hmm. the rep who fitted me with my sling said that many peole bought the polar car economy but i haven;t been able to find it on any website. maybe i wil just go for frozen peas.
i am already freaking out about being useless after surgery since i don't want to be a waste of space to my wife, but at the same time know that you kind of have to be for a little while anyways
I was disappointed with the polar care thing and found it to be massively inconvenient and not nearly as fun as popping Percocet like Pez.
[major league whine]I had the gameready ice machine for my left shoulder last year. It was worse than nothing because it was a massive pain in the ass for my 90 pound wife to move around when full of ice water and the shoulder cuff they gave me was not a shoulder cuff at all but a knee cuff. So it tented over my shoulder and never made any contact. Several calls to the rep later he finally came after my wife had been giving me ice packs on a rotating basis, which was working fine. When the rep showed up he still didn't even have the shoulder cuff or didn't even know what one was so I just told him to take the piece of shit away and he better not charge me or my insurance company a dime for something that was worthless. I only learned that there really was a cuff designed for shoulders when I started PT. :cussing:
This time if my doc recommends the gameready machine I will just say no thank you.
BTW, I am a side sleeper and this is really a problem. I normally sleep on my right side and unconciously end up there every night. Then I wake up with a stinger. My left shoulder is still too painful to sleep on 10 months post surgery and I have never been a back sleeper. I snore and wake myself up plus I just don't breathe well on my back (asthmatic) so I end up rolling over one way or another. I do experiment with different pillow configurations and so far they all have other consequences like muscle spasms somewhere else, so I keep coming back to my favorite pillow and waking up every half hour.
I had this injury on Labor Day 2008 and have not had a good night sleep since then. Lack of sleep does sometimes affect my work and worse, my driving. That is why more than any other reason I have to get this done. I can ski (kindof) but falling is out of the question. I will never speed skate (inline) again because I don't know how to protect myself in a fall. Also, playing an acoustic guitar is barely tolerable for about ten minutes at a time at most. I can still play my Strat, but I like the acoustic for hootenanys and such. All in all, this has been a major lifestyle changer for me and I can't wait till I can finally sleep through the night again. [/major league whine]
Did any of you guys get migraines from teh shoulder injury? for a while I was consistently getting migraines every monday and i figured out as my shoulder has been bothering me more and more that my deltoid has been tighter and tighter giving me tension migraines. it sucks
not getting migraines, but I have a lot of pain. Sharp pain in the join like I can feel the sutures in there when I move. Is that normal?
Mine was pretty painful for a good week, then started to subside, but I think that was mostly caused by them having to disconnect the subscapularis muscle to access the joint and then reattach it. Almost three weeks later now and it throbs a little bit throughout the day, but nothing that really hurts and makes me think I need to go back to the doc. Definitely no headaches for me.
well everything i say is pre-surgery. maybe I'm just susceptible to tension migraines
Not sure I would describe my left one exactly like that but after the nerve block and the drip expired I could definitely feel like the whole thing was pretty traumatized.Quote:
Originally Posted by stuckathuntermtn
When I still had the nerve block I was getting into the continuous motion machine one time and looked away from my arm to pick up the drip bubble and my arm fell. I never felt anything and was shocked to look back to my left and see my arm hanging there. When I picked it up I was shocked at how heavy it was 'cause it was actually pretty scrawny at that point. That was just weird.
Headaches I already have too. In my case they are from another injury (car wreck) so I don't attribute them to my shoulders.
So i have come to the realization that my shoulder now tells the weather. it has been hurting all week as the temps have dropped and it snowed today.
Going in for surgery in about 4 hours.
good luck man. my preop appointment is on monday. so looking foward to getting this done. it has been hurting like crazy lately and i just want it to stop being painful
Best of luck to all!Quote:
Originally Posted by crackboy
I'm 10 months post op from bankart, reverse bankart, and SLAP repairs, 5 anchors and lots of work done. I still have some pain here and there, and am still working on compensation/strength issues. And I just tweaked my fixed shoulder taking a slapshot.
Guess what I'm trying to say is that don't necessarily expect to have all pain gone...
I'll be two weeks out on Thursday. This one doesn't seem quite as rough as the same one done on the other shoulder last year. But it's still no picnic. Unfiltered prune/apple juice every day kept me pretty regular and that made things a lot more comfortable though I still hate the percocets. Stopped taking them after 3 days. Still hurts but I can deal. I started sleeping in bed after about 6 days this time -- a hudge improvement over the weeks spent in the barcalounger last year.
I am using the CPM machine at 45 degrees external rotation and 145 degrees abduction. Seems like it's not frozen as badly as the other one was. Still, because of the bicep tenodesis, I will not be skiing until next season. I agonized over the decision whether or not to do it because if I had said let it be a Popeye arm I could have been back in a month. Finally decided that I didn't want to be deformed the rest of my life so worth it to sacrifice the season and come back strong next.
My wife is sick of cooking (she hates it while I love to cook) but it will be a while before I am functional enough to be trusted with knives and pots and pans. She wants to feed me frozen TV dinners, which is fine with me while the Olympics are on every night. My weight is down to 178 (185 going in). Can't drink because I've had an upper respiratory infection since the surgery and alcohol makes me cough uncontrollably. This may not be the best way to lose weight but I'll take it. :tongue:
i have my surgery on monday. surprisingly it hasn't really been bothering me all that much this past week or so. considering it is my first major surgery i am not al that nervous
well t minus 1 hr or so before i leave for the hospital. feeling pretty good, woke up a touch nauseous but i usually do on days where big things happen so that is pretty normal for me. going to go take my antibacterial soap shower and watch my wife drink her coffee.
Hope things went well for you today crackboy!
Heal well cradkboy!
just got home. op went smooth, but am in quite a bit of pain. some nausea too. doc mock yelled at me for giving hm a tricky surgery
Was it arthroscopic or a full open repair?
I dislocated my shoulder playing in the terrain park and kept dislocating it (maybe 50+ times), and got pretty good at self-setting it. Had open bankart 5.5 years ago and been loving it ever since. Healing took a while (solid week of pain if not drug induced), but it was so worth it. It does "ache" a tad every know and then, but I can live with it.
Heal up!
Glad to hear things went smoothly crackboy! When you're up to it, give us the details! Enjoy your meds for now! :D
made it through the night well enough. wife was kind enough to wake me up every 4hrs for some percosets.
i had arthroscopic done, but they had to go in front and back. dont know if that is normal.
think he said 6 anchors and i think they ground down the bone connected to the ac joint,
Going in the front and back (that sounds wrong!) is normal. Stay ahead with the pain meds for the first few days - even if you are feeling good, take them at the scheduled time. Stay up on the fiber too!Quote:
Originally Posted by crackboy
6 anchors is a lot. Did they also tighten the joint?
Congrats on getting this part over with. The sling sucks, but let the healing begin!
well he basically had to bring up the bottom of the labrum. he also said he was adding more sine i kayak and put a lot of stress on the joint.i also think he did some capsular reoginization but they told me last night but i can't recall. dont think he tightened the joint. my cuff was in pretty good shape
he sling isnt that bad though i feel like something is off in its setup since i feel like my arm is still pulling on the joint. my bicep is still really swollen from fluid which hurts and is making my hand and wrist numb
Glad to hear that things went well and your doing as well as can be expected. Hang in there!
hey any tips on sleeping? i madee it through the first night ok, but that was probably more the aneshesia than me. last night was really rough as were attempted naps
Melatonin works well. It's completely natural and you can buy it at the grocery store. 2 pills (3mg. each) normally are just enough to help me get my zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.