shoulder boulder II

Back from the surgeons office. 

The three scars - and add another on my back...

All external non-dissolvable stitches out. Scars looking really good. 

Shoulder already has movement to within 10 degrees of where we want to be after 6 weeks when I lose the sling, which means keep doing the basic exercises and we'll be there no worries. Just have to NOT go beyond the movement limits at this stage.

Still a long long way from full movement though. Will have to re-teach my shoulder how to work, which is a bit daunting. Kinda makes sense, as some of my lack of movement after the stack wasn't because of pain, it just, well, wouldn't work properly. Even if i gave it the evil eye...

Lots of emphasis that it will be 6 months before enough strength to be confident it won't dislocate easily. So no SUPing, no windsurfing, no anythingmuch till summer. "Even AFL players are 5 months" (they do Collingwood shoulders). 

Never had so many people telling me to keep popping pain killers (haven't had any for 4 days, and don't really see the point). 

Thinking i'll just have to get used to things one handed. Lemme tell you, hanging washing/buttering toast/opening jars is a flipping nightmare!! 
And putting on a shirt is a bizarre swearing one armed madman contortionist act...

Shoulder to the boulder...

So why am I walking round with my arm in a sling I hear you ask.
Well, here's the expurgated version - the one without the gannets...

At the top of Red Carpet, 15 min pre-stack

GPS of Red Carpet, stack, ride home

1. Crashed my mountain bike while riding the amazing graded trails at Forrest in the Otway Ranges, Saturday (6 June 2015) of the Queens Birthday long weekend . Had done nearly 35km already, and had just finished the descent of the Red Carpet (which was pretty technical in the wet from rain the day before). Was basically on the flat slowly winding along singletrack through the trees, when whoosh... front wheel just slid out sideways when I turned into a corner. Tree root(ed) maybe? Dummy put my hand down to cushion the slo-mo fall, but as soon as it hit the ground I knew it was a mistake...
   arms/shoulders don't bend/creak/crunch that way do they?
2. Left shoulder was dislocated, but luckily I popped it back in before muscle spasms took over and it held itself dislocated out. Tried continuing on the track but my left hand couldn't operate the brake without pain. Nothing else to do but walk back along trail, toss the bike over a fence I'd just passed, and ride the 6km back, via gravel road and railtrail, to the farmhouse we'd rented.
3. Drank lots of red wine that night - felt ok! Next morning felt better again. Did 5 km trail run with kids. Next day felt better again, even chopped firewood (one handed though) and did 20 km mtb ride with Pandora , drove manual car home. Rode bike to work (40 km total riding each day) following week. Went SUP surfing with Dave Wednesday morning to celebrate a life. "Why'd ya let that one go AB?" lamented Dave after watching me drop off the back of a head high wave. "No power on my backhand at all" was the reply; interestingly 8-90% ok on the forehand.
4. Saw doc Wednesday night for a test result (Bugger; Basel Cell Carcinoma on back, which I now have to get cut out) - and told him I had a sore shoulder. He thought rotator cuff because i couldn't move my arm below elbow sideways. Best to get it checked.

   

   Marriners Run - two days AFTER the stack!

5. Friday, scans done at the gurus of sports imaging. Strange looks from radiologists and nurses. "Mate, did you *really* just ride your bike here?" "Yeah, why? Can you see anything?" I'd actually punched a 'large' chunk of bone off my shoulder (glenoid) when I crashed and it dislocated. "So is there something you can see on the scans then?" I asked the bloke zapping me with a giant circular machine (that didn't actually go 'ping' - though it did tell me to hold my breathe!). He looked at me like I was crazy - as did the nurses and radiologist! I was just a bit bewildered by all the fuss... till I saw the CT-scan. Now that was a sobering moment.
   
   

   

   The culprit right there, looking from my back. Glenoid

6. See surgeon (Mr Brendan Soo, Melbourne shoulder and elbow centre, Brighton) on Tuesday and he says we gotta operate or it will be hell for me, particularly in later life. Arthritis and future dislocations more than likely...
7. Operate Friday night, 6pm, to reattach bone using suture anchors and dissolvable tacks made of corn starch/tapioca/sugercane (science types call it polylactic acid)! Takes 3.5 hours instead of 1-2 estimated. Afterwards it hurts like hell. Post operation X-Ray almost had me faint with pain! Nurses gave me Endone (oxycodone - otherwise known as Hillbilly Heroin) like it was jelly beans at a kids party.

   

   Mmmm... opiate (fast and slow) and anti-inflam brekky

8. Now 1 week into 2 weeks at home recovering. No longer on any opiate based pain killers, of which I was taking both slow (Targin) and quick (Endone) release versions earlier. Still on the anti-inflammatories (meloxicam). Now realise that the reason we breezed through the first week home alone (well, if you don't count my first ever bad constipation episode; frankly I now know what its like to birth something...) - no boredom and generally pretty dam happy with what's ultimately a fairly ordinary situation - was cos I was as high as a goddamn kite! Overall, everything's looking good, or at least as good as can be expected. See Brendan (surgeon) for stitches out and assessment Tuesday.
9. In sling for 6 weeks, 3 months to get full mobility back and ride MTB again (bit earlier for commuting), 6 months for full strength and hence able to SUP and windsurf again. And as for our traditional snow trip in August, well lets just say we're now starting a club for discerning people who don't ski Australian snow in El Nino years. (Its the skiing equivalent of instant coffee you know.)
10. Did I mention I have an amazing supportive beautiful wife? Who has just bought her dream Mountain Bike...  

11. 

    Just after waking up from surgery...