And a very real issue to worry about: practice wiping with your other hand now.
Trust me.
Well, without going into a lot of detail, that wasn't as big a deal as I somehow envisioned
good friend is recovering from it now, hes eight weeks post op and sporting a sling with a foam block. No other way to say it than it suck a LOT and hurts a lot, but the option was 6 months of suck vs. the rest of his life in pain so......
Yes, the six months of crap versus a lifetime of pain is pretty much the exact situation I am in right now. The pain I can deal with at this point (Although I won't miss it, don't get me wrong, but it's not something I'm not used to given my neck hurts to some extent pretty much chronically), but it's the fact that it will almost certainly get worse and I will lose a lot of strength is the reason why I need to get it fixed – already, as the Cortizone wears off, I can feel my strength slowly decreasing. Apparently, left unrepaired, most people eventually avoid using the affected arm to the point of atrophy.
I had rotator cuff surgery June 99,by Robin Richards at St. Mikes. He told me to start physio the next day, if possible. I drove my standard shift car, the day I got out of hospital. You can't put force on the joint, but it has to keep moving. You can do a lot of the stuff yourself, with pulleys. Good luck.
Must've been a much more minor tear versus what I am looking at – I was told that under no circumstances whatsoever (short of showering) is the arm to be left unrestrained – I must keep it in the sling 24 hours a day otherwise, including sleeping, which I can only imagine it's going to suck donkey balls.
Different people have different experiences based on the severity of the injury, and the invasiveness of the surgery – for example after my spinal fusion I spent a week in the hospital, three months at home in a 3/4 vegetative state (yay morphone and Percocet), and then six months of recovery before returning to life. On the other hand one of my friends had a C2/C3 neck fusion (mine was C1/C2), left the hospital the next day with just Tylenol 3, did not need a cervical fixation collar for three months (like I had), and returned to work about 2 months later. I was amazed. But, being a bit lower in the neck it was a much less invasive procedure versus the base of the skull.
I've become hyper aware of all the things I won't be able to do for 3-4 months after the surgery - try spending an hour of your normal life with your dominant arm strapped to your chest and you quickly get an idea of all the things that you take for granted that are suddenly going to be difficult if not impossible.
On the bright side at least it's going to be winter when it happens – I guess I have a built-in excuse for not shoveling the driveway at least. :/