| By Andy,
on 14-03-2006 19:53
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It has been exactly a week since by surgery. I underwent an arthroscopic SLAP lesion repair procedure. I had expectations of what the past week would be like but it hasn’t been what I expected at all. I wasn’t expecting any mobility at this point, but I do have some when I perform my pendulum exercises.
I can move my hand about a foot front to back while keeping my elbow straight. That’s a foot total, not a foot to the front and a foot to the back. My doctor said to take it easy with the exercises, so I don’t push it. Circle mobility is a bit less but I’m happy with it. The pain level is not what I expected either. There really isn’t any. I only took pain killers for the first few days. It’s not really pain, but more like discomfort. My shoulder feels tired and sore, if I sit here and type too much. About an hour and I head back to the sofa. I sit with an ice pack every couple hours and that seems to do it. If I move my arm more than I should, I get a twinge of pain. The sling helps a lot; I try to relax into it. While sitting on the sofa I remove the sling and sit back with my hand in my lap. Showering is easily the worse part of this whole ordeal. It’s difficult to stand normally without the sling for the length of a shower. I tend to feel myself tighten up a bit. Showering means a rest afterwards with an ice pack. When I shower I change the band-aids I have to cover the incisions with. They look clean and are healing nicely. There really isn’t much to see. Arthroscopic repairs are all internal. Don’t let anybody treat you like you haven’t been through something major, because you have! Make sure for the first few days someone is with you! I was lucky and mom and dad visited for a few days after my surgery. I miss not having someone around. The first days are definitely uncomfortable. That coupled with the order not to put any force through the joint is disabling. I caught my arm under the blanket just last night and that hurts! Any resistance to movement is bad. Even trying to steady objects with my right hand is a no-no. Consequently, I fought with a box of Wheat Thins today for five minutes, before it yielded under a one handed mangling. Forget about taking out the trash, driving a stick shift, or eating something that needs cutting. I guess that my final advice for the first week is to have something to do. This website has kept me sane for the past week. Working on it has required me to keep the gray matter going. This doesn’t mean that I haven’t spent my fair share of time sitting and watching movies. A friend loaned me some movies, can you believe they made FIVE Rocky movies? I’m about to watch the last one.
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