Shoulder Surgery

At the beginning of  2016, Andrew started doing push-ups at home every day. Over the course of the year, he worked his way up until he was able to do a lot of them and was feeling pretty good. Then one day in early 2017, he decided to move his hands closer together to work different muscles.

His body didn't like that.

He had a sharp pain and his shoulder continued to hurt for weeks and even months after that. Boo!

He kept hoping it would get better, but the pain never went away. Finally, in the summer, he went to the orthopedist to have it evaluated. They did an x-ray and gave him a cortisone shot. It helped for a few weeks, but then the pain was back. He endured it for a few more months before finally rescheduling with the dr. At that appointment, they ordered an MRI. In the MRI, they found that he had a large bone spur at the end of his clavicle that was impinging on the joint. He also had a partially torn labrum (cartilage) that was causing pain and inflammation, as well as some scar tissue in the area that needed to be cleaned out. They recommended surgery

Andrew was so happy to hear that the problem was something that could be fixed. He was afraid they were just going to tell him that he was getting old and to deal with it. He scheduled surgery for mid-Feb and looked forward to getting fixed up.

We had to arrive at the surgical center at the crack of dawn.

Actually, before the crack of dawn. It was still dark outside!

They called Andrew back first,

then called me back when they had him gowned up and sedated.

I got to hang out with him for a few minutes

until it was time for the surgeon to take him away.

Oh my goodness. Andrew is hilarious when he is sedated. When I first came in, he was hooked up to a heart monitor, and we could hear the beep, beep, beep of his heartbeat. His heartbeat has an arrhythmia at times. The first thing he told me was, "They did see my irregular heartbeat when they were... hoo... hooo... hooook... I can't say 'hooking.' Hooking. Hooking. That's weird."

Then he got a super sad look on his face like he was about to cry and told me, "They had to shave my armpit." This was apparently a HUGE disappointment for him. "But she was happy I didn't have hair all over my shoulder and back."

Before he was called back, there was a young couple in the waiting room with a little toddler who was also scheduled to have surgery that morning. He asked me, "Did you make friends out there?" I told him, no, I hadn't made any friends in the waiting room. "I thought you would have made friends with the family with the baby." No, I actually moved seats from where we were and was just reading a book. "Did you move seats BECAUSE of the baby???" He sounded like he thought I was the meanest person in the world, moving to another side of the waiting room away from that cute baby.

He was kind of in-and-out of sleep when I was in the room with him. He started giggling to himself at one point. Then said, "I thought I had my iPod... I mean my iPhone in my left hand.  It was funny."

"My gown is really short on me. It's like a mini skirt."

"Did you see who texted?" [I'm not sure how he knew anyone had texted, but he actually had gotten a text from Trevor, a church friend, while I was out in the waiting room.] It was Trevor. He texted to say good luck today. He again got emotional--almost teary, "Trevor is SO nice. He is SO nice."

After that, they wheeled him away to surgery and told me the surgeon would come talk to me in an hour to an hour and a half. Dr. Supple said that everything went well. They were able to remove the bone spur and clean up the torn cartilage and scar tissue. He was happy with the surgery and hopeful that Andrew would have a smooth recovery. He told me that Andrew would be in the recovery room for about an hour and then the nurse would come get me.

After an hour and a half, a nurse came out to let me know that he was doing OK, but that they needed to keep him a little longer. He was taking longer than usual to come out of anesthesia. I wasn't surprised. We've had similar experiences with his surgeries in the past. I asked her if he had said anything funny while he was coming out of anesthesia.

She said, "He's hilarious! When he first woke up, the first thing he did was profess his undying love for you and tell us that we needed to come out here to tell you how much he loved you." Isn't that the sweetest thing??? He later told me that he vaguely remembered telling the nurses, "My wife is the best person I know. I love her SO much." Awwww.....

She also mentioned that he had fallen asleep, woke up just long enough to tell the nurses that he was afraid of dogs, then fell right back asleep.

Before I knew it, they gave me prescriptions for some meds, instructions for post-surgery therapy, and sent us out the door. I wish I had taken a picture of how Andrew looked when they wheeled him out. He was like a zombie. I couldn't believe they were leaving him in my care. He was SOOOO out of it. I was a little nervous. Plus, I had to go to Target and get his prescriptions filled. I tried to be quick and he was fine while I was gone.

As we were driving, he asked me, "Can you taste something weird? I can. My mouth tastes like paint."

When we were almost home, we were driving down the road and he quite calmly told me, "Watch out for that tree." He later said he remembered seeing a big tree growing right in the middle of our lane! So glad he didn't grab the wheel from me or freak out about it.

Once we were home, he slept. A lot. At least during the daytime hours. Pain pills will do that to ya. We actually did a really good job of managing his pain, which was a relief. But he had a hard time sleeping at night. He was given a machine that straps on to his shoulder and circulates cold fluid through it. It's like a constant cycling ice pack.

It was wonderful to help control pain and inflammation, 

but made it hard for him to sleep at night.

The weather was GORGEOUS the week of surgery,

so we would go on walks through the neighborhood

once or twice a day.

It's interesting how surgery helps you realize the

little things that we take for granted.

Like showering.

Andrew LOVES showering, but had to wait a few days after surgery.

He had a TON of gauze taped onto that shoulder.

Ouch! Not fun to take off.

I am also SO grateful for the friends and family members who

serve us and help take care of us when we need them.

We had dinners brought in, kids were given rides,

someone had to teach my seminary lesson the morning of surgery,

and we got some fun care packages in the mail.

We started physical therapy the night of surgery.

No time to waste!

He had to do exercises where he bent at the waist and swung

his arm like a pendulum. Those ones weren't bad

But then this one was a killer.

He had to put his hand against the wall

and walk toward the wall, reaching

his arm as high as he could.

At first, he could only lift it waist high

Then he progressed to shoulder height. And it HURT. 

By the end of the week,

his hand was as high as the door frame.

It was so great to see him progress.

He had almost a full week off of work to recover. Then just before his post-op appointment, he went back to answering emails and making a few calls.

Eight days post-surgery he had his first

appt with the physical therapist.

He is all too familiar with how this works.

He has had physical therapy after surgery on both

his ankle and back. And also for his knee when he

partially tore his ACL. 

He knows it's a long road ahead, but he's up for the challenge!

The physical therapists are very happy with how well he's progressing. He should be back to doing most of his normal activities by 3-4 months and (fingers crossed) back on the tennis court with me around 6 months. Modern medicine truly is a miracle and I'm so thankful we have access to it.