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Okay, so I had a doctor's appointment today...no, wait. Let me back up a bit.

Okay, so I had my physical therapy before my doctor's appointment today. My therapist, Amy, is freaking awesome and I love her to bits (along with all of the other PTs, interns *I'm looking (and I do mean looking rowr) at you Josh* and assorted folks who work there). Anyway, I worked through my exercises and then Amy did her thing where she manipulates my shoulder and stretches it etc. She said my motion is not really where she wants it to be yet, but she's not worried and feels that it will get there once I start the active (rather than the passive) therapy. She takes her measurements and says she'll fax them over to the doctor's office.

So, okay, fine.

Now, I'm in the little room, and in comes my surgeon's PA (physician's assistant). He answers a question I had about why my bicep has been killing me ever since the surgery (because of the extra work which was done in the shoulder) and then asked me to get up on the table. He took my arm and tried to move it over my head and I yelped because I don't think I was in a good position and he went waay too fast. So then he tried to move it out away from my body and again---yelp. So he says "Your shoulder is frozen."

I was seconds away from freaking out because frozen shoulder
is NOT something you want because it means more painful treatments to correct. So I looked at hubby then looked back at the PA and, as calmly as I could, I informed him that I had been to the physical therapist that morning and she had taken measurements which she assured me she would fax to their office which clearly showed that my shoulder was progressing nicely and has a decent range of passive motion. The PA excused himself to go find the fax and I looked at hubby with panic rising inside. He reminded me to stay calm and just wait.

Well, Dr. Petty breezed in a moment later with the PA trailing behind. Dr. Petty asked me to raise my arm and I did as best as I could and then he took it and raised it up pretty far. Then I laid on my back on the table and he raised it again. He told me and the PA that it is a bit stiff but is not frozen and he wants me to get one of the pulley things like I've been using at the PT place. It's a pulley with a sort of rope strung through and a handle on each end. You hold one handle with the bad arm hand and use the good arm to raise it up as high as you can. The doctor wants me to get one and use it several times per day. Also, I have to do better about doing my PT at home. I have been slacking and it shows.

So, anyway, he cleared me for light duty with some typing from 30 minutes to three hours or when I'm fatigued. And no more sling! Huzzah! Now if this cold would just get over itself, I'd be a happier girl.

I just want to mention that my hubby is the bestest man ever. He and I have so much fun riding in the car together...just being silly and sarcastic about stuff. I adore him.

Lastly, here's one more pic from the wedding which I forgot to post the other day. It's my grandson Tyler dancing with the bride.


My new granddaughter will be here in just a couple of weeks! I'm taking my DIL out for a "girl's night" dinner sometime this week. I have a surprise for her and she will flip!

Wow, typing that has "fatigued" my arm already. It's a damnably slow process...healing.

PS--Completely unrelated, but I just wanted to say that I've been watching Ken Burns' "The War" the last couple of weeks and it is AWESOME. Oh, and when I was home on Monday--I watched most of the rest of the "Heroes" episodes I have recorded. Now I have the second half of the season finale from last season, plus the first two episodes of this season then I'm all caught up.

This week has been soooo long. Work has been ok, but the time just seems to crawl by. It doesn't help that I'm not sleeping very well...the sofa is a sleeper type so it's rock hard...and the pain is constant. I am not taking as much pain medicine as I should, trying to stretch the pills out.

sigh.

But enough about me. Tyler's third birthday was yesterday. His parents took him to Chuck-E-Cheese, then later, they met us for dinner. A good time was had by all...even though Tyler didn't know what to make of the waitstaff and their little chant.

So...pictures...





Ain't he cute? Oh, and he told me he doesn't want a baby sister...which may be problematic, since she will be here in about a month...

I'm home---well, I was home yesterday but in no condition to post--this one is all typed one-handed, so forgive any spelling errors. Gregory posted the last entry right after we got home. He's taking really good care of me. It hurts, but it's not unbearable.

I had to take the sling/harness/torture device off...it is a new product (Greg and I surmised this because the sales rep was there when the nurse was putting it on) and it is, in my opinion, poorly designed. It's got a 'pillow' attached to the arm section with velcro and all of the supporting straps are attached to the pillow! The arm wrap thing is attached to the pillow with velcro, so my arm doesn't feel supported at all, it is being pulled down by gravity. If the straps were attached to the arm wrap thing and the pillow was attached via velcro, that would be so much better. Even the nurse said that both nurses and patients all hated it. So, I am resting my arm on one of my bedroom pillows, making sure I keep it angled away from my body like that sling is supposed to.

It was recommended that a recliner is the best sort of seat/bed for the first little while after surgery (can't lay down and keep the arm in the right position) but since we don't have (and can't afford to buy) a recliner, I am set up on the sofa. The trouble is...that sofa is also a fold-away bed...it is sooo uncomfortable after a couple of hours in the same position...remember I can hardly move...that the steel bar from the bed frame bruised my bottom. I kept waking up last night every hour...I finally had to use one of my supporting pillows for my behind and was able to sleep from 4:30-8. I'm sure I'll be napping today...and never again will we buy a sofa bed for the living room. If we had an extra 400.00 we could buy a leather recliner sofa from Furniture Warehouse.


Gregory is going to go out in a bit and pick up some of that foam stuff to try to make it more comfortable for me.

ACCCKKK!! Sorry to whinge on...I am thankful that the pain, while intense when I move the wrong way, hasn't been as bad as I feared...and my darling husband is really taking wonderful care of me...and he's cute, too...which helps.

Thanks for all the good wishes.

By this time tomorrow, I'll be under the arthroscope having my shoulder repaired.

I spent all day Sunday preparing a variety of casseroles, etc so Hubby and I don't starve or spend a fortune while I'm unable to cook. The freezer is packed with pasta-y goodness.

Today we pick up the meds I'll need for after the surgery. I'm not allowed to eat or drink after 10 pm, even though that's more than 8 hours, so I'm going to probably cheat a little on the "drink" part since I have terrible dry-mouth. I will not have anything after midnight...since I'll be asleep (hopefully) by that point, it shouldn't be a problem.

What will be a problem is no coffee tomorrow morning...especially since I doubt if I'll convince my hubby to go coffee-free...

Anyway, I'll ask Hubby to make a post here telling everyone I'm okay later tomorrow.

Wish me luck.

Went to PT yesterday for the first time. Asked the therapist if she had ever known of anyone with my injury to not require surgery and she just smiled sadly and shook her head. I then asked why should I even bother and she said that the point was to try to strengthen the muscles around the injury and possibly it would be something I could live with.

Well, if the pain I woke up in yesterday is any indication, there will be no living with it. My shoulder hurt so bad I could not go to work. It still hurts this morning, but not nearly as bad. The PT yesterday was very informative, I learned why other parts of my shoulder were aching (the other muscles making up for the weak one) and after the exercises I got ice and electro-therapy which felt good.

So, I'm steeling myself for the (seemingly) inevitable surgery.

In other news, my son and his fiance are pregnant again and it looks like the baby is a girl! They had the sonogram last week and the tech could not see any boy bits. My son says he'll believe it when he sees the baby after it's born and I can't say that I blame him. You see, the last girl baby born in our family was my daughter and that was 27 years ago. So, if my son's new baby IS a girl, it would be "breaking the jinx". heh. I hope so.

I guess that's all for now.