I’m having shoulder surgery Jan 30th. My left arm is going to be in a sling for 6-8 weeks.
The good news is that I’m right handed. I’m a programmer and my work understands that I might not be as productive for a while.
I also live in snow country. I bought some good boots that I don’t have to tie (that takes two hands). And today, I will be teaching my Wife how to run the plow truck. The truck can be a little persnikity.
I will be able to plow and drive after a bit, all our vehicles are autos. But if we get big snow within the first week after the operation, it’s gonna be an issue.
I like to cook, but that’s gonna go on the back burner for a while I guess. We are going to make some big meals and freeze them. Or at least that is our intent.
Anywho, I’ve never broken a bone or had an injury that left me one armed for so long. I’m trying to make plans.
Don’t scare people with ominous-sounding thread titles, for starters. I was having words like BEAUTIFUL DORRANCE #12 STAINLESS STEEL HOOKS thudding through my head…
I broke my right wrist - and I’m right handed - in December 2007. A shoulder is a little different because I could at least use the arm proper during that time.
One surprise is how hard clothing can be to put on. Get a cheap sling now and practice when you get dressed in the morning. Find out what pieces of clothing are easiest to get on using only one arm, and keep those in mind. Otherwise, enlist your wife to help out each morning if possible. (I left work early each day, sometimes even before my husband was awake, so I dressed myself.)
Be sure your tub is non-skid. You don’t want to reflexively reach out to grab something with that arm if you slip.
Practice with other stuff around the house too. I would accidentally buy a bottle of soda at work and then look at it and think “whoops” when I tried to open it. I had to get coworkers to open it for me, because my alternate method of sitting down, gripping it between my thighs, and opening with the left hand tended to squirt soda out around the cap during the process.
Oh, and I got a big surprise trying to lock my front door in the morning. I hadn’t thought about how you have to pull on the knob while locking it since the day we moved in - until that point. :smack:
Try to figure out how you’re going to sleep. You might want to get an extra pillow or two, or one of those long “body pillows” to prop yourself up. And be sure you get a backup on pain meds if the ones you get aren’t good. Vicodin made me throw up, so rather than call I just sucked it up and took extra Aleve.
Good advise given. Avoid escalators, use the stairs or the lifts. I would also avoid driving unless necessary. control with one arm is NOT as good as with two.
Get a haircut before the surgery, you won’t be raising up that arm above your head for awhile to mess about with two-handed hair grooming.
Investigate how comfortable the couch is for sleeping on. There might be less of a tendency to roll over on it, and you can keep the bad arm up with a pillow underneath supporting it.
Make sure there’s extra toilet paper on the right side! :eek:
Been there, done that. Broken shoulder, new joint (think of Granny and her new hip), six weeks in a gunslinger cast - a plaster belt with a bar out to a cast over the elbow, keeping the shoulder from moving. At least the hand worked for stuff I could reach.
I’ll second the advice above, and suggest that you make sure to have ready-to-eat meals/snacks at hand - that’s ONE hand! Even a sandwich usually takes two hands to assemble, and if it’s in a zipper bag you’ll probably need your teeth to open it.
You are so lucky it is the off arm, I am right handed and that is the side that I had the prostheses installed.
What was said up thread, special attention to belts ( learn to love suspenders ) Tucking in shits – yeah, right…
Getting out of deep chairs and couches.
Plan ever move in advance, you are going to be more limited than you can ever dream and everything will take longer and be harder, allow time for every thing.
Is a guaranteed conversation starter… Good luck and good pain control from the first…
I’ve done the should surgery thing twice, once on each arm, and I’ve probably got one comming as soon as I get good insurance.
Having the left one done isn’t too bad because most things are set up for your right hand. Hopefully you won’t be in a gun slinger sling because you won’t be able to do much. I was lucky both times and have been in covential slings, which brings me to my first bit of advice: wrap a towel around the sling strap it will prevent it from digging into your shoulder as much.
Driving isn’t too bad because you can still shift an automatic but parking break release and closing the driver’s side door are problems, I suggest using your left foot for both tasks. I disagree with the earlier suggestions of sleeping on the couch, I couldn’t sleep on my side until I was almost healed because of the weight of my hand pulling my shoulder forward. Sleeping flat on my back took several months as well because the sling pulls your shoulder forward and laying in bed reverses this the stretching hurt too much until I was into my rehab. I found that sleeping in a recliner with a pillow behind my shoulder was best.
You will be able to use your hand after the surgery and, when wearing your sling, and able to hold a fair bit of weight so a lot of your daily tasks will still be possible. I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Getting dressed won’t be much fun and I suggest button down shirts that you can slide up the injured arm with out moving it too much.
These were the main problems I had with my left shoulder. If you have others it looks like there are plenty of us that have been there before and can offer work arounds. By the way what are you having done?
This. When I dislocated my elbow and was in a sling the only kind of shirts I could put on comfortably were oversized button ups or zip ups that I could slip up my injured arm all the way and then move to the next. Same with Pajamas. Over the top was too hard to do without lifting my arm up and straining it. I had to run out to Target and buy a few. My suggestion would be to stock up.
Follow the doctor’s orders about not using the arm. My husband had rotator cuff surgery a few years back. Because he’s stuborn and doesn’t deal well with pain meds, his recovery was 12 weeks instead of the 6 we expected.
Do you have a dishwasher or someone to do the dishes? I have neither, and when my left hand was out of commission, the most difficult thing was washing dishes. After breaking a few things, I bought everything in disposable plastic.
My big surprise was getting neck surgery and THEN finding out I had a 10 lb lifting limit for several months. The neck, it turns out, provides anchor points for the muscles that lift the shoulders and arms. But that hadn’t occurred to me.
Definitely move stuff around so it can stay where you leave it for months. No gasoline cans in the middle of the walkway. Pick heavy things up off the floor if they can’t stay there. Get dangerous things set inside of areas you can lock in case there are or may be children around. Buy your bags of rock salt and put them where you can scoop or, better, pour out of them. In fact, anything you consume out of a big heavy bag, you should put up on a table near the edge where you can pour some out singlehanded.
And let me just say you would not believe what a hassle Christmas is when you can’t even lift the larger pussycats.
