More on my shoulder...

[fenchurch]

I'm really behind on updates, mostly because doing a lot of typing can still get a bit painful if I'm not careful.

One thing I forgot to mention in my last post about the surgery was the pain pump. That thing was *wonderful*. It was also kinda weird... but I'm so glad I had it, since I really didn't feel much of anything in my shoulder for the trip home because of it. I really have no clue how it worked, but whoever came up with it deserves some sort of medal. The really funky part came when it was time to take it out... everyone had assured us that rackham could just pull it out, no big deal. But when the time came, we ended up calling Paul, a neighbor we also know from church who is a med student at Bastyr University and it turned out to be a very good thing we did.

He helped take off the gobs of gauze and padding (there was a bit of, um, drainage... since the surgery itself involved putting quite a bit of fluid into the shoulder) and then pulled the tubing out of my shoulder. There is absolutely no way Rackham could have done it... in fact, he didn't even stay in the room when Paul did it. From my end of things, it felt VERY weird. For his part, Paul thought it was pretty cool... he'd never worked with a pain pump before and was a bit amazed at how much tubing he was pulling out of the shoulder.

Since then, I've been regaining more and more use of my arm... in fact, when I went in for my first PT appointment about a week and a half ago, the PT used a sort of protractor thingy to measure the angles at which I was able to do things like hold my arm straight out and up in front of me. That first day I was able to lift my arm to the 50 degree mark. As of last Thursday, I'm up to an 86 degree angle. Yay! I still can't lift the arm to the side, or bend to the side or any of that, but I can at least now lift my arm up to a point where I can eat with my left hand if I want and I can use the left hand to help with washing my hair, as long as I bend my head down a bit.

Still, I'm *so* ready to regain the full use of my arm. And to be able to drive... which is a big incentive to get off the pain meds as quickly as possible. Oh yeah, and sleeping through the night is pretty high on the list. Last night I managed to sleep for about an hour past the four hour mark on my medication for the first time... which gave me about three hours of sleep in one go. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so hard to fall asleep in the first place, but it's so difficult to get comfortable. Then I repeated the feat on the second dose, getting another three hour block of sleep. Yay!

Next up will be actually trying an LJ update on something other than my shoulder. Shouldn't be too hard, since I've been watching a LOT of television lately for some reason...

Comments

[ayinhara.livejournal.com]

It sounds like you are making good progress. I fully appreciate what you are going through.

[luminosity]

And here I've been sitting here, whining about the rotator cuff injury I suffered six months ago that just.won't.go.away. Wow. I am just so glad that you're making good progress.

[shaddyr]

I am glad to hear of the improvement!

[napalm_isis]

Thats great! I'm so glad youre recovering so well! :D

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

It sounds like you are recovering really well - I'm so pleased for you!

[gillo]

I'm very glad things are getting better - hope you get decent sleep very soon now - inadequate sleep is incredibly debilitating, I know.

{{{gentle hugs}}}

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

I remember that protractor thing from PT so yay! for improvement.

[calturner.livejournal.com]

So glad to hear you're recovering well! :)

[rosiewook.livejournal.com]

You poor thing. I'm glad you had someone to come take care of the pain pump. I probably wouldn't have been able to handle doing that to someone I loved. (Probably not even someone I hated.)

Congrats on your progress. May you continue to rock the PT, baybee!

[gamiila.livejournal.com]

Sounds as if you're well on the way to recovery, and the full use of your arm again some time soon. Keep up the good work!

[herself_nyc]

Hoping for a speedy recovery ….

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Those lines and tubes inside are so tricky. They told me the same sorts of things about stuff my sister had, and I just... no way. Even though they seem easy and failsafe to the health professionals, to us laypeople, they're really challenging.

I'm so glad to hear you're getting more mobility!I know it seems like a long way away, but you're doing pretty good, it sounds like, and the trip for the surgery was worth it.

I hope soon you'll be able to get more comfy, though, at night. That part only seems to sap your energy more.

[deborahw37.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you're making great progress!

Hope you get a good nights sleep son

[deborahw37.livejournal.com]

or even *soon* * facepalms* apologies for the unintentional sex change and patronage :)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I am so glad that things are going well - here's to lots of degrees in all directions soon!

[jerusha]

I'm glad you're doing better! The pain pumps are interesting. My grandpa had one after his surgery, but they removed it while he was still in the hospital, because he was stuck there for a while.

[zotel.livejournal.com]

Yay, for functionality finally returning bit by bit!

Hope you get back to 100% soon

=)

[nmissi.livejournal.com]

Sounds like good news! I'm glad you're recovering nicely; can't wait to hear all about your first post-op driving experience when the time comes.

[sweet-ali.livejournal.com]

Yay for progress! Hope things continue to improve.