Thursday, November 19, 2009

The Bug is Free! Well, in a little while anyway...

It has been a little over 3 months since my shoulder surgery. The last time I saw my surgeon, a month ago, he took my arm & moved it around & seemed displeased with my progress - & told me that swimming would be the best thing for me! The next day I asked my physical therapist about swimming – he said that I was not ready to try to do that yet. Which is good, because I’m not sure how I was going to manage to swim without putting my arm over my head – maybe the butterfly, or that Australian crawl? I don’t swim well at the best of times – I can just see the fiasco that would be the Bug in the pool with no overhead arm motion. Cleanup in Lane 5!


That made me feel a bit better about my progress – as usual, the surgeon is pie in the sky & why aren’t you swimming the English Channel, whereas reality is are you able to pull your hair back in a ponytail yet (the answer is yes!).

Yesterday I saw my surgeon again for another follow-up. They took an x-ray which apparently looked fabulous. He said, how bout we say I’ll see you when I see you! I thought that sounded extra fine. But there was the little matter of my physical therapist’s recommendation that I have another 6 weeks of therapy. And the fact that Dr. M & I had already discussed that I wasn’t quite where I wanted to be. So I told Dr. Surgeon that I thought I wanted to follow my PT’s advice. He agreed – admitting that the PT knows best at this point (duh!).

But then I’m DONE. Whatever my arm can do after six more weeks is what it can do. I’ll keep doing my home exercises, but as of Christmas, I’m finished with going somewhere I pay people to torture me. Merry Christmas to me!


This photo is from Christmas 2006 - note the doll on the dresser - my cousin the potter made the head & hands, & her mother made the dress from pieces of my Mom's wedding dress. Yes, that's supposed to be me - I think it's a pretty good likeness, but I'm afraid someone will use it as a voodoo doll someday.

8 comments:

  1. Isn't it great when doctors say "See you when I see you"? Congrats on looking so good inside and out!

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  2. Seems such a long time ago since you had that surgery.

    Glad you are near to perfect again, (with the shoulder thingy I mean!) Well done m'dear.

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  3. Yeah! Love the photo and the quilt on the bed...and the story about the doll. That is so cool the dress was made from your Mom's wedding dress.

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  4. It's nice to know you are at the end of something even though you will continue to improve for awhile I think, after the PT is officially over. Especially if you keep trying to go a little beyond what is easy (but not enough to injure yourself).

    Congrats and happy day.

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  5. So glad that you are doing so much better. And to be able to put your hair in a ponytail is something that not being able to do after the surgery and then to be able to do it, is such an accomplishment. I know that just brushing my hair with my left arm was such an accomplishment.

    My shoulder still burns like it is on fire at times. But at least I am now having moments where I can forget about the surgery. And I am starting to use boths arms to drive. I just have to be careful. How are you doing with the driving?

    I too think that swimming would be great therapy, but I think I would have to only swim in the shallow end. I would be afraid to do it just yet though. I actually ironed hubby's shirts last week and thought I had accomplished something so great.

    Keep up the good work. You are doing great.

    God bless.

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  6. You are a doll. But I've never heard of anyone having a real doll caste in their image (well, except maybe for Shirley Temple).

    You certainly seem to be enjoying your early Christmas present. And you could blame you.

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  7. Great news! I like your commonsense approach too!

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