Updates: Shoulder, Husband, Car

 

First of all, for those of you who are aware of my marital history, no, I’m not getting a new husband.

Second, about the shoulder. Went to the shoulder doc today. Everything is as it should be. They’ve added some strength building exercises to the ones I’m already [supposed] to be doing. I go back in 2.5 months (late August). As long as I continue to progress with my home exercises, they’re not going to send me to “real” physical therapy, which is a good thing. The last thing I need in my schedule is another doctor’s visit. I do need to start being better about actually doing my exercises, though.

Next about the husband. Jack has had some issues being out of breath when walking briskly or otherwise exerting. A nuclear scan showed some potential narrowing or blockage of one of his coronary arteries. We go in Wednesday for an angiogram with the possibility of having a balloon procedure or a stent inserted. (Well, actually, Jack goes in. I’m just the chauffer.) If all they do is look, Jack will be home Wednesday afternoon. If they actually do something, he’ll have to stay overnight at the hospital and come home Thursday. Probably be back to work on Friday or Saturday. Right now no one is getting too excited about this. It doesn’t sound life-threatening or even appear to be significant enough for the doctor to rush him in for the angiogram. However it is something that we need to check into and I give Jack a lot of credit for stepping up and getting it seen about. I’ll post more Wednesday night after the procedure to keep everyone informed.

Now about the car. (Picture below) The car (we’ll call him George to protect the innocent), has blended in quite well with the family. He’s almost the same size as the white CTS Cadillac that he shares his room (the garage) with. Jack thinks he’s wonderful and is now considering getting a twin — or at least a cousin — when his lease on the CTS runs out later this year. I think it’s a wonderful car. It’s plush and powerful and safe. But I can’t help but miss my Smart Car. It was cute and fun to drive and it made me smile every day. Now I’m just another Lexus-driving,  middle-aged, Dallas workaholic. Everyone should have my problems. Thanks for checking in. I’ll update on Jack’s condition after the procedure on Wednesday.

2009 Lexus IS 250

Dr. Update

Over the last couple of days, I’ve seen Dr. Tucker my hip doctor, and Dr. Banerje, my rheumatologist.

I went to see Dr. Tucker because my hip had been bothering me a bit after a fall and I wanted to check it. Also my knees have been giving me a lot of problems and I wanted to see if there had been any arthritic changes in them since the last time we looked. The answer was “no” to both questions. The hip looks great on the X-Ray as do the knees. However, as Dr. Tucker pointed out, the pain and stiffness is due to the RA, which attacks the soft tissues and doesn’t show up on the Xrays.

Which brings us to Dr. Banerje. Bottom line is that she’s left me on Humira, but added some dreaded prednisone. I’m take two 5-mg tablets a day for two weeks, then dropping to one per day until I see her again in a few weeks. She also drained some fluid out of my right knee and shot it full of steroids. This was not a pleasant procedure. Then I had to get my labs done and the girl had to stick both arms to get enough blood. Also not pleasant. I went home and felt sorry for myself for the rest of the day.

In much more pleasant news, I guess, I’m taking delivery of my new Lexus IS 250 this evening. I’m trading in my much-loved SmartCar for something more substantial, with more power, and more air bags. Jack’s just worried about me driving such a small car in Dallas rush-hour traffic. He does have a point, but the SmartCar is one of those pure joys in my life that make me smile every day, and those are few and far between. I’m probably the only person in America who’s not just absolutely thrilled to be driving home in a new Lexus. Poor me.

On yet another topic, I may have to go to South Africa for a couple of weeks on business. I’m looking forward to the trip, but I’m not sure what that will do to my medication schedule. I don’t think I can travel that far away for that long with my Humira.

I think that’s all I know for now. Thanks for checking in.

Regaining Independence (as if I ever lost it)

Much like my hip surgery, I tend to gauge my recovery by how well I can do things by myself. Now that I’ve started back to work, I’m driving and wearing “big girl” clothes, so I have a whole new list of things I’m [supposed] to be doing by myself.

Getting dressed [and undressed] has still got to be my biggest issue. I occasionally “get stuck” pulling a top on or off. Other types of clothes that need to be pulled on or adjusted with both hands are a problem since I don’t have any “pulling power” in my left arm yet.

Blow drying my hair is a daily adventure. My ultra-short haircut has now grown out to a little over an inch on top. On the weekends I can just towel-dry and go. However, during the week I actually have to dry it because if I don’t it’s still wet when I get to the office. I had this really neat hair dryer stand that was basically a long goose-neck stand with a clamp on the end that held the hair dryer. That worked great for exactly three days until my cleaning lady picked it up by the hairdryer and broke off the clamp.  The process is three parts. The first is me waving the hairdryer around with my right hand, stopping and styling the hair, repeating as necessary. The second is me  propping my left arm up on the sink and holding the hair dryer while waving my head wildly around trying to style with my right hand. The third is my husband doing his G.I. Joe imitation with his Kung Fu grip holding the hairdryer, which allows me to style with my right hand.  None of this works very successfully, but as short as my hair is, it’s styled straight back, so there’s not a lot of damage that can be done. In another couple of weeks, though, my hair will be long enough that I’m going to have to do something with it.

Driving is the other exciting part of my day. Driving in Dallas is an adventure in living even if you have both arms available. Driving with 1.5 hands is really exciting. I’m to the point that I can hold the steering wheel with the left hand, although I do all the hard steering (turns, etc.) with my right arm. I also have to use my right hand to use the turn signal. Normally I’m driving alone, but this weekend I was test driving new cars and I think the car dealer thought I was a bit weird the way I was driving. Can’t say that I blame him.

So, I’m getting there. It’s a slow progress and I occasionally forget that I can’t do things — like open doors with my left arm and I am quickly reminded. I cooked dinner last week and getting things in and out of the oven was pretty scary. I also cracked open an acorn squash one handed with a large chef’s knife and it’s a wonder I didn’t chop more than the gourd.

Tomorrow I see Dr. Tucker (the ortho guy who did my hip) and my rheumatologist. My hip has been bothering me since my fall and my knee is making me miserable, so we’ll see what he says. This is my check up with my rheumatologist. The Humira hasn’t kicked in completely since the surgery and I am still having some problems, but not as much as when I was off because of surgery.

I’ll check in tomorrow after I see those guys.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It’s Back to Work I Go

Went to see the doctor for my post-op check up Thursday 4/30 (2 days ago). Everything is looking good. He’s released me to go back to work next week, which was what I wanted.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that I’m still incapacitated for a while. I was expecting to start physical therapy and I’m not. I’ve got another five weeks of passive exercises to do. I’m doing the same three I have been doing, plus one where I start trying to move the arm behind my back. In three weeks, he wants me to be able to lift my arm on its own — but I’m not allowed to lift anything with it. Also in three weeks, he wants me to be able to go without the sling. I go back to see him two weeks after that — June 4. Hopefully then I’ll start physical therapy and get some more range of motion and strength in that arm.

This whole recovery process is very different than my hip replacement. They had me up and on my feet as soon as they could after my hip surgery. At this rate, it’ll be months after surgery before I’ll be actively using my arm. But it will be good to be back at the office and get some normalcy back in my life. Being homebound really makes you feel like an invalid and that’s not going to make any one get better fast.

Thanks for checking in.

Sometimes It’s Good to be Bad

Anyone who knows me, or for that matter, anyone that’s been following this blog for very long, knows that I’m a pretty independent spirit and tend to take other people’s advice as (at best) suggestions (including my doctors).

So today I got out and drove my car. This goes against all instructions from my doctor, advice from my husband, and in direct violation of the traffic laws of the great state of Texas (until we secede, at which point it will once again be the great nation of Texas). It’s actually against the law in Texas to drive impeded — such as being in a sling. Even if someone else smacked me, it would have been my fault. So I weighed the unlikely event that I would become crossways with a law enforcement officer against wearing my sling while driving. Caution overruled what is probably good sense, so I went without my sling. I spend some time out of it each day (showering, exercising, etc.) so I figured that a few minutes more wouldn’t hurt anything.

I didn’t go far, but Sunny (my bright yellow SmartCar) hadn’t be started, much less driven, in the three weeks since surgery, and I know how I feel when no one revs my engine for that long.

Need I say that they only way I could even consider driving is around is that my husband is out of town this weekend?

Granted he had great intentions on taking Sunny and me out for a spin before he left yesterday, but (1) he’s been very busy leading up to this trip and (2) being a Cadillac guy, he doesn’t really like driving the SmartCar. I suspect that (2) had more to do with the fact that he hasn’t gotten Sunny out of the garage.

Living a block away from two of the busiest freeways in the state, probably the nation, has it’s pluses. I took Sunny down the block and around the corner and within a few minutes was tooling along the access road at a healthy 50 mph. When I got to the intersection of the second highway, being Sunday morning, there were like five cars on it, so off we went there. He got to stretch his legs at 65 mph, followed by a few cool down blocks through quiet residential neighborhoods before being safely tucked back into his garage spot.

The only problem I really had is that I can’t use my turn signal and the fact that drivers who don’t use their turn signals is one of my pet peeves bothers me considerably more than the fact that I snuck out in the first place.

But it was good to be bad. It was good for me to get out of the house for a few minutes. I now have confidence that if I absolutely needed to, I could drive. And it was certainly good for the car to get his tires turning and his engine revving.

Hopefully Thursday when I see the doctor he’ll let me have a bit more freedom. While there’s a lot of great things about being able to hang around the house and work from home, I’m ready to feel normal again.

I’ll check in after I see the doc on Thursday unless something worth noting comes up. Thanks for checking in and for all the good thoughts.

Shoulder Surgery +2 Weeks

Today I got my staples out — all 14 of them. For the not squeamish among you, I have uploaded a picture of the incision along with a picture of the bruises that are still on the back of my hand from trying to start the IV. Click on the shoulder surgery pics link above.

Had a good weekend. Got out of the house for the first time since surgery. Went to the store Saturday and Sunday went to dinner for our wedding anniversary.

My home health nurse is going to check to see if I can restart my Humira and Celebrex. My rheumatologist said 2 weeks after surgery if I was healing like I should, and the nurse said everything looked great.  I’ll be glad to be back on the medication. I think I’ll feel better over all.

I think that’s about all I know for now. I’m just getting really tired of being house bound. Thanks for checking in.

Surgery +10 Days

It’s hard to believe it’s already been 10 days since surgery. Being off work and on drugs seems to make the days run together.

I’ve decided to basically give up the pain/muscle relaxer meds. I was taking them as a matter of course to “stay ahead of the pain, not chase it”, and realized that I probably didn’t need all the narcotics and associated side effects. Actually I planned to do this yesterday, but I have an area in the biceps region that tends to get really sore as the day wears on and when I woke up yesterday, that pain was already there. So I first took a muscle relaxer, thinking the muscle was just tight. When that didn’t work, I broke down and took an oxycontin (just one), which is a long-lasting drug, with the thought I might not need anything else for the rest of the day, which I didn’t. However, before I went to sleep, I took a percocet which tends to put me to sleep. Even so, one muscle relaxer and two pain pills is a far cry from the around-the-clock meds I was taking. This morning I haven’t needed/taken anything, but if/when I do, I may just start with some Tylenol and go from there. I haven’t even opened the hydrocodone bottle. It’s sitting on the shelf with the left over two bottles from previous adventures.

I think I’ve got a lot of mobility for where I should be. Right now all my exercises are passive, meaning I move my surgical arm with my other arm. I’m not supposed to be using my surgical arm for basically anything.  The one thing I can’t do yet, and which was one of the things I had issues with before surgery, is raising my arm/elbow directly in front. One of my exercises is to use a pully to raise the arm. My elbow is supposed to be level with my shoulder and I can only get it about 1/3 to 1/2 the way there.  I actually do use my arm some when I’m getting ready in the morning when I’m out of the sling — not a lot, but some.

My IV bruises have about faded. I still have one dark purple, quarter-sized one on the inside of my fore arm and 3 other light green areas you can see on the forearm. The back of the hand is still a light grey/purple/green. The needle holes have healed down to basically little light scabs that a good salt/sugar scrub at a spa would cure.

I get my stitches out Monday, which will be nice. The incision is about 6″ long with a little curl on each end, giving it a weird sort of S shape. Kind of like “Sorro” (instead of “Zorro”) came by with his sword and initialed me. I’m going to ask the nurse if I can get clearance to start back on my Humira and my Celebrex. My rheumatologist said two weeks if they were happy with the way I was healing, so hopefully the answer will be yes.

I am excited about this weekend. I get my first outings. Saturday I get my nails done and Sunday is our wedding anniverary so we’ll go to dinner Sunday evening. It’ll be a bit embarrassing being at a 4-star restaurant and having Jack cut my food up for me, but I don’t care. And my hair has finally grown out to about 1/2″ so it looks stylishly chic (or that’s what I tell myself, anyway).

Then on the 30th I go back to see Dr. Burkhead. I hope/believe at that time I will start real physical therapy and will begin getting my strength and range of motion back in my arm. I’m ready. This sitting around getting well is nothing if not boring, especially since I’ve quit taking drugs.

That’s all I know for now. Thanks to all who care enough to check in and are sending warm, healing thoughts my way.

Getting Cranky = Getting Well

It’s a good omen when I start getting cranky about things.  The crankier I am, the more well I am. So I’m going to allow myself some self-indulgence and stray from the medical information and vent a bit on the things that are irritating me the most. (apologies to those looking for more information on shoulder replacement surgery) As they say, it’s not the bit things, it’s the little things  in life.

• My hair. I got my hair cut really short since I am going to be one-handed for a while. Not only did the stylist cut it too short, he cut it badly. Think of Telly Savalas on a bad hair day. Actually, it’s grown the past week and now I look like either a refugee from a concentration camp or a chemo ward. Or maybe if they had chemo wards in the concentration camps. Think about what if Mia Farrow had really gotten a short haircut for Rosemary’s Baby. The bad part is that as soon as I’m able, I have to renew my drivers license so I will live with this friggin haircut for the next 2-4 years.
• Sleeping sitting up. This doesn’t bother some people. Put my husband in an airline seat and he’s asleep before the plane pulls away from the gate. Not me. I’ve never been able to sleep sitting up — which is why it wears me out to travel. I also like sleeping on my side which obviously I can’t do yet. My back is starting to bother me from spending so much time in the same propped up position. Fortunately, they prescribed lots of drugs.
• Drugs. Okay, the drugs do good things and I can’t complain about that. But I hate being fuzzy-headed and I miss a glass of wine with dinner and I don’t like being on a schedule and I don’t like being nauseous and I don’t like the major GI clogging ability that narcotics have. I want to get off these drugs and get back on the ones that help my arthritis like my Humira and my Celebrex.
• Not being able to clean my house. My husband is a great caretaker. He frets and fusses and spoils me with the best of them. However, we are polar opposites when it comes to cleanliness, and even though he means well and does make an effort, the growing levels of trash, clutter and dust/grease are starting to bug me. To top it off, my cleaning lady is off having her fifth (count ‘em – five) baby. We have a substitute coming in tomorrow so hopefully both my sanity and my marriage will be saved. To Jack’s credit, he has to run a company as well as put up with me, so he gets lots of gold stars. But it still bugs me that I can’t take out the trash when the level bugs me.
• Being an employee. When I had my hip surgery, I was still a consultant, so I complete control over my insurance, over when I worked or didn’t work, etc. Now that I’m an employee I am working with an HR staff that I swear are doing whatever they can to make my life difficult and ensure claims/disability payments don’t come through. I also have to have reports to my employer on my return to work status and that’s been cross wise a couple of times.
• Not being in control. Okay, they call come down to this one. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a micro-managing control freak and not having control over my life to do what I want/need to do when and how I want is worse than making me brush my teeth with vinegar three times a day. It’s just a constant second-class citizen feeling. I’m no longer a person, I’m a patient and it makes me nuts.

That’s probably the short list, but I have lambasted you enough. What I do enjoy and what I am truly grateful for is the warm thoughts and great friends that come to the forefront at times like this. I appreciate all the love and good wishes. They far outweigh the piddly things that irritate me and I can’t say “thank you” enough.

Saturday After Surgery

Now that I have had a few days to recover, let me see if I can fill in some of the details other than how painful everything has been.

First of all, the surgical center was great and the staff were wonderful. The poor guy who got the honor of trying to find one of my veins is the best “sticker” I’ve ever had. He’s been doing this 18 years. Part of the issue was that was because this was a major procedure they needed a large needle in case they needed to infuse something in a hurry. The smaller needles aren’t appropriate. He agreed that we could start with a smaller needle — enough to get me sedated — then once I was asleep, they could go searching for something larger. Which is what happened — see previous post.

They also did a regional block which blocks a bundle of nerves coming out of my neck and controlling the left arm and side of my body. Jack was watching them do this and although I was sedated and don’t remember this, apparently I could answer their questions about whether or not I could feel things. One of the nerves controlled the diaphram and Jack tells me they gave me the hiccups to make sure they had the right nerves.

I came out of surgery as always with a dry mouth and throat. I had my arm tucked into a padded sling and all bandaged up — which was normal. I was also hungry which was good because that meant all the anti nausea drugs worked. The surgery was at about noon-thirty and I was in my room at 5:30 demanding food. My arm was numb except for my finger tips because of the block. I had a patient-controlled morphine drip for pain, which I used once more to see how it would make me feel.

The first issue that came up was that they needed to move the IV to the port in the back of my hand. I had compression wraps on my calves and they couldn’t put the one on my left leg without moving the IV. The port on my hand was a bit of problem because it stuck out and I had already hit it a couple of times and I was afraid that I’d catch it on something. So Jack and my night nurse Tammy came up with a plan where they wrapped the port and my outside three fingers together, protecting the port, but leaving my finger and thumb free to manipulate things.

That worked fine until they needed to draw blood. Tammy brought in another nurse with more experience to look at the blood draw, since all my available veins had been blown looking for an IV port. We’d already noticed that the hand and arm looked swollen and as it turned out, the port in my hand was no longer in the vein. They indicated they were going to look for another IV site and I suggested that I would be checking out of the hospital. We finally decided that I could be switched to oral medications rather than IV medications, so they pulled the IV port. And the nurse actually found a small vein which she hit the first time to get the blood draw.

Other than that the first night went fine and I woke up Tuesday morning feeling good and assuming that I would go home. In fact, I spoke with Jack and he was geared up to bring me home. What I didn’t realize, but was about to find out was that the nerve block was still working and that was the reason I didn’t hurt. About 1:00 the nerve block wore off and I went downhill in a landslide. I took the oral medications which didn’t help and finally asked for the pain shot — which meant I couldn’t go home. I spent the rest of the day and night fighting nausea and pain. On Wednesday morning, I was determined to stay on the oral meds so I could go home, which is what happened. They also changed the dressing while I was there and showed Jack and I how to do that

I basically just crashed Wednesday when I got home. The home health nurse came by and even though we’d just changed the dressing had to change it again because she had to verify it. I was not a happy camper, but I understand the process and we got through it.

Thursday the occupational therapist came. I had been able to get up and get a shower so I felt better and was in a better mood. The OT person went through my three exercises with me and said she’d be back next week.

Since then I’ve been basically laying around trying to get well. I feel really drugged. I take a muscle relaxer at 6:00 am, 2pm and 10pm and one or two oxycontin (strong pain pill) at 8am and 8pm, which percocets for pain in between. I’ve cut the oxycontin down to single tablets and I have all but eliminated the percocet. Sometimes in the afternoon when I do my exercises, it hurts a lot, so a percocet takes the edge off that, but I’m trying to get off the drugs as soon as possible.

The OT person comes back next Tuesday to check on me and the nurse comes in the following Monday (4/20) to remove the staples, then I go back to the doctor on the 30th.

I’ve been running a bit of a fever, but it’s gradually dropped to being mostly normal. That’s to be expected after such a major procedure. My arm, as to be expected, is black and blue and to add insult to injury I’ve developed a really itchy rash under both arms. I think it’s just like a heat rash since I’ve sweated a lot with the fever. The itching has subsided, but it was making me nuts for a while.

That’s all I have to report. I will say this, though. I’d rather have 10 hip replacements rather than one shoulder replacement. I’m not sorry I had it done, but I’ve told Jack it’s the last surgery I’m planning to have — ever. I know in a few weeks I’ll be better and this will be behind me, but until then, I’m done.

Thanks for checking in.

Ouch!

The surgery is apparently a success, although it sure hurts. I’m on oxycotin every 12 hours with percocet and/or lortabs in between and phenegran to help with nausea. I’m also on a muscle relaxer every 8 hours.

My fears about the IV came true. It was awful. I have 7 bruised “stick” places in my left hand and forearm a couple in my right foot and one in my left foot. They also did a regional block in my neck.

The block was great. I felt wonderful — was ready to come home until it wore off, so I stayed an extra day to get the good injectable drugs at the hospital. It hurts to do anything.

I did get up and get a shower and that felt great.

Sorry I can’t write more, but will update as I feel better.