Anyone ever had shoulder surgery??

[mum4jenn]

My dh will be having surgery on his shoulder on the 16th of this month. It will start out as something minor but once the Dr gets in there it might become more complicated. He has a torn a.c something and they are supposed to scrape the bone and some other stuff.

What should we expect?? What should I expect?? I will have to take off from work to be with him for the first week and since my dh is a big baby should I go get a baseball bat now to keep him in line??!!!

I love him and will take care of him but I am really dreading it because he can be such a bear when he is in pain.

 

[Buckalew]

DH had a torn rotatet cuff about 9 years ago and had surgery. He is not a wimp though so I am not sure how bad it was. If you ask him, he says it was really bad. However, he didn't act that way. He must have a high tolerance for pain.

Good luck to your DH and to you. I do remember taking him up to the Firehall (his work) & dropping him off on Day 3. He was getting cabin fever & driving me nuts with that.

 

[ahutton]

It sounds very similar to what I had done. I was in a car accident and apparently had torn or partially torn my rotator cuff. After doing all types of therapy, medications and cortisone shots surgery was the best option. I was 26 at the time, and had, before the accident, better than average range of motion.

I had the scope, with the Dr. intention being to shave the acromium bone(sp?) and see what was causeing the tingling and pains down my arm and into my shoulder blade and limiting my range of motion. Once inside he found that from the poor healing (I'm guessing because I kept working and reinjuring it without knowing what was going on) there was a significant amount of scar tissue built up inside the joint. He cleaned that out, shaved down the bone and finished by putting one last cortisone shot in the joint. It was outpatient surgery. I had 3 incisions which were about 1/2 inch in length. They healed quickly. I did 6-8 weeks of physical therapy after a 2 week healing time. I was off work for those 2 weeks, and returned to my office job with few restrictions.

After the surgery the first 3 days were very uncomfortable. I found that I was best laying on my back and using several small pillows to hold my arm in a comfortable position. DH did most of the house stuff, but I was able to take care of my own personal needs with few exceptions. I just couldn't fasten my own undergarment behind my back for a long time.

The surgery sounded a lot scarier than I actually found it to be, and my range of motion, while no longer 110% of normal, it is within 2 degrees of normal in spite of not doing anything to maintain my flexibility.

Please feel free to PS me if you have any other questions, I hope this isn't too much informaiton!

 

[mamajoan]

Hi, no shoulder surgery here but have had many pt's who have endured surgery.

1. Ice packs will be Necessary. crushed ice in ziplock bags or frozen bags of peas and corn work nicely to envelope the shoulder.
2. Have the doc write out EXACTLY what your dh can do with his arm and what he is NOT to do with his arm post surgery.. the first week. {Every Ortho doc is different.. and has different do's and don'ts post surgery}
3. Have out patient PT set up BEFORE leaving the hospital. Hopefully, PT will see him prior to his hospital discharge to go over Range of Motion exercises.
4. Tell dh not to be afraid of utilizing the pain meds. Shoulder surgeries are painful. Has he ever used a TENS unit to control his pain? Some people find this device useful in reducing the need for pain meds.
Some people find sleeping in a recliner after surgery is helpful, others have no difficulty sleeping in bed..
Hopefully these suggestions will be helpful.
Joan

 

[mum4jenn]

Thanks for this great info!!!

Ahutton....this sounds almost exactly what will be done to my dh.He has been going to PT since July and though it has helped it has not healed him all the way. He builds tires for a living so he has been making the samr repetitive motions for ten years now so something was bound to stop working.

My arm is is alot of pain also but I have been trying to tough it out until dh gets his shoulder fixed. I am not sure how I hurt mine but I would have to guess that it was from lifting too much at work. It started hurting a couple of years ago but it has gotten much worse this year. I have a hard time doing much of anything with my right arm. I am trying to get through this with my dh and then maybe in the early spring I can go to the Dr. and do PT for a while and then if that does not work and surgery is needed then I will be off work for the summer and will not need to miss work that way!!

Again thanks for the info. Dh looked up some stuff on some websites but I just knew that someone could help me also!!