Surgery is good, except for the pain.....

Went to outpatient surgery at 0700, went into the prep room at about 0830 or so, last thing I remember is the oxygen mask at about 0915 or so, woke up at about 1100 all done, and wearing a big sling-  everything was numbed until about 0100 the next morning, then true to warnings, hurt like hell-  

Hurt worse than that the next morning at 0900 when I went into PT, and she began full attempt to rotate the injured limb-  Wow.   

Here are three photos the doc provided me with-  

This is a before and after, which shows how bad the tissue was damaged before on the left,now how smooth it is trimmed away and folded over on the right....  wow.

While this looks more like the planet Jupiter or something, it purports to show the big bone spur on the left, and the repaired bone spur on the right.  Suits me.

Here is the actual rotator cuff tear on the left, and the surgical repair on the right-  so now we're all set.  

Doctor said I had great tissue, and he predicted a full recovery-  I signed up yesterday for the first four weeks of 3x a week PT, which will be very proactive, I'm not overly happy that it is not with STARS rehab, but the young lady I'm with seems to be competent anyway.  

Bette continues her hand rehab, so we are now both officially broken down. 

I'm able to deal with the pain so far, and can wear a t shirt, with no problems, so I'm pretty good I guess.  Only real issue is the stupid constipation from the medicine I'm taking. Ugh.  

Crisis!

Snapped off two teeth yesterday afternoon-  Crap. 

Got into a dentist's office this am, 2 week repair job, $2500.  Plus he found a the abscess is back in the old tooth that keeps giving me problems, so now that's a root canal in the morning. 

In other news, we ran out to the beach farmer's market, where we puttered around, and Bette found something to spend money on, she always does..

Then we went by the Insurance place and renewed the car and house insurance.

It was an expensive morning.  

New Living room

The living room went from gold to brown, new carpet, and lost its popcorn ceiling and trip wallpaper. 

The old:

The new:

Back safely

Left South Carolina at 0312 am, got back to Coquina at 0945.  Stopped for coffee, McDonald's and fuel-  No traffic, dodged 9 deer between Greenwood and Augusta. 

Had a nice lunch with Bev and Dave and Bill and Porter at Lander-  the house renos are done, we love them, have lots of photos but Blogger still won't let me post them. 
Busy week next week with lots of running around and Bette's birthday on Saturday. 

Conflict?

Went to "regular" Dr yesterday to get his blessing and review for the operation on Jan 29, turns out he is slightly concerned about my being on Prednisone and the possible effects that might have on my recovery- so I have to discuss it with the surgeon-  waiting on that call-  Had my chest eray this morning, so we should be all set. 

Leaving early in the morning for South Carolina for the weekend so we can review and close out the house renovations-  looking forward to that quick trip- 

Getting together tonight with the baseball crew to plan the spring training baseball trip-

Still can't put any pictures up. 

Moving along...

Got a big green light from the cardiologist for the pre op visit-  EKG was fine, blood pressure 110/70-  all was good.  Got my labs back and they were all within range, so I'm sure Dr Brian will also clear me tomorrow when we go see him at 3-  Will also try to find out about my epic failure on my sleep study, and what to do about that, plus also see if the thyroid scan results are in.   Need a refill on my nosedrops too. 

Bette has a revisit tomorrow with Dr Northrup for her recurring pain from her double carpal tunnel surgery- they keep saying it will "go away" but it hasn't. she says. 

Then I'm off to Palatka tomorrow night for a visit to the Moose lodge to see about joining that so we can camp with them as we move around. 

Thursday, we are getting together for the annual spring training baseball trip-  we will be doing the West coast teams this year, Boston, Pittsburgh, Miami, maybe Yankees and Astros on the way home- 

Friday, we're up and out to South Carolina to inspect the house renovations and get that closed out. 

Still can't load photos, damn it.  Starting not to be a happy camper with Blogger. 

Busy week coming up-

Started off this morning with an 0615 trip to the blood lab, so I could turn in my pre-op bloodwork for my Rotator Cuff surgery on the 29th-  then to Liar's club for a bit, then a session with our financial guy, in a few minutes I'm off to the cardiologist for a check off visit for my surgery, then Wednesday, Bette has an appt for her carpal tunnel problems for follow up, and I see Dr Brian for pre-op, and follow up on other blood tests and my thyroid scan, and my sleep study, then Friday, we are heading up to South Carolina to look over the house renovations. 

Still can't post any pictures yet-  must be a big problem- 

Andy and I finished the new baseball rack, and it has been installed, just have to imagine how good it looks for a while until Blogger fixes its bug.  

Busy weekend Saturday

Busy today-  went to early morning Liar's Club, then left at 0830 to go downtown for the 125th anniversary celebration of the founding of the old Hotel Ponce de Leon, which is today Flagler College.  Large crowd of about 500 or so-  brass bands, period costumes, the arrival via carriage of Mr Henry Flagler, and the mayor, and the President of the college-  all gave brief remarks, and then the grounds were opened up for tours.

Sadly, Blogger is still broken as far as being able to post pictures, so I can't post any- 

I got a 125th anniversary pin for my Florida pin collection- and then went over a couple of buildings to an Art gallery, and saw an exhibition there-  then back to the house via Wal Mart for lunch, then back downtown for a set of basketball games between Flagler College and Lander.  The girls lost, and the boys were loosing when I had to leave at halftime-

Then we went out to dinner with the Coles over on the Island- seafood place- very good, but 40 minute wait. 

Tomorrow, I'm headed over to the flea market with Andy Anderson to look for some things-  he needs a router table, and some produce, I'll look for the usual stuff.

Monday I have labs for my pre op visits, then a visit with the cardiologist for pre op, then a busy week next week with various things, then we decided to head up to SC for the weekend to take a look at the house renovations. 

Surgery coming up

Got the plan yesterday from Dr Northrup-  I will undergo rotator cuff surgery on Jan 29th-=  1.5 hours of surgery he says, then a longish recovery with lots of PT-  I have some running around before to get pre op tests and permissions.  Starting today.

I also have the thyroid ultrasound today-

Been working for a couple of days with Andy on the baseball rack, its coming along fine- 

Have breakfast tomorrow with Dan- looking forward to that. 
Beautiful weather this week, highs near 80- and sunshine.

Lander classes are started back, going well so far.

Busy Busy!!!

Blog goof

Seems there is a programming error with Blogger, it all of a sudden won't let you post photos-  The message boards say to try another browser as a band aid fix, but I'm holding out until they address the issue, so the posts may be boring for a while.

Went to see the movie Lincoln Sunday, and today, I'm on my way over to Andy's to work on the baseball rack- 

Doctor Report

Almost an hour with Dr Bryan today- 

As expected, a referral to the ortho surgeon, to have him interpret the MRI, and then come up with a course of treatment-  either surgery (maybe), PT, shots, won't know until we see him.
There are at least three 40-60% tears, and some liquid that isn't supposed to be there, and some "chronic" condition, that I may be able to PT out of.  I may also have another study done with dye injection to further analyze the condition. 

Dr Brian ordered 5 more blood tests today, went to have them done-  he still is not 100% sure of the exact diagnosis on my hyper sort of rheumatoid symptoms, except that so far we seem to know that the treatment with Prednisone seems to be helping. My markers evidently went up higher on my second round of tests a month ago, so we had them redone today, along with a referral to a Rheumatoid Arthritis specialist too. 

Also got orders today for a thyroid scan, seems a something showed up on the MRI, incidental to everything else-  so we are getting that checked out. 

Neck is on hold, pending getting the other stuff looked at, back is on hold also-  I can PT most of the neck issues, and the back hasn't really been so bad lately. 

Moving on.  I have a PT session with Amanda today at 4. 

Busy week

Lots to do the rest of the week:

Tomorrow, got the doughnut run for the coffee club, then my appointment with Dr Brian about my shoulder, then a book sale at the main library, then the farmer's market out at the pier, then PT,  then a run out to Home Depot with Andy to see about the materials for the baseball rack, and Bette has Maj Jong, and girl stuff planned with Wendy. 

Friday is my sleep study overnight at Flagler hospital-  Saturday is the farmers market at the ampetheater, and then a memorial service for Lonnie Blaine, who passed before Christmas- 

After I find out about the plans for the shoulder, which I predict will be a referral to an orthopedic surgeon, we can make plans for our run down to Alliance Motor Coach down in Wildwood, Florida for a looksee at the electrical system and coach batteries- which are on the fritz again.  May also run on over to New Port Ritchey to see Bette's brother, and maybe to Tampa/Lakeland to see some folks we know.  

The house reno guys are cranking back up tomorrow-  looking at maybe another week and a half on that score, then we redo the entire carpets all over the house.  Then we check that one off.