Work Safely to not Tear your body up

[63bkpkr]

Hi All 63kbpkr here and fresh out of the operating room on the 18th of March 2013.

The MRI indicated I had a completely torn rotary cuff, that's a tendon and muscle combo and is a part of the miracle of our bodies. In addition the MRI hinted at other damage in there.

When my surgeon got in there he found the rotary cuff tendon/muscle so damaged it was not useable. He used a portion of some similar tendon/muscle nearby to perform the surgery.

How did I manage to do this over time to myself. I work very hard and thereby get lots accomplished including really messing up my shoulder. In 2010 I found a fun paystreak along a river bank. I went at it with shovel and 5' long pry bar. With the pry bar I found I could move very large boulders but as the bar was a relatively short lever arm I needed to exert a great deal of energy to lift the boulders. This high stress spread out over a month or more of this type of work likely caused some damage. After I'd finished doing the dig and pry bar routine I had quite a trench started and to keep the bank from eroding I filled the trench with a lot of boulders and this likely added to the damage.


I've also done a fair amount of chain saw work cutting up firewood, tossing the logs and doing typical firewood duty and this could have added to my shoulder damage.

My hope here in sharing this with you is to alert you to the damage we can create to our own bodies by doing the things we like to do. We can still do them but we need to work our bodies less by using cable pullers and longer pry bars. Will I still do this type of work, Yes! But I will be smarter about it.

So I've one shoulder repaired and one more shoulder to be repaired as well as a knee to be repaired and I hope this does not sound like fun to any of you as it is not and it will be costly.

Caution to all to take care of yourselves out there...............63bkpkr

 

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[tlowery04]

thats rough, make sure you keep off it and do your physical therapy. My dad has had both knees overhauled, 3 rotator rebuilds (one from not doing the pt and going to work too soon) and is in a chair for the next few weeks healing up from a 75% achilles tear.

speedy recover to you, it will feel great when it quits hurting.

 

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[Hoser John]

Morning Herb, Them trucker straps don't fray at all ,they take a massive beating. I have old yella with a dozen holds tied in it and bet ya sucker has 10,000+++ pulls on it. Worn a bit after 25+ years but I use 2 others with a half dozen in the strap,rope,bungee locker just a waitn' for service. ALL from swapmeets for a couple a bucks each--That nugget is righteous!!-John

 

[63bkpkr]

Hello John,
You refer to a dozen "holds" tied into it, should I assume you tie a few knots in the web to add to its gripping power on the boulders!!?? ...........63bkpkr/Herb

 

[TAKODA]

Takoda,
Do not know how I missed your post but what a 'loverly' nugget and yes way larger than the ones I had in my ~1/4 oz run of pay streak. Out of curiosity, could you post it with a dime next to it...........63bkpkr

Hope your good to go soon 63 . You still got things need do'in .

 

[63bkpkr]

Thank you Takoda! That is one beautiful piece of gold, was it found sniping? I agree, I've many things still in need of doin!...........63bkpkr

 

[63bkpkr]

Among the things I need to do is get this wet and dirty as well as filled up with gold...............63bkpkr

Super Mini BGT

 

[Alex Burke]

Hi 63bkpkr hope your shoulders well, I have a couple quick questions as I have to have this surgery too sigh: did you use a ice circulating machine after the surgery? Did they sew up your labrum too? and how long before you could use your arm 100% again? Thanks for any replies.

 

[63bkpkr]

Well, Late but not forgotten so Hi MeteorMiner

I've not looked at this thread in some time so I apologize for not seeing your reply sooner!

The Ice Circulating machine is a must and boy did I use it!! Yes they did sew up my Labrum as well.

My Surgery was not the typical surgery as when they got in there they found the original muscle had atrophied so badly it was not useable so they took some ligament/muscle from the back that was performing a similar function and attached that to the head of the shoulder. The also did a lot of abrading! So with that in mind, today I started week eight from the morning of the surgery. My six Physical Therapy visits were all attended and at home I followed up with the exercise pages they gave to me and then I did extra exercises that Did Not Hurt me when I did them. There were some positions that were still quite painful so I only did the extras that did not cause pain.

Right now I have a relatively good range of motion, I can do a full circle with my arm. I have limited motion for: moving quickly, lifting weight over 5 lbs, I can not reach up my back as far as I could, I can not sleep on my back without pain and there are a few motions like pulling up my slacks that still hurt as I get to the top of the motion. So I am not 100% yet but I am causing myself to close that gap as I'm exercising every day and trying new things out every week.

I will note that my surgeried arm is in much better condition than my left shoulder which needs a similar operation so the surgery was worthwhile and I will do it again. I should also add that there is a fair amount of pain with this surgery as well as swelling but the ice machine helps greatly with the swelling. The Narcotic pain pills pushed me immediately into constipation and none of the recommended laxative/stool softeners worked nor did mineral oil so be ready for this!!

After three days of not having a bowl movement I stopped taking the pain pills and even cut back on the 600mg of Ibuprofen to about half that amount, yes the pain was significant but I want my body to function correctly so I put up with the pain.

Sleeping is the biggest problem!!!!!! I finally devised a system of foam and pillows that allow me to lay on the non-surgeried shoulder side of my body, foam on the sheets next to my legs, standard bed pillow between my knees and extended out over the foam so the foam holds the pillow up. Then I lay my surgeried arm on the pillow and find a position where the pain is much less. I sleep for awhile, wake up in pain, adjust the arm till it stops hurting and go back to sleep. A person looses a lot of sleep doing it like this but it works. I'm slowly getting back to different sleeping positions that work but at first one would work one night and not the next night, disgusting!

Exercising IS the key to Recovering from this surgery as without it one will not recover!!

I hope your surgery goes well or did.

Regards...................63bkpkr

 

[Jeff95531]

Hang in there 63bkpkr. Those who can't...teach! I know I absorb info from you like a sponge. Hopefully you're "virtual" prospecting thru our pursuits while you recover. Here's to a speedy return for you

 

[Alex Burke]

Awesome thank you for the the detailed reply, I think I'm going to go through with it still but the recovery sounds worse than I thought.

I think I had some other stuff going on while I've been trying to rehab it, I kept getting fatigued really fast, loss of appetite and shortness of breath swollen throat etc (I went 3 time in a month) but my primary care Dr. kept saying it was my shoulder and arthritis, took blood send me home and never call me. Finally about ten days ago I really couldn't breathe and throat felt swollen fever etc went into urgent care and begged the Dr to run an EKG or stress test or MRI or something lol. Urgent care Dr says I'm fine gives me a scrip for a $600 inhaler with a coupon from the manufacturer and told me to buy some claritin!

I tried this seemed to help a tiny bit but I still felt like something was really wrong. Few days later with no improvement I go back to primary at this point not expecting much in the way of care other than blood test maybe. I tell him same symptoms he relates a random story of how a young patient of the clinic exhibiting symptoms like mine recently died and says we should probably run an EKG, lol again. He did EKG showed something not too scary he sends me to a Cardio guy and I am in the middle of the 2 days of tests with them. (update I'm in the 55 percentile and passed, on to pulmonary guy)

The really strange part is about 3 days ago all the really weird symptoms got way better and I kind of think I had undiagnosed Mono or something. I had shingles a few years ago which is rare to have in twenties and theoretically could flare and initially onsets with lowered immunity. At this point I'm confused but happy to feel a little better and have 100% and 0% faith in our medical system lol.

I do trust my shoulder Dr. so everything should work out. At the cardio ultrasound I did find out I broke a rib and it healed wrong with lots of scar tissue but not sure if that's fixable or worth fixing but explains some pain I have there and so far tests look good. I do the treadmill one on wed and then I'll be cleared for shoulder surgery hopefully. I am looking forward to being able to sleep on left side again someday too 63bkpkr. Thanks again for the info and I'll def pick up that ice machine, some extra pillows and prunes lol? I remember old guys when I was a kid saying "at least you got your health" "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" and thinking that's a low goal/strange thing to say or something along those lines but now it all makes sense. Continued luck in your recovery.
Alex MMiner

 

[Hoser John]

In alll acuuality the op is only part of the solution as that prhysical theray is PARAMOUNT for decent results. After both elbows rebuilt I was in pt for over 18 months to prevent that nasty scar tissue from strangling the work done. If it hurts mo' better-John

 

[russau]

John i hear ya! i just got done with my PT and ill be continuing on my own for a long time appearently!

 

[63bkpkr]

Hi Alex MMiner,
I responded to your PM as well but for another excellent doctor keep Dr. Gary S. Fanton in mind as his work is superb. He's with Stanford though he takes appointments at the Redwood City facility, appointments # is 800-717-0012.

And Yes, just as russau/John have indicated, Physical Therapy is what recovery is all about, even adding other exercises to it as long as they do not cause pain as you first experiment with them.

Thanks Jeff95531 and it sounds like you and your wife are on a roll with fun new things that "can be done" and she likes bells and whistles as well, cool................63bkpkr

 

[gold tramp]

Get better soon Herb,
Ck out my site, bb mining company rocks and Art - home for some desert stuff, its not woods and water, hope you enjoy.

Herb n Crew....

 

[63bkpkr]

Hello there gold tramp, aka Cpt. Herb & Crew,
I've heard that "H" name somewhere before. Nice site you have there. The desert sunrises and sunsets have not changed, they are still beautiful! The picture of the Scorpion somehow caught me off guard and when it came up it kind of shocked me. I know they are out in desert country, I used to catch them in Phoenix but that was more than a day or two ago. A slab of rock sliding down a hillside can do a lot of damage, I'm glad the reminder did only a little more than hurt you pride.

Found a book last night, "The Anatomy of Stretching", and it is just what the Doc in me ordered. I found places on my body I never even new existed and one of them just said 'Oh thank you so much for doing that". Between the new stretches and the other exercising I'm doing the shoulder is coming along but deep in there it still hurts. I will be glad when that goes away. I'm still hoping that come late August I will be physically fit to be able to safely take a then day outing. I soooooooo want too!

Thanks for stopping by and saying hello as well as for the good wishes on getting well. I'll get er done!.............63bkpkr/Herb