HAPPY SABBATH

It was a beautiful Sabbath Day.  I sure miss my church family. We haven't attended services in about a month.  We had discussed attending today, but didn't.  Went for my post op visit to my surgeon on Tuesday Jan. 5 and started therapy on Friday Jan. 8.  

First thing out of my doctors mouth was, Where is your pillow?  When I woke up from surgery, my right shoulder was heavily bandaged. My right arm was in a sling and the sling on a pillow. All that was said to me was get dressed its time to go home. The last thing I remember was laying down on my left side. I didn't know what time it was. It was sometime around 1:30 p.m. when I woke up.  I was the surgeon's second patient of the day.  The first patient was taken to the operating room at 8:09 a.m.  I assume my surgery was about 9:30 a.m.

At checkout time the nurse didn't tell me what I should do when I got home.  I was just given a sling bag and a few papers to look over later.  In the papers was my prescriptions I was to take.  I was suppose to do very light exercises and keep my arm in the sling and on the pillow day and night.  I wasn't suppose to use that arm at all.  I was in a lot of pain.  

I used my arm to much the first two weeks. The exercise instructions weren't clear and nothing was said about keeping the sling and pillow on except for when I did my exercises.  At the doctors office the nurse was freaking out at the way I took off my shirt for her to remove my stitches.  I wasn't suppose to hardly use my arm.  The damage was so bad the doctor was afraid I would tear the tendon loose again. He asked if I had been doing any exercises.  I had done a few but was concerned I hadn't done enough.  Come to find out I had done to much and not the right way.

He then explain to me how bad the damage was and that he didn't want me to use that arm much at all. And that I was suppose to wear the sling and pillow day and night and come back and see him in 4 weeks.  My first therapy session was on Friday.  The therapist asked if I had been icing my shoulder. NO! No one told me to ice it.  He put me through some exercises and told me to relax my shoulder and arm and let him work them, not me. That was very hard for me to do.  He also told me to only use my right hand to hang on to items used for my exercises, and use my left hand to do the work. He explained how easily I could tear the tendon loose again and how very careful I needed to be.  

I am so very helpless now.  I hate to not be able to do much of anything on my own.  Thankfully I can bathe myself and go to the restroom.  It is hard to sleep sitting up on the couch to sleep. Another 4 weeks of that at least. Praying God won't let me go insane!