Another shoulder surgery.

Right shoulder started acting up last fall. 20 years ago I had a chronic dislocation fixed. the procedure, a bristow, was the gold standard at the time. They cut some bones, move some ligaments and use a screw to hold it all together.

The original surgeon was very busy so I went to another. This guy was clueless, staff had never seen a bristow! He shot some hydrocortizone in it and sent me on my way. That didn't last long and I got in to see the original surgeon.

He is a great guy and when he got the report from the other doc he said, we're gonna here from Scott again. He joked that most of the other folks weren't even born when I had the orginal surgery done, man did that make me feel old http://adrsupport.org/groupee_common...icon_smile.gif

Well to make a long story longer. He saw me, got an mri, couldn't see jack cause of the screw and put me in the surgery schedule for the next day.

Two torn ligaments, back side of the shoulder socket blown out, bone chip in the joint AND the screw was bent! The surgery was all pretty basic except for the screw. The head stripped out and he had to open the whole thing up and use a pair of pliers to remove the screw (of course that required a "screw removal kit" for which the hospital gets about a 1000$ AND I didn't get to keep the pliers!)

Ever tried to remove a bent screw from a piece of wood? Imagine having to reach thru your chest all the way to the inside of your shoulder blade and grab the darn thing. Oh well. I am 5 weeks out and doing good, loose the sling next week and begin PT. In 5 more weeks I will be allowed to go out and play. Somedays gettin old stinks ;-)

Wow Scott... sounds pretty bad.

I've been in the OR for some hardware removal procedures. We would like to think of our surgery as delicate operations with everything happening as expected... but it can be pretty brutal. Your bent screw in a board analogy works well, but you have to put the board inside your body and surround it with tissues that you don't want damaged.... that block the view of what's being worked on.... not a pretty sight.

I hope to hear great things about your recovery and your next adventure. Someday, I'll get up to Alaska and you'll have to take me snowmobiling into the back country!

Mark

When I worked in Neurosurgery and had to intern in the OR, seeing the Craftsman tools used to drill burr holes in the skull and see the top of the skull removed.. somehow I knew surgical nursing wasn't my calling~

Your shoulder surgery sounded kinda brutal.. I sure hope the recovery has been much less than that~ and ditto on the getting old statement~

Glad to hear you're doing well.. guess it took a while to be able to say that (?) and wishing you a good rehab with PT, hope this will be your final shoulder surgery~ BTW, hope your spine is doing well too! Maria

Having had both rotator cuffs repaired in separate surgeries over the past two years,(but without the screw-up), my heart goes out to you. As you know, the rehab won't be a walk in the park either--just keep your motivation high! Sure hope that for $1000, the screw-removal kit was made of platinum...melted down, might have made some nice jewelry...

Ouch!! Gee, how nice to see skulls lifted to show brains.

Good luck. - ans