Well, the surgery I mentioned in my previous post is behind me, and I'm well along the road to recovery. I'm sharing my experiences here to try to be efficient in retelling the story as I'm still not quite back to 100% yet.

The surgery itself went swimmingly. We checked in a little before 7am at the surgery center (the Carrell Clinic is an Orthopedic Hospital, and the vast majority of its facility is dedicated to orthopedic procedures) and went back to pre-op around 8:30. The insertion of the IV commenced immediately (I really, really hate IVs and my arms aren't too happy about them, either) as well as the shaving of my shoulder, chest, and back. After a quick visit with the surgeon, I was wheeled into surgery, and remember leaving the pre-op ward and that's about it.

I don't remember the post-op ward at all, but I apparently asked several times if I still had my right arm. That and my O2 stats kept dropping, so they apparently had to keep putting me on oxygen. Like I said, I don't remember that at all.

We got to the room for the afternoon, and shortly after the procedure, I had "breakfast" which consisted of really bland broth (is there any other kind) and Jello. About an hour later, I could eat lunch, and got to choose from a rather large (for a hospital) menu. I selected the chicken salad sandwich, which I figured would be the safest since I do occasionally have issues with my stomach after procedures. I was surprised as I was brought a gourmet sandwich with quality sides. This was not like any hospital food I've ever seen!

They showed me how my pain pump would work, and fortunately I didn't need to activate the booster at any point during my stay in the room. I did nod off from time to time, but got clearer and clearer headed as the day wore on.

I got a visit from the surgical technician who explained what they did with the surgery. They didn't do any repair on my labrum and my rotator cuff looked perfect, so they didn't touch it, either. There was calcification buildup and bone spurs in my upper shoulder which was impinging on the nerve that runs through the AC joint, so they cleared that out (a "decompression" procedure) and told me that they fixed for good the problem that had been causing my pain. I confirmed my follow-up appointment for the following Tuesday, and that took care of the surgical business. The nurse then described how I'd remove the pressure bandage and pain pump later in the week.

We decided to stay for dinner (since lunch was so good) and I had a delightful cilantro-basil pork chop with a Waldorf salad side. They apparently have actual gourmet chefs running the "cafeteria" for the hospital. All of the nursing staff said that I made a good choice staying for dinner because the food is so good, and I have to agree. I thought about staying overnight just so I could have an outstanding breakfast, but I really, really wanted to get home.

The first night home wasn't that bad. I set up my sleeping area in the sectional sofa upstairs, right in front of the TV, and pretty much went to sleep after spending some time visiting with my family. Anna had a harder time with the start of her second summer class, so that reinforced the brilliance of the decision to have family come and help us around the house for the week.

The next few days were pretty much eat, drink, watch TV, and read. Although I did go with my mother-in-law to pick up my prescription for the pain pills on Tuesday morning. My parents left Tuesday as well. I started doing my "pendulum" exercises immediately and did them several times a day throughout the course of the week. Wednesday night, the pain pump reached the end of its contents, so we removed the pressure bandage. That was more exciting that I had wanted it to me, for sure. It took three of us an hour to take it off, because there was one area on my back that was really, really sensitive and hurt like the dickens as we removed the tape, but we eventually got it all off. Then we moved into the kitchen (linoleum flooring) to remove the tube from the pain pump, and ironically it was my mother-in-law who had the most adverse reaction to watching me pull the tube (a looooooooong length of tubing as it turned out) from the hole that went into my shoulder. Fortunately, no one fainted, and I was finally able to really start moving my arm around, not that I tested my full range of motion by any stretch of the imagination.

Thursday my shoulder ached a lot more than it had, so I know the pain pump had been doing its job well. Still, by Friday I started weaning myself off the pain pills and started taking just Advil. By Saturday I was off the pain meds altogether.

My first real test of the arm came on Sunday and Monday as I had a customer with a server that failed to boot, and it took us several hours to troubleshoot and resolve the issue. I didn't experience any real discomfort with doing several hours of keyboarding at the time, but the aching did increase a bit after the fact.

Tuesday morning, a week after the surgery, I went to see my primary doctor to clear up the sinus infection that had been developing the previous few days. I was able to drive myself to his office (only 7 miles from the house) and back without incident. I still had a friend take me down into Dallas for my surgical follow-up, however, instead of driving myself.

The follow-up was positive. The surgeon was pleased with the rate of recovery and how the shoulder was healing. He also went over (in detail) what they did, and used the pictures they took during the procedure to show me all inside the joint. I'll post the "well, there's your problem" pictures later.

Recovery was going so well, we decided to go ahead and take the trip to Kansas that we had not intended to take because of my surgery. After the fact, I'll admit I probably shouldn't have driven the entire 8 hour stretch myself on the way up. And while there on Saturday, I took a brief spill (slipped, actually) where I ended up trying to catch myself using my right arm. It didn't hurt immediately, but over the next 48 hours the pain got really intense, to the point that I went back on the pain meds. I had a followup with the surgeon on the second Tuesday after the surgery to make sure I didn't screw anything else up, and I did not.

So at this point I've been clear to start doing shoulder exercises and to start weaning myself off the sling. I'll be going back into the office at least part time this week, and hopefully full time in the next 5-7 days.

I am really grateful that they didn't have to do any soft tissue work on my shoulder, as that would only have made my recovery even longer. It's still going to take 6-8 weeks, but I'm really not wanting to push it, because I don't want to have to do this again. All in all, though, I apparently didn't know just how much the shoulder was hurting, because after the procedure, I couldn't feel the pain I didn't know I'd been feeling. I'd gotten so used to it, it's like it wasn't even there. Until it was gone, and now I'm really relieved that I had the procedure done.

More later, but that's where we stand for now!