage and was impressed at how much better it was. I'm seeing the therapist again tomorrow so we'll see how it goes. Other than that I've just been taking it easy to ensure I don't push myself too much and worsen my recovery. I'm trying not to let the boredom of being safe with my health annoy me too much. I'd been having some fevers and shaking on and off at night, but it's gone down and hasn't happened in a couple days.

11/5

I saw the doctor for my one week post-op appointment and they took the bandage off my surgery site before I saw him. It's looking very clean and hardly at all swollen. There's a thin scar but it doesn't look red or angry, which was a nice surprise. The bandage was left off so now it's completely uncovered, which burns a little to the touch but is otherwise fine. I had some x-rays done and the doctor says it's looking good so far. He also checked my range of motion and was pleased, even said that he fully expects the left one to heal up faster and better than the right one. All in all, the doctor thinks everything is coming along nicely and I'll be seeing him again in six weeks.

11/13
The nurse who comes to the house says the scar is looking really good, no infection or anything. PT is still going well, I started doing shoulder shrugs and my arm is getting better range of motion, although it's definitely painful. Part of that pain is coming from the lack of painkillers, the person who wrote the original prescription did it differently than I'd been taking it so I've been forced to ration my painkillers in order to have any at all, waiting to get more all week but tomorrow I'll get new ones. It's been difficult and has caused more pain, but I didn't really have an option. I tried calling the woman who prescribed them but she never called me back so I just rationed them and dealt with the extra pain. This sort of thing isn't too uncommon, problems with medication or hospitals or health stuff in general always seem to follow me around, you just deal with it best you can. An increase in my pain for a week I can deal with, I've held out this long, I can wait another day. Still, would have been nice if this hadn't happened at all. 

11/16
Got my painkillers so everything is good now. PT still going well, added in a couple more exercises. The pain has increased a little bit and I'm not sure why. I've had a couple nights in a row where I've woken up repeatedly with sharp pain assaulting my shoulder, I think it might be the way my arm is positioned so I'm going to try to change it a little and see if that helps (note: it did, although I only slept 3 hours last night I didn't wake up due to pain). I'm starting to get back into school and normal stuff instead of just sitting around and relaxing and making sure I don't overdo things. I'm still not back to my normal routine, that will take a while since I'm supposed to wear the sling for another three weeks at least, but I can at least start to catch up on stuff that I missed and work on keeping my grades intact as best I can. 

And that sums up the last three weeks of my recovery. I will do my best to keep regular updates from here on out, although I will be very busy with school because I have two classes to catch up on. I will do my upmost to keep you and all the readers apprised of my health and any updates as they come up. 

Recovering Surgery-holic

Blog!!

I apologize for taking so long to get back to you blog and/or readers, things have been predictably chaotic since the surgery and typing is still a pain as I'm mostly restricted to one hand (my left) at the moment. However, I do have that update I promised you, albeit a couple weeks later than it should be. 

Look at how happy she is to be in this sling with
her little squeezy ball! Everyone who undergoes
major shoulder surgery is THIS happy! :D ...

I am now on the other side of my seventh joint replacement surgery (I had to do my left hip twice due to a massive infection, fun times, and I did both of my ankles at the same time so you can kind of count it as one surgery. Either seven or eight surgeries/joints replaced based on how you want to count it. Your choice). I'm hoping that if I do enough of these I'll get the next one free, like one of those punchcards you get "Buy 7, get the 8th free!!", that sort of thing (Surgery Punchcards need to be a thing). Anyway, I wanted to let you all know that my surgery went well and I actually went home the very next day. The surgery took an extra hour due to the complexity of the joint issues, but the doctor says it went well and everything is looking good so far. The pain hasn't been as bad as it was with the other surgeries, but it is a bit more difficult in other aspects, such as typing, which is difficult, but at least manageable for the time being. It looks like I'll be in this highly restrictive sling (complete with squeezy ball and velcro pouch for said squeezy ball) for 6 weeks but I am able to read and do a lot of things on my own, although there are still a lot of things I need help with, but I'm trying to keep as independent as I can manage. 

I saw my doctor earlier a week ago and he thinks everything is mostly looking well, although the shoulder muscles are much tighter than usual after this kind of surgery because of how long I had the problem before I got it fixed. This means I'm probably not looking at full range of motion once I'm fully healed but I'm just shooting for some increase and no more pain, and the doctor thinks that is manageable. I've been doing more exercises to build up my strength and trying to find a good balance between progress and pain, which is somewhat frustrating but not at all unexpected. However there is improvement on a day to day basis and I'm going to go for the silver lining as I know that is always the best way to handle these these things and indeed just about anything in life. 

I haven't been able to do any writing yet but I'm going to do some experimentation on using both hands for typing soon and if I can manage that then I see no reason why I can't get back into writing again and finish my rough draft. I did manage a short writing exercise yesterday with Nick, who came over to hang out and discuss the book stuff, so that's promising progress. 

This exercise is based on a Cragslist ad under "Missed Connections"

An Apology Next to the Graveyard

Susan plopped down next to the worn down gravestone, the early morning dew dampening the underside of her jeans, cool compressed grass flattening under her thin frame. She didn’t mind the wetness, she didn’t mind anything anymore, she had gone numb from the pain. “I’m sorry I didn’t show up when I said I would,” she said to the air, a couple early birds chirping back in response. “I’m sorry that I wussed out.”

She drew her finger absently through the air, swishing through the dense fog like a lazy leaf across a pond, disturbing the tranquil surface without a thought. A couple sparks leapt off her fingertip and dissipated into nothingness. There was a faint creaking noise at her side, seemingly from beneath her, about six feet down. “I just can’t be near you and not have you forever. However long that might be for us. Could be a while, knowing you, knowing me. Do you know where I’ve been? Across the country, wandering town-to-town trying to forget, to move on. I can’t, you have me in your spell. Ironic, isn’t it?”

A muffled groan seeped up through the soil and Susan patted the unkempt patch of grass above the burial site. “ Sorry, I know you are going through a tough time right now Bartholomew. So I won’t bore you with the nonsense. When you want me all to yourself then I will show up again.” Susan pushed herself off the ground and brushed at the seat of her pants, flicking a couple attached dewdrops to the ground with their brethren. “As of now, I feel it’s only for your gain and my detriment. I know they all want to keep you, and to bring you back would just…it would be for my detriment, you understand.” She sighed and brushed a stray strand of pure white hair back from her smooth, unblemished forehead, her gray eyes glazed with unshed tears. “ It kills me to always feel like something is missing and its you. I can’t keep bleeding like this.” She pressed her hands to her chest and traced the scar under her sweater where once a heart had beat. “I just can’t. I’m so sorry. Maybe in another century Bart, but not now.”

A weight felt lifted from her chest as she left the graveyard, unspoken words of a hundred years finally let loose into the air. She would return, as she always did, but now she at least got her say and it felt good. Behind her, a faint, sad, desperate scratching noise started up for a few moments, then went silent. 

All right, that's about all, my arm's giving me a warning that I should be finishing up soon and I'm supposed to listen to it, so I will. 

I'll do updates as they're necessary for new information, but hopefully this will be a boring recovery. There's very rarely anything good about an eventful recovery. 

Ciao blog and the people who look at it with at least one eye. 

Your hobbled, temporarily one-armed creator,

Andrew