But Wait!! There's more...

One of my favorite things on TV is the infomercial. They always make me laugh when they show the way you would not be able to do things without the product they are advertising. They just make it look so ridiculous, like you can't survive without whatever piece of crap they are selling. As a rule, I refuse to buy anything that is advertised on TV or even anything that has the "As seen on TV" logo on it. I may have to change my opinion, slightly.

While I was preparing for my surgery Matt and Anne insisted on loaning me their Tablemate II table. I was skeptical but I wasn't about to turn down something that might come in handy. They made the hand off about a week before the surgery and I took it home.

After my surgery I used it continuously. It was by my side, day and night for the first week and then from the time I woke up in the morning until I went to bed at night. It was great because it was able to come to me when I was not able to reach out to be near the table since the design allows it to slide it's legs under the chair or couch you're sitting on.

In spite of how useful it was, I could help chuckling when I looked at it and thinking "But wait! There's more!!"

Zero Degrees

Since I have a lot of time on my hands and couldn't get an appointment until next week I've been continuing to do my exercises to continue to restore the function to my shoulder. I was working on it last night and I realized that I have no external rotation on my left shoulder. I can't even get the shoulder to zero.

For those of you who that means nothing to, I'll explain. If you stand straight up with your arm at your side and bend your arm, at the elbow straight in front of you that would be the zero degrees position. From that point if you rotate your arm in toward your body that is called internal rotation. If you rotate it back to the zero position and then away from your body it is called external rotation. You should be able to rotate your arm approximately 90 degrees in either direction as seen below.

I can my turn arm all the way to the internal rotated position since that is where it was held during the entire time I had to wear the immobilizer. Since I was not allowed to move it during the past 5 weeks I lost all the external rotation. Hell, I can't even get back to zero. At best I'm still 1 or 2 degrees internally rotated. This is one of the things that I'm going to work on during PT and I can tell already that it is going to hurt like hell!!

Weren't You Bored?

The one question I was repeatedly asked when I went back to work was "Were you getting bored?"and I can honestly say "No." Frighteningly I could very easily become a recluse. When I was asked what I did at home for a month I quoted Peter Gibbons from Office Space: "I did nothing. I did absolutely nothing, and it was everything that I thought it could be." While that is not completely the truth I was certainly enjoying not having to do anything.

I had planned on doing some reading while I was home But I found that to be difficult since I could not really use my left hand to hold the book. After a while my right would get tired or it was just hard to hold the book up with one hand.

For those of you wondering what I did during those four weeks I will give you a few ideas. I edited some DVDs, I surfed the web a lot, I chatted with people online, I started this blog ( a lot of typing with one hand takes a bit of time) and I took naps. Naps are nice. I had forgotten that.

I also watched a lot of TV. I had gotten the first three seasons of The X-Files on DVD and I watched some of that, caught up on a few movies, made good use of my Media Center PC and became a Law and Order junkie. I learned that I could watch one Law & Order or another from about 2 in the afternoon until about 6 in the morning. I learned to record the ones in the middle of the night so I could watch them in the morning. It got so bad that if there was not a Law and Order on I felt like there was nothing on. SVU is my favorite.

It was nice while it lasted.

Video of the repair

I was doing some research today and came across this great video on the Hospital for Special Surgery's website that shows and explains what a Bankart repair is. Take a look if you're curious but be warned: it's not for the faint of heart. Power tools are used. Click on the link that says "Video Presentation"

Arthroscopic Bankart Repair Video

A Word of Thanks

I just want to take a moment to thank all those people who ever sat in an emergency room with me, waiting for my shoulder to be put back in the socket. In no particular order, "Thank You" to : My Aunt Gen who sat in three different hospitals with me, Jackie, Jean, Miranda, all the FIT guys: Andy, Wally, Jim and, lastly Matt. I appreciate all the time you put in. I know it was not fun for any of you. Except for Matt. I think we did a lot laughing at Jacobi.

Better Late Than Never...

As I've been sitting around recovering from my shoulder surgery, I've been thinking about the journey that has led me this place. I started thinking that I should have kept a journal to catalog this voyage that started in 1990/91 when I was 16 or 17 and has led to me sitting in front of this computer on a cold February day, 34 years old,  typing one handed while the other is in a sling. Then again, who knew it would take this long to find some resolution (hopefully) or that this ,seemingly, simple injury (dislocated shoulder) would turn into such an protracted tale?

Obviously, hindsight is 20/20 and I did not keep any such journal but I've recounted the stories so many times that they've stayed fresh in my mind and I should be able to put them down here with a fair amount of accuracy. The question is "Why?" Why keep a journal? and Why publish it on the web? The answer is two fold.

Firstly, it give me a place to post my progress so I can share it with my friends and family and keep everyone up to date. Not that it's such a chore emailing and calling people but I thought this would be a good idea. Also, I've been wanting to play round with blogging and this seemed like a good excuse for me to have something to say.

Secondly, I would like to recount my experience and share it with other people who are dealing with this kind of injury and are considering surgery. I put off having this surgery for almost17 years and once I finally decided to have the procedure I started looking around for first hand accounts of people's experiences with the procedure and rehab and was hard pressed to find anything. I had spoken to Surgeons and Physical Therapists but they have a particular view and it does not include the day to day living. As I was preparing for surgery (read, freaking out) I did a lot of reading but only found a few message boards for very specific sports (body building, mountain biking, skiing) about the issues related to recovery and what to expect. I was looking for something a little more nuts and bolts and thought  I might be able to provide that for someone else.

So, with all due deference to Christy Brown, lets get started.

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