Shoulder #2

Started by Don_P, September 15, 2017, 08:35:55 AM

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Don_P

They are going to patch up the left rotator next Fri, a single full tear but the tendon is still mostly attached vs 2 fully torn out muscles on the right last time then another port and polish on the bones. I did the pre-op yesterday and heading out to another app't in a minute. They wrote a pain meds scrip yesterday. Because of the opiate epidemic he could only write a limited # of percocets... last time I was on oxy and would sleep 4 hours every 72, basically I'd pass out every third day. Thanks opiate abusers, this is gonna suck  :-\

MountainDon

All my best wishes to success and a good recovery. 
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.


GaryT

 "Thanks opiate abusers, this is gonna suck  :-\"   I couldn't agree more!  I live with chronic pain, and oxy is the only thing that helps.  I am fortunate to have an understanding pain manager.  I hope all goes well for you.
Gary

Redoverfarm

Hope everything works out.  Maybe the recovery will be better than the last time. 

firefox

My wife and I both have chronic pain issues. I wish you a lightning fast recovery with
no fallen trees to chop afterwords. i really admire all the excellent help you give all the time!
Bruce & Robbie
MVPA 23824


Rys

Offering up prayers for a quick and uneventful recovery!

Don_P

Thanks Folks,
We got some good news over the weekend, all the ACA insurance companies had bailed out of our end of the state for next year which was going to leave us uninsured, but Anthem has returned... I'm waiting to see if it was a ploy to raise rates but at least there is something out there on the horizon.

I've been whittling down the honeydews, the heavy timbers are all stacked and put up for a year or so, boards and craft type stuff is accessible and the shop is kinda tidy. Gave my wife a bobcat driving lesson yesterday  :D Brought the log boom truck home today. Need to remember to alternate trickle chargers around the farm stuff that will sit for awhile and learn to piddle again. We pulled a dozen or so logs out of the woods today for the barn project and need to grab a few white oaks yet for fascia and flys, I'm hoping we can find someone to help my partner milling that stuff up, it is doable but tough solo. As I look around, my burden is easy.

NathanS

White oak trim, you guys really know how to do it. If you're bored during recovery feel free to post some of the stuff you do, I know I'd read it.  ;D

You must be looking at 6 weeks of not using the arm at all and 6 months before you're lifting anything a little heavy?

Hope your insurance situation works out ok too, I know it's somehow a political statement to say you should get good care without huge financial burden and stress.

MountainDon

Quote from: NathanS on September 19, 2017, 11:29:54 AM

Hope your insurance situation works out ok too, I know it's somehow a political statement to say you should get good care without huge financial burden and stress.

:)
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.


Don_P

Like everyone I have mixed feelings about it all. After getting twitterpated, the announcement came that all the insurance companies were pulling out of the counties on our end of the state. Our senators comment was "told ya so" to 70,000 people. One company of the three, the largest and first to pull out, decided to return. Does that man think I'm voting for that level of planning and public service ???.

  My personal experience has been that I went into the first shoulder surgery under the old insurance system, we had paid around $500/mo for some years slowly creeping up from around $350/mo when we became self employed in the early '90's. After the surgery, while I was unable to work and in the runup to the ACA, it went to ~$1600/mo... more than was coming in. Obamacare dropped that to ~$170/mo. As income came back the bill returned to ~$500/mo with a $1200/mo subsidy. I don't see it so much as red or blue, the insurance companies are raiding the government kitty. I'd just as soon tell the insurance companies to take a hike and pay the income variable $500/mo for Medicare. If someone wants to pay $1200/ month more to argue with someone in a shiny new skyscraper, more power to them. Who knows what the future holds.

The timetable is supposed to be exactly that, pain and torture starts about 6 weeks after the knife fight.

We set up the planer in the equipment shed at the farm and then went to the woods and got out a couple of white oak trees. I think one more and staging them at the saw will get him going. The loader is good for a little over a ton and can lift one end of these logs. White oak is some kind of heavy.


John Raabe

Sorry to hear about all the slicin' and sewin' you've got signed up for. I guess the meds can help with the pain involved in knitting that gristle and bone pile back together and in good working order. Maybe you can find a drug that will be relaxing and fun but not get you onto the addiction carousel.

At any rate, I wish you a quick recovery and a surgical team that will rebuild your hard-working levers so that you never have to talk about round Three.

John Raabe
None of us are as smart as all of us.

Don_P

it went well this morn, one broken off golf tee in the arm bone, 4 loops of sun baked fly line lashing the tendon to that piling and im off to the races

safe on the addiction front, that stuff makes my blue eyes turn brown... no joy there  :D tmi ;D

John Raabe

Glad to hear sounds of recovery.
None of us are as smart as all of us.

Redoverfarm

Quote from: Don_P on September 22, 2017, 04:49:38 PM
it went well this morn, one broken off golf tee in the arm bone, 4 loops of sun baked fly line lashing the tendon to that piling and im off to the races

safe on the addiction front, that stuff makes my blue eyes turn brown... no joy there  :D tmi ;D

Sounds familiar.  Mine had separated and torn so just one more step to stitch it together once it was anchored.  But I didn't feel a thing. ;)


Don_P

the pain meds and me didn't get along, atall. this one so far is much less painful. Netflix hasn't made it, a friend dropped off one of those boxed sets nobody ever watches. i'm up to buddy holly while bocoming a rock nd roll historian  :D.

he said this repair has about a 2% fail rate, the repair on the right has about a 50% chance, he pointed out I'm in the bad part of that curve occupation wise. this one should be good to go and is my dominant arm. I tend to appreciate that more in its temporary absence   ;D

Don_P

Well, here we go again. The right shoulder this time. I had an ignosecond a couple of months ago and threw a large chunk of firewood out of the truck. When my arm hit full extension I felt something tear. Finally had an MRI done and got the results this week. 3 tears in the rotator and the bicep isn't where its supposed to be. They got me in for next Friday.

MountainDon

Oh dear. Best of good luck!!
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

Don_P

There's a serious pity party going on  d*
Trying to get my ducks in a row, They stuck me in the rotation fast, not much time to get everything ready. I'll be down for awhile this time. On the plus side I've been talking to the arts school about a timber framing class so it might be a good time to try to put something together.
I've almost got the Chevy reassembled, one of the neighbors straightlined a blind corner and totaled it. I bought it back for a little over a hundred bucks and decided I have nothing to lose learning a little bodywork. Paint the hood tomorrow and it should be ready to fit back up. I got door, fender, grill and bumper on over the past few days and have been learning to paint, orange peel is my specialty  ;D.
I've had as many as 4 screech owls hanging out with me in the shop at any given time;


We got the log rafters on the barn shed at work yesterday and planed sheathing for that today. We should get that installed between pre-op stuff next week and then might have to call in some help for the metal. Once that is dry it can wait indefinitely. That's why you haven't seen me take on many residential jobs the past few years, I don't mind leaving a cow waiting nearly as much as a 2 legged client. This old log barn is pretty cool, a lot of chestnut and no sawmarks in the original work up until repairs began. Even the roof sheathing boards over the rest of the barn are hand riven.





Rys

Hope all goes smoothly!

Don_P

Thanks for the well wishes  :)
The doc and PA are good, we've seen entirely too much of each other over the last 20 years.

Got the truck pretty much reassembled today and finished repainting the cab, it lacks some trim and fit and the bed will have to wait for another day but it's roadworthy again


NathanS

Hope it goes well too. I have some tendonitis or something going on in my non dominate elbow right now... I shouldn't complain.

Chestnut... I am going to do the second half of our kitchen counter as wood, and I briefly thought about chestnut until I saw it is almost as soft as pine!

Seems like you always have some fun jobs going - you could probably write a book about it. I'd read it.