This is the main reason that I started this blog...I am here to give encouragement to those considering surgery.  Before surgery I read so many stories on here of people having problems after surgery, and was hoping that I wouldn't be one of those.  I am here to say that not every shoulder surgery ends with problems, and there are those out there who have "easy" recoveries.  I am here to say that I am one of those.

I took the painkiller Lortab twice after I got home in the evening of my surgery day, and then stopped it that night.  Even after the nerve block wore off, I really wasn't in any pain.  I am sure that the ice machine that I was hooked up to 24/7 the first 2 days helped, and my high tolerance for pain.  So I decided to just take Tylenol (my OS wouldn't let me take Motrin for the first 2 weeks since he wanted the inflammation to start the healing process), and I stopped that the next day. 

The only time I was in any amount of pain was when I was out of my sling while dressing and showering (which I was allowed to do on the third day), and during the couple of exercises that I was doing.  But otherwise I was surprisingly fairly comfortable.  The day after surgery I started pendulums, shrugs, and bending and straightening my elbow.  They started out being hard to do, but got easier as the week wore on. 

I had surgery on Monday and on Wednesday I stopped by the PT clinic I work at to say HI to everyone I work with, plus I was getting bored and was ready to get out of the house.  Thank goodness for my mom, who was staying through the weekend (my dad went home Wednesday morning) because she was willing to drive me where ever I wanted since she knew I needed to get out of the house.  The next day she took me to the high school I work at so that I could see the kids I work with.  We stayed for half of a lacrosse game and a few innings of a baseball game.  Although I was off for the whole first week, I think I could have gone back on Thursday since I felt so good!!

Over all I was impressed with how easy the first week post-op was.  I adjusted quite well to doing things with one hand, including eating, dressing, showering,...I was sleeping comfortably propped up in bed with some pillows and really didn't have any complaints!!  I just couldn't believe that I really didn't have a lot of pain, which can be attributed to the fact that my tear was fairly small.