Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1179544
38 want to make sure you have all your prescriptions at home, ready to use once you've had your surgery. The surgeon's office sells me a cold therapy system to ease pain and swelling. Later, I find that I could have paid a lot less by shopping online. They also sell me a sling that I will be wearing most of the time, including while I sleep for the first four weeks. My surgeon also recommends a Rengenten implant made from sterilized bovine tendon. Smith Nephew, maker of the implant, claims that it accelerates the healing process over traditional surgery by six weeks, allowing patients to begin physical therapy almost immediately. The implant costs $3,000 and is not currently covered by our insurance. I felt the benefit of being able to boom six weeks earlier outweighed the cost and opt for the implant. I am advised not to push, pull, or lift anything weighing over a pound for the first six weeks following surgery! I'll also need loose-fitting shirts that open in the front as it will be impossible to pull a shirt over my head for quite a while. The simplest tasks can become incredibly complicated especially if the affected shoulder is on your dominant side (I was fortunate to have torn my non-dominant cuff). I'll need a lot of help from wife and kids after surgery. Post- surgery sleeping will take place either propped up in bed or in a recliner. I buy the ugliest recliner in the world off of Craig's List and put it out for bulky item pickup when I no longer need it. Most sources will tell you that driving isn't recommended for the first few weeks after surgery. My surgeon told me driving was fine, but I won't be driving with my hands at ten and two as the repaired shoulder won't allow my left hand to get to "ten" for many weeks. Act 2: I go under the knife on March 1, 2019. My surgeon finds not only the torn supraspinatus and biceps tendon, but also a torn subscapularis along with tendinosis, and bursitis in the joint. Two anchors are screwed in my shoulder to hold the repaired tendons in place. The surgeon finishes the job on my biceps tendon, cutting it loose, and reattaching it to one of the anchors with sutures that look like thin, braided nylon rope. The other two tendons are also reattached in a similar fashion. How could my shoulder have gotten so messed up? Rotator cuff tears often occur from wear and tear of the tendon over time. The likelihood of such injuries increases with age and from performing work overhead. Does this remind you of any boom ops you know? After only a few hours in an outpatient surgical facility, I am sent stumbling to my car so that my wife can drive me home. Now, I'm no greenhorn when it comes to pain. I have been riding and falling off of motorcycles for more than forty years. When I decide to do something, I go all in. I've had more broken bones, stitches, sprains, compressed vertebrae, etc., than I can count. And, this surgery is an arthroscopy. Little incisions should equal little pain, right? The pain management doctor prescribes a cornucopia of medications, including Lyrica, Tzanidine, Tramadol, hydrocodone, and 600mg Ibuprofen. Even armed with my own little pharmacy of meds, I constantly fantasize about cutting my arm off for the first six weeks. I'm also icing hours every day. I add topical, over-the-counter remedies like Aspercreme, arnica, and then CBD oil to the mix but still have intense stabbing omnipresent pain from my neck to my elbow. Sleeping propped up, with my arm on a pillow, in the recliner, or on the couch is almost impossible. I pace the house at all hours of the night moving from one spot to another and getting about two hours of sleep on average. After the first week, I lay off the hydrocodone because I return to driving the morning school carpool. I steer by holding the wheel with my repaired arm resting on my Photo: Rylee Rosenquist