He Blew It Up

Surgery with Dr. Smith was yesterday.  He visited with us beforehand, going over what we had discussed before.  Ray received a nerve block before being taken back, and I was dismissed to the waiting room.

An hour and a half in, I knew the repair was needed and was likely on the challenging side.  An hour and 45 minutes in, my buzzer went off, and I was taken to a room to wait for Dr. Smith.  He came in and said, "Well, mom, he blew it up."  He made a kind of explosion sound and gave the appropriate motion with his hands.  Showing me the pics he explained the biceps was good, the rotator cuff was good, the anterior labrum was good - then the area that was "exploded", "a big huge piece, explosion".  I marveled to myself at how that could be fixed (using the only analogy I could think of - trying to hem frayed cut off shorts, lol) - then said out loud, "What do you do with that?"  Dr. Smith replied with a sigh, "Yeah, I know.... it came out pretty damn good."  😂  Yes, sir... that's what I want to hear!  He explained he smoothed it off a little bit, took a little of it off, then smoothed it back down to kind of fill the hole.  He put these little anchors in the bone, and placed two sutures through the labrum to the anchors.  Now there's continuity of the labrum, restoring the ring and stability.  He called it a radial split, a complicated tear.

I was given a ton of information, but everyone at Columbia Orthopedic Group was really spectacular, and the nurse was very patient with me.  Instructions on which meds when, changing the bandage, bathing, the ice machine, the stim machine, how to put the splint on and placement, what could move (fingers and elbow) and what shouldn't move (shoulder)... mercy.   He has to stay in the "gun slinger" position with wedge in place so he can't internally rotate his shoulder.  

We left, Ray was starving and we stopped for sandwiches to go - he didn't have any nausea or lingering effects of the anesthesia.  Everything went pretty well until early this morning when the nerve block had completely worn off.  He was uncomfortable, stiff from not moving and wearing the wedge splint, and tired from lack of sleep.  In general he was pretty miserable and uncomfortable.  I was attempting not to use the percocet - something Dr. Smith suggested and I agreed with - but it was becoming too much.  So he's been on ketorolac and percocet, and he's is doing a lot better now than this morning.

Tomorrow we remove the bandage and he gets to shower.