Surgery again

The first day of February I slipped on ice taking out the garbage cans. Finally, I got the results back from a CT scan. The doctor told me I had a huge rotator cuff tear and he couldn't operate on it. He is setting me up with a doctor in his practice that can do the surgery. The recommended doctor had done my knee a few years back so I'm comfortable with him doing it. It's going to be a long 4-6 months recovery. Now I'm waiting for the office to schedule it.

Damn....bad timing with the good weather coming. Good luck with it.

Hope you heal quick and minimal pain.

Thanks,
I have to call Monday to see if they set up a date for surgery. I'm expecting to miss at least 8 weeks of work. I'm hoping to get back to school for the last couple weeks in June. All I really do at school is take attendance and say "yes, you may use the restroom".

Rotator cuff injuries are an ouch. Glad they diagnosed it and are willing to do the surgery. Most of the time it's weeks jumping through hoops of PT, ice, steroid injections, and NSAIDs before the insurance okays the surgery.

It seems like it is already taking forever to get this done. I have to call the doctors office on Monday to see why they haven't contacted me since the last doctor saw me.

Don't sound like fun.
After my fall I was glad to find out it was a SLAP tear and not a rotator cuff injury.
Hopefully all goes well.

Best of luck Quig !

Yesterday I got the date for surgery. April 29. Happens to be my birthday. They asked if I would like a different date, I said no, the sooner the better. A bit of running around to different doctors in the meantime to get a clean bill of health. Doctor said at least 4 months recovery and up to 6 months depending on how old parts of the tear are.

Wow, that's an impressive timeline.

I had a simple rotator cuff clean-out and still had pain with shoulder use 6 months after surgery. Unfortunately my FMLA had run out so I needed to pretend like all was well during the doc's range of motion and strength assessment to get his okay for return to work. I would estimate my shoulder strength was at best 50% 6 months after surgery.

My shoulder was locked down with connective tissue and tight muscle from the initial injury and PT slowly reversed it. As my therapist loved to say, it hurts now but you'll thank me later. I felt like punching him in the mouth and thanking him later.

The doctors time frame can be off depending on how much of the injury is from before the accident. He already said it's possible that I would get back to 100%.

Surgery today at 12:00. I probably won't be on the Boards for a few days.

Best wishes, hope all goes well.

I came out of surgery okay, The doctor told my wife that it is a massive tear. 5 anchors were screwed in to attach muscles and a tendon graft. Feeling beat up, oxy for pain. i'm already slowly taking less of it, I hate being drugged up. Back to the recliner for the day.

Good to hear. I don't care for the pain meds either.
Take it easy for a bit, you'll be back to throwing fastballs in no time.

Thanks guys. Off pain meds, sleeping is tough. 2 hours last night, my body just doesnt want sleep. Typing one handed is hard to get used to.

It took me a while after my surgery to be able to sleep decent again. I think its due to effects of the anesthesia and pain meds.

TheQuig wrote:

I came out of surgery okay, The doctor told my wife that it is a massive tear. 5 anchors were screwed in to attach muscles and a tendon graft. Feeling beat up, oxy for pain. i'm already slowly taking less of it, I hate being drugged up. Back to the recliner for the day.

Welcome back!

It's good to feel a little bit of pain otherwise we might push things before they're ready.

Glad youre on the mend. Keep us updated on how its going.

Right now it is a waiting game of holding myself back from doing things, i'm told not to do anything with pressure and limited movement. I feel like I can do more than i'm told to but known I will tear everything out if i do. Boring is my life for now. Physical therapy starts next week, only stretching no resistance for 4 weeks.

Better to be bored for a few weeks than reinjured.

Hows the wing progressing?

very slow. at PT, i'm told that my shoulder is very flexible but about half way to being healed. v
Very bored, i can't wait until i get the sling off and can drive.

Today I went to the doctor for a check up. He is happy with my progress, and left it up to me to decide on whether I can drive or not. I drove. Hard as hell getting in and out but driving itself is easy. Next week I'll start more exercises to loosen up the shoulder. I will still have to wear the sling to sleep in and if I'm around people I should wear it. I'm half way there, hopefully it's all downhill from here. The doctor said I should be back to normal by New Year.

Good to hear you are still making forward progress.

Thats good. Just dont overdue it and go backwards!

Still very slow healing. It's been 10 weeks since surgery and I still have problems raising my arm past shoulder height. The arm moves free I just don't have muscles that can lift it.
I'm hoping to be able to go to the range in a couple weeks. I can't use my week arm to hold a handgun, rifle from a bench rest is probably possible.
Lucky for me, I have a good dog that senses my problems and hasn't left my side the entire time.

When does PT start?

I've been in PT for about 5 weeks. Only this week did they introduce the bands for resistance.
There are so many projects I would like to do but I just can't. I was supposed to make 4 cornhole games over summer break but I can't even think about it yet.

How's the shoulder progressing?