Shoulder Surgery 2

Shoulder Surgery #2

A visit to the doctor after the most recent MRI confirmed I had a tear in the rotator cuff in my right shoulder.  I decided to go ahead and get it repaired rather than endure the severe pain. (Easy decision!)  

I had the surgery on April 24 at Tomball Hospital.  Again it was day surgery.  The doctor spoke to Joyce, I was still asleep when he left.  The surgery went well.   I had a major large tear in the cuff which the doctor decided was too large to repair through the arthroscope so he did an open surgery.  The labrum was shredded and this was cleaned up through the scope.   I also had a very large bone spur and a good bit of arthritis damage.  These were  cleaned up.  He also did a subacromial decompression to give things room to move around without bumping into each other.

When I started to go home, I had considerable discomfort around the waist area and found that I couldn’t straighten up (being bent at the waist).  We called the doctor and he said it should go away.  The next morning, we went in to see him.  I had decided it was a bad attack of sciatica, probably from the position they had me in during the surgery.  They called it the “beach chair position” where you are bent at the waist.  Dr. Hyatt contacted the spinal surgeon I had been seeing and arranged for him to see me that day.  By then, I looked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.  Dr. Cubbage took an x-ray and saw no changes from the last one and prescribed a course of steroids (mederol Dospak).  I started them the same day and by noon next day, things were back to normal.

I have a 1:00PM meeting with the physical therapist today for evaluation and treatment.  It will be the same thing I went through on the left shoulder (and am still going through).  It is not comfortable but it is necessary and I look forward to getting my arm back.

That is it for now.  We’ll see you on down the road.