Well, I got home from the hospital yesterday. Yes, almost a week, I know. There were a few complications. About typical for me by now, lol. I had a nice dinner with my Aunt, Uncle and Brother Thursday night and was too keyed up to sleep that night so I only got about 3 hours of sleep before heading for the Hospital.
My Aunt drove me down at 5:40 in the morning and I arrived at 6:00 sharp, amazing considering my Aunt is NEVER on time for anything, lolol. I went in and got taken directly to the prep room to get ready for the surgery. Got changed into the Tent they brought me for a gown, the Nurse easily placed the I.V. and shaved my shoulder for the upcoming procedure. The anesthesiologist came in and we chatted for a few and we were ready to go. They wheeled me into the operating room and got me settled onto the table, Dr. Teasdale walked in and we said our hello's, and that's the last thing I remember.
The next thing I knew was someone hacking at my shoulder with an Axe. Well, not really, but that's what it felt like. I awoke with such extreme pain that I screamed in the worst agony I had every known. Apparently, the nurse who attached the Hydromorphone drip forgot to release the tube pinch and there was no delivery of the pain killer to ease my waking up. They rushed over and quickly discovered the pinch and released it and gave me three quick boluses of the drug to kill the pain the fastest, which also knocked me back out for another 2 hours.
When I finally came to once again, Dr. Teasdale was sitting there waiting for me to wake up. The first words out of his mouth was to apologise for the oversight by the nurse and since I was still heavily drugged I barely remembered it, thinking it was just a dream. He asked me if the nurse could have a word with me and I said sure. She came in and it was obvious she had been crying. She sat next to me saying how sorry she was for what happened and told me she would give anything to make up for it. I told her I was still in one piece and nothing else was hurt so no harm no foul. Any of you who know me knows that this kind of crap happens all the time, so I wasn't really surprised. Anyway, she apologized again and said she had to go, but wanted to know if she could stop by later and I said sure.
Dr. Teasdale came back in and told me the surgery went very well, except for taking twice as long as he had thought. There was a lot more damage than we though and since the MRI scans taken back in February weren't very clear he was going in there with only the basic idea of what was needed. After almost 4 hours on the table and 4 new holes in my shoulder, he fixed everything he could, which included severe damage to cartilage, a couple of repairs to ligaments and tendons, repairing something called a Bursa, I think, because it was pretty messed up and infected, and removed a few bone spurs and calcification's. He said that given time to heal properly I should regain most, if not all, use of the right shoulder. He is very happy with how it turned out. He then told me I would be staying at least 2 nights, maybe more. I said it's okay, I half expected to stay one or two nights anyway. He then told me he would talk to me again the following morning.
The nurse came over shortly after Dr. Teasdale left and asked me how my pain level was and I said it was creeping back up, and she gave me another bolus of pain killer, which knocked me out again.
The next thing I remember was waking up to Dr. Teasdale shaking my leg to wake me up to talk to me. I came to slowly and asked him what was wrong, he just left. He laughed and said good morning. I looked around only to discover I was indeed in my semi-private room on the fourth floor. He asked me how my pain was and I could honestly tell him I barely felt my shoulder, a blessing as far as I was concerned. He then told me that he wanted to keep me in at least a day or two more because we couldn't get the dosing right for the pain killers. He also told me that he didn't want me to remove the sling my arm was in for about a month. He wants to give my shoulder every chance to heal as well as he thinks it will. He then opened my gown around my shoulder to remove the sterile pads and I was blown away at how much blood they had soaked up. Four little holes in my shoulder kept leaking for quite a while after he put in the sutures. He cleaned up the dried blood said it looks great! The incisions are very clean and already sealed very well, and don't have even the slightest pinkness indicating post-op infection. He put new small gauze pads on and said he would stop by the next day to check on me again.
I slept the rest of the morning and half the afternoon away and woke just before dinner arrived. That night we were treated to grilled chicken with asparagus and a salad with a balsamic vinagrette. If you ever need to be an inpatient somewhere, try to make it at Marin General, they have the best hospital food I've had anywhere. After dinner was done and the tray was taken, the nurse from recovery stopped by, poking her head into the room to see if I was mad. I laughed and asked her in and to have a seat. We chatted for a while after I told her all was well and I was healing wonderfully. She told me once again that if I needed anything all I had to do was ask. Well, I had one small request I thought she would find easy enough to fulfill, I asked her if she could scrounge up anything chocolate. I am a devout chocoholic and she looked at my like I was goofy from the painkillers. I laughed and told her how much I love anything chocolate and she told me to give her 5 minutes. She was back in 4 with a couple of See's chocolate bars from the gift shop. I objected saying I would have been happy with a piece of cake or pudding from the kitchen, but she said it was the least she could do, and would have been happier if I wanted something more than mere chocolate. We both laughed and chatted for a while longer and she could tell I was getting tired and said she had to go and for me to get some more shut eye, which I was more than happy to do.
The next day Dr. Teasdale woke me again and asked how I was doing, and I said my shoulder was a bit achy but overall pretty good. He removed the gauze pads and we were both happy to see that none of them had a speck of leakage. He said they looked great and asked if I could handle him removing the sutures and I said sure, after I gave myself a hit of the painkiller. Let me tell you, those on demand painkillers are a wonderful invention. It only doses out a quarter bolus at a time and won't let me get another hit for 10 minutes, keeping me from overdosing. Anyway, after I hit it and it took effect, he snipped the stitches and pulled them out. They were so clean and came out so easily, I didn't even feel the little pulling sensation usually felt. He then taped over the incisions to keep them tight and didn't bother to dress them any more than that. He is very pleased at how well I am healing this time. He then asked if I was ready to go home and I told he he was the doctor here, not me, lol. He said as far as things looked at that point, I was ready to go and to call who I needed to call. He said to give him a call at the end of the week to see how things are going and to keep the shoulder restraint on at all times. After I call him tomorrow he'll decide when he needs to see me again in his office, but since my shoulder is doing so well it will probably not be until December sometime before he needs to see me again.
Well, I got to my Aunt and Uncle's house that evening and had dinner and I was so tired after all the moving around I just went downstairs and crashed for the night. I woke up several times from pain and had to switch back and for between the futon and an armchair trying to find a comfortable position for my shoulder. I eventually got a solid block of sleep in the chair and woke up around three in the afternoon when my Aunt got home from work. We talked for a while and decided that my Brother would bring me home the following day, that being Tuesday. I got home here in late afternoon and took a couple pain killers and found myself too tired to even think about dinner, so I just crashed again for the night.
Now that I'm home and fending for myself, I find just how difficult things are to do one handed. It's taken me most of 2 days to write this because I have to give my left hand a break so often from typing and going back to correct all of my spelling mistakes I make, lolol. I know this is a long winded tale to tell, but at this time I feel better than I have at any time in the last two and a half years of dealing with these injuries. I am almost giddy with thoughts about finally getting on the right track we have needed to be on as far as getting everything healed again. I am finally feeling positive again after almost two years of frustration following setback following complication. For the first time in a long time I am finally looking forward to what the next few months have in store for me. I look ahead into the next few months and I think I see a finish line up ahead. Let me tell you, there is no better feeling than actually seeing the ultimate goal of being whole again within reach.
Which brings me to all of you guys. I haven't been here as much as I would have liked but I found myself plagued with depression and a self loathing I couldn't shake for a long time. All of that finally started to turn around in August when I got a back brace and was finally able to walk upright for the first time in almost two years. I gained over 100 pounds and all that weight took a heavy toll, no pun intended. I couldn't stand up straight or even walk for more than a couple dozen feet at a time without experiencing pain from my shoulders through my back, and occasionally my knee and ankle. Had I been here more often, I could have reminded myself a lot more that I have a bunch of friends here that are all rooting for me to get better. I would like to apologize to all of you for not counting on you as I should have during these last couple of years. Most of the time I couldn't see beyond my own problems and I closed in on myself filling my heart with self pity and self loathing. Those feelings kept feeding on each other and set me apart from everyone else, resulting in deeper and deeper depression. Now that I finally have good news from the medical front I can feel an ever brightening of positive energy flow into me. The back brace, along with the 50 pounds I've lost since August, and the very succesful shoulder surgery combine into a veritable cornucopia of great news that I've been in need of for a long time now. You all have been here the whole time ready and willing to offer a good word and a cheerful greeting, and I was too blind to see it for too long. That, among many other things, is why I will always be indebted to all of you. I owe all of you a huge debt of gratitude and much more for the support you gave offered to me over my time here and will never feel I've repaid that debt. Once I have finished Rita and gotten her back on the road I will start that repayment be dedicating Rita to all of you and the SOHC4 site.
I'll get back to all of you more soon.
Peace and Long Rides,
Jeff
