Surgery Day & 1st Day Post-Op

Surgery Day: (yesterday)

The easy day.  All the stress of prepping for surgery behind me now someone else has to do all the work.  They did a nerve block combined w/general anesthesia & I knew nothing after the 1st injection to my IV.

Surgery took about 1.5 hours & the tendon was completely torn & had to be re-attached with anchors, plus bone spur removed that had been sawing away on my tendon over time.

Only hitch yesterday: I'd done all that prep work before surgery so I could function almost completely independently,  But they failed to warn me that the tubes that had to be attached to the compressor/cooling unit would be hooked to the back of my shoulder where I can't possibly reach.  GRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!  Clearly you want to prevent blood clots & keep your shoulder iced to reduce pain & inflammation, but that also means you're trapped in your chair all day until someone comes home to unhook you.  Not cool.

LESSONS LEARNED 1ST NIGHT AFTER SURGERY:

*  Do not accidentally list to the left & bump your operative shoulder.  Not fun.
*  Jerking awake & accidentally twitching or shrugging your shoulder is also not fun,
*  Sleep is elusive & comes in snatches---harder to deal with when you are ordinarily the kind of person who sleeps like a rock.


FIRST DAY POST-OP:

Unfortunately, you become quite well aware the nerve block has worn off,  Do as the doctors say & stay on top of your pain med.  And be sure & keep a little food near your recliner to eat prior to taking the pain med.  Everything takes longer to do, too.

I want to move my shoulder so much but that would be a very, very bad idea right now.  It's also very hard not to tense up my shoulder.  I have to keep forcing myself to relax.

Boredom is enemy #1.  I want to go for a walk, or go lift weights w/my good arm.  Can't for 2 reasons--I can't dress properly for outside, and since it's summer in AZ & I can't take a real shower for several days, I'm stuck.  That leaves pacing thru the apartment during the little bit of time I'm not hooked up to the machines. 8-)

I think it's going to be a long day....