Guest viewing is limited

Standard Shoulder Replacement Finally after 5 years - a new shoulder

Really good sleep last night, even though it was interrupted by 2 trips to the bathroom, about 30 minutes to take a dose of Tylenol on my schedule and 1 time up to let the dog outside. Sigh....life! But, when I was asleep, I was comfortable and slept soundly....something that has eluded me most nights. I know this will get better, but it sure seems slow in coming. Having a preview of real sleep certainly made me feel better. I do think it's helpful to be taking the medication to prevent an excess amount of stomach acid as well. My hope with that is that the condition causing my reflux is temporary and related to the surgery. My GP thought that was probably the case.
 
Great news, @Jamie.
I hope there's a repeat performance tonight.
Wishing you sweet dreams! :yawn: :sleep:
 
It's improving overall. But definitely not a straight line. Forward one step, backward two steps....just like knees!

I'm noticing some low level aches in my upper arm at times along with some feelings of stiffness in the joint. Usually it's toward the time I'm due for my Tylenol I take roughly every 8-10 hours. But I'm amazed at how much better the shoulder feels if I do 5 minutes on my pulley. It must stretch everything out just enough to relieve the tightness. Last night when I got up at 4am to take meds, I did this and the stiffness was gone immediately. I see why the surgeon was so emphatic about keeping my shoulder moving to prevent a "freeze up." If a person thought that the ache and stiffness meant you needed to baby the joint and you kept it in the sling and/or motionless, I can see that you'd completely tighten up! I had a friend who did that when she broke her collarbone about 15 years ago. She had to go through a painful manipulation and months of therapy and exercises multiple times a day. Ugh. I sure wouldn't want that to happen.

So with my knees, I was up in the dead of night pedaling my recumbent bike. And now with the shoulder it will be my pulley. Boy, any neighbors up and peeping in the windows will be convinced I'm an absolute nut case.
 
Sounds like you are doing really well @Jamie . This recovery seems to be a very fine balance act between movement and rest. Well done!
 
I'm religiously doing those passive exercises each day and am seeing that my arm is able to go a bit higher each week. It's well above my head, which is cool since that hasn't been possible for a couple of years. Now if I just had strength! (patience, patience, patience)

I've changed my Tylenol to just taking the 1000mg dose when I feel my arm starting to get a bit achy. It's pretty easy to tell that I need a dose and things are better within an hour after taking the pills. Doing it this way has allowed me to decrease my Tylenol from 6 tablets a day to 4, which I like. It also helps to do the pulley exercises when that achy feeling starts as that movement of the should also makes things feel better. Night times are still dicey and unpredictable. Last night I slept like a normal person - in bed all night and only got up for about 30 minutes at 3:30 a.m. to go to the bathroom and take another Tylenol dose. Wish that would become a trend!
 
@Jamie Oh that will be the trend -- you're only 4 weeks out from surgery so there may still be a bit more up/down, back/forth. :good-bad: But pretty soon you will be sleeping normally every night. With my shoulders I have found that they strengthen and gain range of motion even after PT has finished! Once you're able to use the shoulder normally the more you do so the better it gets.
 
What a beautiful post!!! You know, I have told people the same for years, but when it's YOUR joint somehow all that knowledge about time and healing goes out the window. Thanks for helping me remember that I'm just a short 4 weeks out. It's so great to know that my shoulder should be performing well in the coming months. It's been a long time since that was the case.
 
Ugh!! I've joined the OIC (Over-did It Club). Last night I decided to make some potato salad and it turns out that my biceps muscle didn't like the 15 minutes or so I did peeling potatoes. Evidently the gripping of the taters for that long a period made the muscles mad and they hurt ALL night long. Tylenol didn't work and I was just about to head for a Tramadol when I decided to try ice. It worked and I finally got to sleep at 5:30 this morning. Didn't wake up until almost 2 p.m. Today things are much better and I've been taking it very easy. I wish I wasn't such an impatient patient.
 
@Jamie Darn those taters a tough little guys :( Sorry to hear they took the toughness out on you! Who'd've thunk peeling spuds would give you such a work out. I think any joint replacement patient (or any surgical patient at that) is impatient some of the time. Glad to hear the ice helped and you were able to get a good stretch of healing sleep.
 
I'm sorry those spuds hurt your arm, Jamie. I hope you'll have a better night tonight. :friends:
 
I've had a couple of pretty fair nights. It worked for me to take things easy for the day after The Great Tater Caper. I'm trying to be good because I see my surgeon next Monday and I want to be as good as I can be on that day so that hopefully he will lessen my restrictions for movement and let me drive. I'm actually looking forward to starting outpatient therapy so I can begin to strengthen my arm again. I know it will be a very slow process, but right now I kind of feel stuck at this point with my movement basically remaining the same. That's as it's supposed to be because I'm still healing inside, but it sure is boring!
 
Jamie said:
It worked for me to take things easy for the day after The Great Tater Caper.
Click to expand...
:loll:

Yes, behave so you can get your release.

Healing mojo coming at you @Jamie
 
Are you managing ok with your dog? How about cooking? Washing dishes?
 
I am able to do all of that, Jockette. I just do it differently and slightly one-handed. I can use my surgery arm as long as I don't raise my hand much above my waist or move it out to the side or hold anything in my hand that's heavier than a coffee cup. I'm actually amazed at how functional I can be. My only problem is that darned brace I have to wear any time I sleep or nap.
 
One of the neat things I learned was how to wash pots and pans so I was not holding them in my left hand (surgery arm) and scrubbing with my right hand. I put the pan in the sink and wedge it against one of the outer corners to do any scrubbing inside (with my right hand). My left hand just steadies the pan and makes sure it doesn't move around. Then to do the outside of the pan, I have a dish towel spread out on the counter by the sink and turn the pan upside down on the towel to finish the cleaning. Then I can rinse it by holding it in my right hand. Sometimes if the pan is especially dirty, I'll do the inside with it up on the counter on the towel too as that holds it a little better than sitting in the sink. I've learned just to use a couple of pans and I leave them out on the stove so I don't have to keep getting in the cabinets. My kitchen isn't quite as neat as it normally is, but it works much better to just leave frequently used things out.
 
New day; new story. I had a great night's sleep last night in bed all night and only got up once to use the bathroom and take my only 2 Tylenol for the whole day. But this morning I woke up with my arm feeling stiff. I putzed around and had breakfast and then did my first round of pulley exercises. That usually loosens up my arm if it feels stiff. But about 30 minutes later, my arm actually ached about midway down the humerus toward the inside of my arm. Not cool.

I decided to take 2 more Tylenol, lie down for a while and put ice on it. After about 45 minutes, it still ached. So I put my immobilizer brace back on and that has seemed to help the ache a little. But I got worried that somehow I had done something wrong. In the back of my mind, I'm still worried about doing something to pull the muscles loose. So.....I called the doctor's office.

The nurse didn't think I had actually pulled anything loose since the pain is an ache and not a sharp pain. She said to continue to wear the brace and take Tylenol. She thought maybe since I did sleep so well last night that maybe I just slept on it in a funny position or for such an extended period of time in one position that it strained something. So that's my hope. I honestly didn't do anything yesterday that should have caused a problem and I felt great going to bed and when I got up for the bathroom about 3 a.m. So I'm hoping that, like the Great Tater Caper this weekend, this too will pass.

I did ask a lot of questions of the nurse and learned that, even if I did pull something loose, there was nothing that would be done about it now. An MRI is not used to determine problems because of the hardware. If the pain continued, the surgeon would do an arthroscopy to see what was going on and it's too soon after the surgery to do that now. So, even if the pain continues, it would still be a waiting game for a while.

Sigh.....nothing like being the BoneSmart Guinea Pig for shoulder replacement surgery issues. :whistle:
 
Oh my stars...the what ifs answers sure can sting!
I hope it's just "one of those recovery things."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Active Antimicrobial Hydrogel

Members online

Total: 1,239 (members: 1, guests: 1,238)

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom