My New Arm!

Well, it's been 11 days since my surgery, and so far we're good. (Minus the reaction I had to my meds that required an ER visit. Not complaining though. It could have been worse. And, I was all better pretty quickly.)

Jared and I drove to Nashville today for my post operation appointment. I love my doctor! His name is Donald Lee at Vanderbilt University. If you ever have a need for an upper extremity ortho guy, he's the best! My appointment went well, but it's easier to explain with pictures. So, here we go ...

Before surgery

Here's what you're seeing in the picture above: My actual humerus is the bone that has 4 screws in it down to my elbow. My cadaver bone is from the top of the screws up to the big white ball. And, I still have my own socket that the metal ball hooks to. The really white rod that goes from the ball of my shoulder down the center of my cadaver bone was inserted after I broke my arm in 2004. There's also a plate that runs down the side; my screws are hooked to it, and there's a weird metal band that holds the plate to my cadaver bone towards the top. Confusing? I agree. The problem with this contraption is that everything is falling apart, shifting around and breaking. I guess I should have written all of that in past tense since I don't have any of it anymore.

My blue prints

Jared calls this image my blue print. I think it's really neat looking, so I thought I'd share.

My experiment

I've shown this before, but I thought I'd include it with this post too. This is the "new metal" that allowed my rotator cuff to be sewn to the metal. Long story short: it keeps my shoulder from popping in and out of socket. We love this piece and pray it works!

Today's x-ray

This is what my arm looks like today. Originally, we thought Dr. Lee was only replacing the cadaver bone and taking the 4 screws out of my humerus to heal as a broken bone. As you can see in this x-ray, he ended up taking out almost all of my bone to just above my elbow. There's some funky screws in there which is how the metal is hooked into what's left of my humerus. This decision was made to make my arm more sturdy. Now, I have less of a chance for stress to occur at the connection site. This is a good thing!

Let me back up for a minute ... Before surgery, while I was in pre-op, the anesthesiologist came in and asked to do a nerve block in my neck. Well, that scared me to death. As if I wasn't already nervous enough, I had to decide whether or not to let them stick a large needle down my neck and essentially paralyze that side. Don't judge. I'm pretty tough. But if I had to choose between dealing with pain or taking a chance on being paralyzed or having nerve damage, I choose the pain. However, they talked me into the nerve block. I wouldn't let them do it without Jared being in there with me holding my hand. He was a champ! I focused on him and all was well.

Guess what? After surgery, I was glad they talked me into the crazy block! I couldn't believe how good I felt when I woke up in recovery. I even told Jared, "you're getting a much better deal than my sister got with my last surgery." You know the saying about when something seems too good to be true ... About 3 or 4 hours after surgery, the block stopped working. Have you ever had bone pain? Well, if you haven't, I hope you never do. If you have, you know that I wasn't a happy camper. The doctors made me keep the block in "just in case" it started working again. So, it stayed in until Jared took it out the Monday after we came home from the hospital. It was the best feeling ever! And I was proud of my hubby for being able to handle that kind of stuff without passing out. LOL

So, back to today ... It's been 11 days, and although the recovery has been harder than I anticipated ... a little more pain than I expected and a reaction to my meds ... most everything has gone really well. The doctor was pleased with my recovery with one exception: my shoulder has fallen out of socket a little bit. He thinks it can be fixed with a new sling that will push the ball of shoulder back into place. Also, the more I use my muscle, the stronger it will get and will naturally pull my shoulder back into place. Since I can't use my arm now, I'm supposed to flex my deltoid as often as I can. Eventually, it will get better.

It wasn't a perfect report, but it wasn't bad either. I'll take it! I'm about 2 weeks from being able to drive and function on my own. And, I'm about 5 weeks from getting back to life without a sling. Yippee! Every day gets better and better!

Any time you have medical issues, there's always going to be some positives and negatives. No matter what happens with this surgery and recovery, please know that I'm thankful for all of it! I know I have to go through some tough stuff to be able to get the arm I've been praying for. In the end, it's all totally worth it! I'm so lucky to have so many wonderful people praying us through this!

Here are some pictures from today:

First time without my sling on ...

The swelling on the inside of my arm and around my elbow is gross!

Waiting to get my stitches out ...

So, new sling and no stitches = happy Rian! We go back to see Dr. Lee 2 weeks from today. I'll keep you posted, but please continue to pray for us. This party ain't over yet!