Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Support Group

Welcome back.

Here comes...brassai!

Mystery solved (the arm). Bad news, but strong hope for that recovery. 90+% is EXCELLENT!

Jumping up and down and all around...to see you are back.

: )

Bet'cha never saw a booger jump before?!
Hehe

Heh... only out of my own nose a time or two!

:-P

D.

Bad news about the infection in your arm, that it was really bad, and that it was necessary to have surgery AGAIN (Oh man! I'm sooo sorry!), although (yes) good that it wasn't MRSA and that your prognosis for recovery swang from 70 percent chance of losing the arm to 90 percent chance of full recovery. Physical therapy is no picnic. I only know this because I had worked with someone recently who had a series of surgeries on his shoulder.

Question is, how are you doing right now? Are you right-handed? Are you in a lot of pain? How long will recovery take? I presume you're also losing some work from all of this as well. Is your employer supportive?

Hang in there, brassai!

I have another interview scheduled in the morning that I am preparing for (woohoo!), so I may be off the site until tomorrow (don't want to risk being triggered--to improve my chances of getting some sleep this evening if I can possibly manage it).

Keeping you in thought and prayer, brassai! So sorry about your arm, etc.; but am glad you're back.

Be gentle on yourself, hey! ; )

Thanks Phlox.... Actually... I miss-phrased part of that: it's not 90% of full recovery.... it's that I should get back to 90% of original use when all is said and done. that other 10% (some strength and range of motion) is gone permanently at this point due to loss of muscle and connective tissue.

Doc says that I should be ready to start Phys Therapy in a couple or 3 more months. There's one thing with the arthritis degeneration that may push that out another month or 2 from that, but it's basically "wait and see" for the moment. Then Phys Therapy. then a few months to just let everything calm down and stabilize... and then one final surgery to fix the degeneration in a bone in the area of the rotator cuff. (the Doc makes it sound like he's going to go in and slap some bondo on the bone, file it into shape and slap a fresh coat of paint on. (now you know why I mention the rusted out rambler in my status ;-)

Basic thought on the Doc's part is that I'll be looking at getting that surgery in roughly 22 or 24 months from now. After that... all going well and no more issues... I'll then be at about 90% of where I'd normally be at that age.

Phew.

brassai,

So...that other 10% (strength and range of motion) is gone permanently.

Is it common to start physical therapy so late (R or more months) or is it the arthritis degeneration and/or other factots that result in some delay. I would think that the sonner PT is started, the better (but admit my ignorance here).

I thought so too Phlox, and that's been my experience when I tore up my knee as a teen, and the subsequent repairs made there; PT starts as soon as possible after you're up and around.

But then this past weekend:

I was working on cleaning out the garage, and giving my right arm a good deal of deference because of what the Doc said about not overdoing it and causing another set-back, or moving in certain ways and causing worse damage where there is degeneration.

At one point, I was putting something in the big dumpster we rented, and it didn't feel right. I immediately stopped the motion, shifted the weight to my left arm, and carefully dumped the item over the edge into the dumpster. Later, I was on one end of a piece of furniture (a light one) with my nephew on the other end, putting it into the back of our truck to move it from storage. I felt something in my right arm, and promptly dropped the corner from that hand (much to the dismay of my Nephew ho had to suddenly take the weight shift).

I didn't think either episode was bad, and the while the right arm was sore, it wasn't any more sore than anyplace else in my body after a day at hard labor :-) Saturday night, as I was drying off from the shower, I glanced at the scar on my right arm, and noticed something... the scar (from the last surgery back in JUNE) had partially torn open. Not as bad as it sounds, and it didn't break the surface of the skin, but it clearly was torn just beneath the surface, and when I probed it a bit, it was obviously torn from just below the surface to fairly deep in the arm where part of my tricep muscle once was.

So obviously in addition to the degeneration from the arthritis in the joint not quite being halted (by being back on the medication for that problem), I obviously could tear open things if I'm not careful. I called the doc and he said that it wasn't a major problem that I'd torn it, but "DON'T DO THAT AGAIN!!!!". I tend to agree... my arm is still aching in that area more than it was, and typing is back to being difficult again.

NOW I know why the Physical Therapy is being delayed.

D.