This will be the most difficult Blog post ever. Only because I have no right hand to use after surgery. Doing everything with only my left hand is cumbersome and slow. But I will get there.
On February 27th, I fell in Pompeii, Italy. I knew, as soon as I tried to use my arm to stand, that my right rotator cuff was in a very bad way. Thanks to the kindness of several strong men in our tour group, I was lifted from between the rocks to a standing position. It sure felt good to be upright.
Claude fell a few days prior in Rome. His ankle was very bad. Our decision was to complete our Italy trip with the understanding we would miss out on some things if we needed to rest. We completed our tour and loved all we saw and did.
Upon returning home on a Tuesday, I determined to wait till Thursday, when I already had an appointment with my doctor for my annual physical, to have him look at my arm. Dr. Lyon had me try a few things with my arm to assess the damage. After his check, he confirmed his belief that it was a very bad tear and would ultimately require surgery. The insurance would require a period of physical therapy before paying for an MRI. Dr. Lyon referred me to Scott County Physical Therapy. They are in the same medical office park as Dr. Lyon. I went directly there and scheduled myself for PT the following Monday.
I had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Lyon 3-weeks after his initial assessment. During this 3-weeks, I had 5 PT appointments with twice daily exercises at home. At that 5th PT appointment, I requested they take new measurements of my mobility in my right arm. They did this and sent those numbers to Dr. Lyon. Armed with those numbers, Dr. Lyon referred me to the radiology department of Georgetown Hospital for an MRI. The MRI results were sent to Dr. Lyon. They confirmed a double tear in my rotator cuff. Dr. Lyon referred me to Dr. Sajadi.
At my consult, Dr. Sajadi asked several times if my arm was okay when we went to Italy. I assured him it was and Claude confirmed I was having no trouble before the fall in Pompeii. It seems the MRI confirmed an old tear. When I fell in Pompeii, it created two new tears over the old one creating what Dr. Sajadi called a massive tear. Dr. Sajadi then told us we had three options.
The first was to continue with PT in the hopes the area would strengthen so I could use my right arm again. I told Dr. Sajadi I tore my left rotator cuff and this was how we treated it and it did heal. That was when Dr. Sajadi infirmed Claude and I that PT doesn't heal the tear. It only strengthens muscles around it so you can use the arm again. The tear is still there. This tear in my right shoulder would probably not be effectively healed with PT. However, the option was there is I chose that.
The second option was standard rotator cuff surgery. 6 weeks in the sling followed by PT. This would work for a while with a fairly high likelihood of failure over time given the massiveness of my tear. Hmmmm...
The third option was Reverse Shoulder Replacement. My first question was did the use of the word reverse mean my arm would be put on backwards. This elicited a chuckle from the good doctor. He explained a rod would be placed in my humerus. The ball of this joint is naturally on the top of the humerus. The reverse part is that the top of the humerus will now have the socket on it and a metal ball will be put where the socket used to be in the shoulder. 4-weeks in a sling followed by PT. Likelihood of long-term success much greater that traditional rotator cuff surgery.
Monday, May 13th, found us getting the finishing preparations for surgery. A final shower. Peroxide cleanse of my right shoulder. Final gathering of my overnight bag...just in case. This was to be outpatient surgery. I was sure if I packed a bag and left it in the car, it would not be needed. Made sure the back door was left unlocked as Nissa would probably arrive before we returned home. Claude loaded me in the Buick and we were off to Baptist Health in Lexington.
Our arrival time was to be 9:30am. We were there a few minutes early. As we drove to Lexington, I checked Facebook. I noted that Jason Purdy was also having surgery this day. Claude and I went to Registration as checked in. We were then directed to the surgery waiting room.
We were told surgery would last two hours. Claude would be free to roam within cellphone range. Since we had not eaten, this meant he could do a meal run at the hospital cafeteria. We were also told recovery would be about 1 1/2 hours. What I failed to ask was when surgery was scheduled to begin. I knew it wouldn't be at 9:30am. However, I would never have guessed 1:30pm.
You wait in the surgery waiting room until your name is called. I heard the name Purdy. Soon Kelsey walked past us. I said hello as she walked past. She was surprised to see us. She went into a little room for a consult with Jason's surgeon. Then she returned to wait by Claude and me. What fun to have a chat and learn about Jason's knee surgery and share about my shoulder replacement surgery.
Soon my name was called. A nice elderly gentleman who volunteers came to take me back to prep for surgery. Once prepped, he would return for Claude who could sit with me till surgery time. Prep includes getting into their little gown and being asked by everyone who comes in my name, birth date, and reason for surgery. My clothes were placed in a nice plastic bag for Claude to watch over until time for me to go home. IV's are placed. One was for antibiotics. This is where I learned from a particularly chatty nurse, that each surgeon has a particular order in which they want things done as you are prepped for surgery. I would be given two antibiotics prior to surgery thru the IV. Dr. Sajadi requires them be given in the reverse order of all other doctors. At the nurses station, there is a binder with instructions for working this area of the hospital. in this binder is a section named "Quirky Doctors". All these specific requests are in this section. I loved the label they chose for this portion of the binder.
The anesthesiologist came in. I was pleasantly surprised to learn she was a woman. She marked my right shoulder with an X for placement of the pain pump catheter.
Two people came in with a mobile ultrasound. They would place the catheter in my right shoulder for the pain pump. The pain pump would automatically dispense something like Novocain for the next three days keeping approximately 60% of my pain under control. I was allowed to watch the monitor of the ultrasound machine as they inserted this catheter the size of fishing line into my shoulder. By doing this with a visual on the ultrasound, they were able to get exact placement into the nerves they wanted to numb. I could even see as they injected fluid into the tissue, Amazing. They explained as they went along. This was important as they were seeing things they were trained to see which I was not picking up on at all. Really fascinating.
Dr. Sajadi came in and wrote his initials on my right shoulder giving me great confidence they would perform surgery on the correct appendage. Another friend from Church, Mike Grieving, came in to help with anesthesia.
Then I was off to surgery to get a new shoulder. Claude was taken to training on my PT and post-op care. Then he was off to find food. The surgery started sooner than originally told. That was not a problem. By 2:20 Claude was informed surgery went well and he would be able to come back soon.
Nissa was at our home when we got there. What a blessing she would be these first days home, Claude had the chair moved to the living room with the end table on my left side. This would be my location for most of the first week.
That first day home would be the easiest.
I can honestly say all went very well with Baptist Health and Dr. Sajadi. How grateful I am that Dr. Lyon referred me to this particular doctor. Claude and I felt so blessed that Nissa came. She would be there until Friday. Now, on to recovery and healing.
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