When I posted that picture, that’s when I finally started getting the ‘OMG what happened’ comments (even from people that knew I was having surgery). Some people even thought it was infected. It looked really strange. If you looked closely, the actually incisions were all very small and very clean, but my shoulder still had some odd blood marks on it from the bandages, as well as stains from the disinfectant and a bunch of pre-op markings from the surgeon. All said and done, it really was a mess.
Here it is. You can barely see one stick at the very left, one right in the middle and one at the right. Everything else on me is superficial. It’s just marker and blood that leaked around sponges and guaze and stained my skin over 48 hours. That big L shape was the edge of a square foam bandage thing that they put over each hole. I think that and the stitches are what really made people’s gag reflexes go nuts.
Sometime about, maybe, 2-3 months after the (Bankart Tear) surgery is when I said “I think I can tell the pain from the tear is gone and now it’s just surgery pain”. I’m just over 7 months out now and I’ve still got a lot of tightness in that area. They just released me from PT and are hoping to close my case next month with the expectation that I’ll be back to normal over the next year or so. I’m assuming I’ll have some kind of limitation for the rest of my life. Right now I have that classic ‘throw like a girl’ movement. That is, if I try to throw something, my arm can’t/doesn’t go back all the way and the object either only makes it about halfway or it’s wildly off target and with no speed. I don’t expect that to really ever be back to 100%. Luckily, I don’t play sports. Someday I might want to be able to play tennis again, but I can probably do without it. It would, however, be nice to play darts some time soon. But I can do my own PT to work back up to that.
Was out and about today shopping and later cooking a big meal. No more Vicodin for me, getting the stitches out tomorrow. Stairs are still a bit of trouble but otherwise I’m moving pretty well.
It was pretty weird when I first got out of the sling, especially trying to shake people’s hands - I would have try to lean in really far without looking like too much of a weirdo.
I think your recovery might be more typical than mine though. I regained range of motion very fast according to my physical therapist. I have pretty much full range now, but the reason for that is I have naturally very flexible joints; which can be good sometimes - but also has an obvious downside. I’m still not at full strength, that has taken much longer to get back, the doctor said full recovery will take a year (about 6 months left).
My PT said the same thing about my joints being very flexible, but said that may actually be part of the reason why I’m not recovering as fast as normal. Not that being flexible is making it harder to regain ROM, it’s just that it’s going to take longer to get back to where I started. For example. Reaching straight up, a ‘normal’ person might be at 170-180, but I was at 181 (my arm pushed right into my ear) and probably could have pushed it farther. My PT, at my first appt even mentioned how flexible I was. Getting that movement to 170 wouldn’t take as long as getting it to 180.
Similarly, when I’m laying down on the table, and they’re pushing my arm into external rotation, they really have to push on it to get it past vertical. They other one, however, I can just flop over and it’ll fall below the table. To me, however, that seems normal, but they keep telling me that I’m very flexible. Again, all they’re saying is that to get from acceptable to where I started is going to take some extra time because where I started is farther than they the average, or so they tell me.
Also, yes, shaking hands was odd for the first month or two. I usually shook people’s hands with my left hand while saying ‘Shoulder surgery’.
I don’t have your blood marks but there is a lot of bruising and a swollen area close to the armpit.
I read the 2 page operative report and there was more to it than I had realized: labral tears, synovitis, bursitis. The Duramorph anesthesia made me sick in post op and I still get a bit queasy when trying to grade essays or read. It might have been the surgical positioning (over a beanbag and in traction) that hurt my neck and back.
However…I was able to wash my hair today and even pick up my cat. Improving!
Damn, this is taking a lot longer to recover from than I had thought. The recent storm here in So Cal just about killed me; it increased the swelling and pain.
The upper arm aches about as much as the acromioclavicular area, which received most of the surgical work.
I’m doing a total of 18 p.t. visits and home therapy too.
