In two weeks I am scheduled for rotator cuff surgery on my right shoulder. Just finished the MRI and had my talk with the surgeon. My ‘cuff’ is torn in three seperate spots. All three will be corrected at the same time. The tares are of different ages – how he can tell I do not know. I wanted to wait until the end of summer since I am an avid golfer and competative swimmer. He told me that would be a very bad ides since they can receed and have to be stapled to the bone. So I took his advice and scheduled my stint in the OR. I am right handed. Any idea what I should do before surgery to strengthen my arm? He thinks golf is out for the year – anyone who had this done in the past is his estimate accurate? I write a lot at work – right handed of course – how long will I not be able to sign my name? Any other advice is appreciated.
Wish I was ambdextrious – Mike
Replies
Practice wiping with your left while you can still correct any mistakes!
I only know this
Follow the directions!
What can be fixed can also be unfixed. Can golf for the year (and I know that pain..................well, the thought of canning it for the summer.
Find a golf dome or schedule an early spring/late winter golf outing somewhere warm.
A personal trainer should be able to advise on pre operative strenthening (or better yet, a physical thereapist- you don't want to do any more damage trying to strengthen it)
Best of luck.
The wiping is good advice, or get a bidet.
Get yourself some pants that are extra loose and have stretch wastebands. It's amazingly hard to button/snap pants with one hand.
A pack of baby wipes makes the essential activity a bit easier to take care of.
I wouldn't suggest trying to strengthen the arm pre-surgery. Just try to keep it relatively mobile -- CAREFULLY do range-of-motion stretches. (But don't do anything that causes real pain.)
As I understand it, the arm will be completely immobilized for about a month, then slowly less restricted. Your first challenge after you're "set free" will be to get back some range of motion, without even worrying about strength per se. Plan on working with a therapist about twice a week (and working out alone daily) once you're given the OK to do so.
When you've got several weeks of therapy under your belt I can give you some useful exercises.
exercises
Dan: I will take you up on the offer to give appropriate excersises. Since it is summer here I can eaisly wear basketball shorts and the like. I bet trying to button a shirt is impossible as well?
The hardest part of the pants is pulling the fly closed and holding it in place while you button/snap, It takes substantial force with both arms, even if the pants fit fairly well. And you can't/shouldn't apply that much force with the injured arm.
With shirts it's more of a question of being able/allowed to flex the arm that far. And of course, the problem of getting the arm into the shirt in the first place.
Seriously. Install an under seat bidet today. It'll cost you about $40.00 for a nice Luxe and save you lots of embarassing moments later, Not much you can do at this point but go at your physical therapy afterwards as hard as they will let you. Get 4 large ice packs from a medical supply store and rotate them on and off your shoulder every 30 minutes or so when you're awake. I think the ice helped me more than anything. Everybody reacts differently but it took me 2 years before I could swing a golf club. Not play, just swing the club. Good luck.
Totally tore my right cuff completly thru 6 years ago and had surgery - could not even raise my right arm.
There is a section on the subject in the archives, do a search.
my experience - DO NOT play golf for at least 9 months, I did not even attempt to start a chain saw with right hand/arm until 9 months had passed.
DO NOT drive from a month unless absolutely necessary, the chances of being tempted to 'grab the wheel' in the case of a potential collision is not worth the risk. Even took a cab around So CA a couple of times on bus trips during that period.
I quit driving my stick shift and drive an automatic for 6 months.
Could sign my name within days, but with arm in sling strapped to side, just using very slight arm motion (not raising)
DO NOT take oxycontin even if prescribed, I had nearly no pain except during therapy, and the withdrawal after just one oxycontin pill was a 2 day bad 'flu symptom' episode.
I did therapy 3 times a day. Before surgery, got the full low-down from doc and brochures vs going in for therapy. Rigged a couple of pulleys to the ceiling of the house and installed ropes/handles before surgery. Doc said I had one the best recoveries and full motion he had seen, helped by the 3 times a day therapy
The thing about therapy is the knowing when to push it - the sharp pains during therapy make you think you may be tearing something loose, get good advise from the doc on how hard to push it. I'd put the strap on right wrist, lay on the floor, pull my arm up with left hand and then lower it to a straight above my head position with the rope until the onset of sharp - but not tearing- pain. 20 cycles 3 times a day IIRC.
The first time I even tried to raise my right arm out of the sling was in the water, after one month.
PS: FORGET doing anything physicaly competitive for the 9 months.
Thanks for all the advice. Since it will be hot summer here I can do the therapy often and plan on following all the advice of the Doc and PT. I do want to play golf soon but gave my clubs away for this summer. My son needed a good set so off they went.
The ice packs were an excellent idea. I will be sure to invest before I have my surgery. I have heard this is very common surgery and for the most part if you follow the advice of professionals can be quite successful.
Frankly, my golf game was not that good in the first place - maybe this will help? Doc 'suggests' my injurie(s) were years old. Finally really did some damage starting a gas engine and the pull rope broke mid-flight.
Again, thanks.
I can go on and off percocet/oxy at will. I'll take between 1 and 4 a day for a week and then be off them for a week. Doctor gives me 60 at a time which I can take up to 4 in a day and it the 60 will last me 60 to 90 days.
One thing about pain pills like perc/oxy -- they can cause constipation big time. When I have to take more than 1-2 I'm always careful to start taking a stool softener. (But don't take the stool softener at the same time as meds, since it can "bind up" the meds.)
Never had that problem with constipation....of course I take mine for colitis which gives you extreme pain and chronic runs so its not really a problem I would pick up on. Strnage thing I have found is they can make me drowsy but they keep you awake. Really not a good thing because I often have pain a couple of hours after eating which would coincide with bed time. When you take them and then lie down, I feel more of their effect than any other time. One other side effect that I have and a couple of other people I know have had is....you talk like crazy...not CRAZY but talk a lot. Can't shut up talking...at least when I take one when I am up and doing something.
I spent 16 days in the hospital and was on morphine self-controlled drip and vallium for anxiety plus I would take a sleeping pill. Anybody who has spent time in a hospital knows its virtually impossible to get any rest so by the second week I had figured out that if I dealt with the pain pre-bed time, I could save up the morphine. Tell the nurse around 9 you are feeling anxious and you get a valium. The ask for a sleeping pil at 10:00 or so. Pop that and press the morphine button as many times as you want...it will ony give you so much...and it would knock me on my axx. The bad part is I was so dead to the world, I wouldn't even move at night like you normally do. No rolling around. Nothing. Left there with the worst back ache you can ever imagine but I slept like a baby... a really well baked baby.
Never had a problem stopping the morphine drip either btw.
You will be ambidextrous after this! I started using my left hand after a minor wrist problem and now it's handy to spread the workload to both hands rather than have a right hand that's sore all the time.
I had it about 6 years ago too. I think a few months before JH.
. Left shoulder. They tamed some other things while in there too, like a biceps tendon nearly severed.
I probably pushed things too fast getting back and I think set it all back some - opposite of Junkhound.
I did not have too much trouble with waistband and belt/zipper after the first week, but did go to using slip-on shooes, which still are my most common footwear now when not roofing.
Since mine was left, I was lucky in the butt-wipe department, but have had other right hand injuries that precluded use. It is not a long learning curve to get it clean.
One of my more memorable experiences was doing some metal work ( with a helper) when my arm was still in a sling about a month later. A piece of hot metal got down into the sweatshirt at inside of my elbow and we noticed the smoke curling up just a moment before it burnt thru and hit the skin.
At PT, I met a guy who had been a year already and still not full function. I was out working in 3-4 months, but it took a year or so before the pain was less than before surgery.
My right shoulder is getting due, but unles it totally gets blown out to useless, I will delay it until after I retire.
The surgery went fine, but the recovery is long and not something to look forward to.
I would recommend NOT doing strength excercise beforehand as that ccan do more damage. Do the stretching and range of motion moves tho.