Monday, February 20, 2012

How wanting a couple cookies leads to shoulder surgery

So, let's see.  There were a few other things I thought about writing about when I did my last post.  Now I have to just remember what they were.  I think one was about HDT's birthday that just passed.  Another was about my mom.  Seems there was at least one more.  Oh yeah, our kitchen floor.

I'll start with mom, since what happened to her is the oldest of the three.  Back in September I believe it was, maybe October, she fell and dislocated her right shoulder.  Yeah, it was definitely October.  HDT, Jim, his exwife, their two kids and I were helping move Pat while he was in the hospital for some medical issues.  We had just finished for the night and were all heading to our respective homes when my brother Roy calls.  Now, normally I just ignore most phone calls.  But since he's never called me before (just texted) I figured I better answer.  Good thing I did as he says mom's fallen, the paramedics are there getting ready to take her to the ER and I'll need to go meet her there since he's had too much to drink to be able to drive.  Plus he's a mess anyway, I wouldn't want him to drive.

So, yeah, HDT and I meet her there.  X-rays show the shoulder way out of whack.  We have to leave the room while they put it back in.  Her hand and wrist are also hurting so they X-ray that but luckily nothings wrong with them.

After they clear her and provide several prescriptions that we take care of we take her home.  I stay the night (HDT doesn't as he has to work in the morning) so I'll be there if she needs any help overnight or the next morning.  But by 10/11ish in the morning she's feeling much better and can get around by herself so I leave.

Her follow up appointment with a joint doctor shows she has some tearage so there are two choices.  1st choice is therapy and after 6 weeks they look again and reevaluate how she is.  If therapy isn't doing what they want she'll need surgery and then more therapy.  Or choice two - just go with surgery now and then do therapy.  Because she's a very healthy 70 and is also very active normally she, me and the doc all agree to do surgery now. 

So we make the appointment and I take her in.  Turns out she had a massive tear and it took 5 sutures or whatever they're called when they're reconnecting the tissue inside the body.  According to the doc a normal procedure only takes 2 - 3.  7 holes in her shoulder altogether though.  Because when they went in they found her bicep was out of place as well so they had to fix that too. 

The surgery went very well.  She stayed overnight though because she went into A-Fib while on the table.  Everyone figures it was just the body's reaction to surgery since all tests after were very good.  But to be safe she stayed the night.  They taught her how to work the sling and we had her outta there the next evening.

Since then healing and therapy have gone very well.  Everyone was very surprised, happily though, that she's healing so quickly and she's had no pain at all except during therapy itself.  I believe she should be done with therapy this week, maybe next. In fact, I'm due for another chat with her soon so I'll find out.

Luckily I was out of work when I was so I was able to take her to all her appointments with no problems.  Which there were plenty.  By the time I got my job she was able to drive by herself and felt confident enough to do so.

This is a big enough post for today so I'll write about the next two things later.

Oh yeah, I completely forgot to say how she dislocated it.  Duh!  So she was watching tv in her loveseat which reclines.  She decided to get a couple cookies and when she got up she thought she had put the footrest all the way in but turns out it didn't stay down.  As they're not want to do.  When she went back to her seat she also decided to grab a bird book.  So she has the book in one hand and cookies in the other.  So rather than just sit and scootch herself back into place she lifts her right foot to push the rest down and proceeds to lose her balance and fall directly on her right shoulder.  Luckily she missed her coffee table as it's square with very sharp corners.  My brother who lives with her (in the basement) hears the big thud of her falling and knows that it's not a typical dropping of something.  Goes running upstairs and before he's made it all the way she's hollering for him. 

When he called me I could hear her moaning in the background, gotta say I really didn't like to hear that.

No media quote today either.  Mainly because I can't think of anything that would fit right now.

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