Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Busy, busy, busy

I've put off posting about Hubby's surgery because I wanted to get the details right. Well, then I just got caught up with everything else that was going on.
Hubby had surgery Feb 19th on his shoulder. We've been trying to find a doc to do this surgery for 2 years. He's known his labrum was torn and one doc mentioned rotator cuff issues. No one listened when he said his bicep hurt. We also knew about some arthritis or bone spurs in the shoulder. We've seen 6 doctors in the past 2 years, most of which ignored us, told him he could live with the pain or just told us there wasn't anything we could do about it.
In January, Hubby called me and said, find a doc, I CAN'T live with it anymore. I searched Google for an orthopeadic surgeon in our area. I found a couple and one looked very promising. Even better when we found out they had an open MRI on site. Hubby's shoulders are 4 inches wider than a traditional MRI machine, meaning the MRI films and results we had from 2 years ago were taken with him wrapped up and contorted to fit into the machine. I called and they wanted to get him in right away. We took an appt for a week out because of his work schedule.
We met with the PA, who listened to the story, told us "We have to get you fixed" and went to consult with the doc. The doc came in and said, ok, we'll get a new MRI, see you next week to go over those results and Oh, we'll probably get you in for surgery the next week.
I was floored. We've been jerked around with PT and associates and having 'scripts for narcotics thrown at us. He didn't even suggest pain meds!!!
So, MRI was done the following day and we went back the next Thursday for follow up on that. We scheduled surgery for the next Thursday.
Surgery went well, but when they got in, they discovered bicep repair that needed to be done. Oh and the labral tear that Hubby could "live with"?? Yeah, took 2x as many stitches as usual to repair. The rotator cuff had a huge tear and the humoral head was completely exposed. They also shaved off the bone spurs in his AC joint.
During my discussion with the doc after surgery, he said he was still amazed no one would do the surgery before. I hugged him. After listening to all that needed to be done, I was about in tears and wanting to call ALL of the other doctors that had refused to help.
The next day, we went in for post op follow up. The doc was amazed to see him looking as good as he did. While he was in pain, and still is somewhat, it's not the same kind of pain he'd been in before.
He's in the sling for 4 weeks total, so another 3 weeks of it. He's wearing glasses because getting his contacts in was not easy. He's feeling so much better and I'm so happy.
I hope this means that this year will be a wonderful year.

1 comment:

Aymee said...

Glad to hear he got it done and that there is once again joy in Mudville. LOL

ME!!!

ME!!!