Today was a rough day for me, probably my worst day since the surgery. This morning I took my shower and, while drying myself off, gently bumped my right arm against the wall by mistake and immediately felt a painful POP from my shoulder… Sort of like when you crack your knuckles, but with a much bigger pop. Since then, my shoulder has felt incredibly unstable, and I’ve been having occasional painful muscle spasms throughout the day. Muscle spasms by themselves would be bad enough, but combined with the instability in the joint, these spasms have the effect of momentarily causing my shoulder to dislocate, which hurts like hell.
Luckily, I already had a follow-up appointment scheduled with my surgeon this morning to have my stitches removed. (Instead of a huge wad of dirty gauze stuck to my shoulder, I now have four Band-Aids.) I told him what happened, and he didn’t seem too concerned about it, but said we should keep an eye on it. The doc basically said that with all the swelling and such, some instability is to be expected, and that muscle spasms aren’t totally unexpected, either.
As for the pop, the surgeon felt pretty confident that his repair work should be able to withstand a minor bump in the shower, and that he had successfully tested my shoulder for full range of motion before he put it back together on the operating table (and while I was still asleep, thankfully). He would have been more concerned about my shoulder coming apart if I had fallen down or something like that.
As such, I’ve been relying heavily on my Vicodin today, which has made productivity at work almost impossible. Fortunately, the Vicodin does a good job of numbing the pain, and it does it with a minimum of dizziness, nausea, and sweating. Unfortunately, it also has the effect of pretty much knocking me unconscious for a couple hours. I spent all afternoon at the office doing everything I could just to stay awake, and getting absolutely no work done. Maybe tomorrow will be better, although I’m toying with the idea of taking the morning off. At least I haven’t had any more muscle spasms since this afternoon.
I have another appointment with my surgeon in two weeks. I’ll be happy when this whole ordeal is over.