One Year (and 18 days)

So, its officially been over a year since surgery. I continue to do very well, and though I still struggle sometimes with endurance, coordination and tightness in my arm, I am progressing very steadily, which I am very happy with. The endurance and coordination are more full arm related, and surprisingly, the tightness that I get most tends to be in my forearm, but in reality, even those things are very minor. Oftentimes, I forget I had the issues that I did. I mean, the only reason it really comes up  now is that  I am currently taking one Freshman class at school this semester, because it was one of the two classes I didn't take the semester I had surgery. But, after this semester, I will be completely caught up, and will be able to move on from the ordeal further. I'm not saying I will try to forget the experience by any means, but it won't be something that affects my everyday life anymore.

I'm not sure I have ever said this here, but I was expected to get about 80% use back in my shoulder. Now, you may think, she was probably so excited to hear that after a year in a sling. You would to be wrong. I know that sounds weird, I mean, I had been told by multiple doctors that there was nothing they could do nothing for me, that this may be permanent. But, for some reason, it never affected me the way that hearing 80% did. Maybe I was in denial of what was happening to me. But really, I think the whole time I thought it was just I hadn't found the right doctor yet. To hear the right doctor, the expert, say 80%, crushed me. With every other appointment, I was just frustrated with the lack of knowledge about what was going on. With this appointment, I had officially lost something that I would probably never get back. In my head, I had not only lost 20% of my shoulder use, I had also lost the possibility of normal. I mean, usually I think that normal is overrated, but in this situation, that was not the case. I eventually got more used to the 80% idea in the months leading up to and after the surgery, and became grateful for what I had, but I always had that hope of 100%. Now, I have realized that I have the chance of getting that 100%. Out of any of the grades I have gotten in my life, the 95% I have in the area of Left Shoulder Post 2006, with the possibility of a 100%, is the one I am most happy about.

Ten Months and an Anniversary

So, its a little late (but only by about a week) but last week was the two year anniversary of the sled crash. That was the beginning of 14 months in a sling, which sucked. However, it was also the first step in finding a solution to the overall problem, otherwise I may have settled and continued on with a mediocre at best shoulder that I thought couldn't be fixed. Anyway, its definitely a day to remember, whether good or bad.

The good news is, ten months out my shoulder is still doing very well. This winter I was able to ski with two arms for the first time in two years, which I was afraid would take some practice after a season of one armed skiing, but I seemed to have picked up where I left off. However, skiing definitely gets the whole body working, and it definitely made my arm (and whole body) quite sore, which was not something I expected. Anyway, with the addition of Advil for a day or two, I was fine.

Otherwise, the shoulder is doing great. I still get very tight in my lower arm sometimes but I think the only thing I truly struggle with is coordination. When I say that I struggle with coordination, what I mean is, I can do pretty much anything with my arm that I want or need to, but somethings still take a lot of thought. Things like lifting something over my head, or using silverware, or connecting circuits (something I have to do on a regular basis) are challenging, and not really for physical reasons. Actually, from that list, lifting things over my head is the easiest by far, and that was on the list of things that might not happen. On the other hand, holding a piece of food down with a fork is probably one of the hardest things I have to do. This is very frustrating. Think of any sport that you have watched, but haven't really played to any real extent. It looks great, and you understand the concept, but when you actually try it, its a disaster. That's my left hand trying to hold a fork. Anyway, it takes a lot of practice, and a lot of reminding myself that my arm is basically ten months old. Also, let's face it, I'm not a very coordinated person. At all. So, maybe in a couple of months, when my arm will be a whole year old, maybe then I'll have it down. But if that's my only complaint a year out, then I'll be fine with that, too.

6 Months Out

It has been a while (like 4 months) since I have updated on my progress, so here's an update about what has happened in that time. I was officially discharged from physical therapy in early June. It was a little earlier than planned, but I had a full summer ahead of me, and I did not have time to be driving to Boston and back. By that time I had reached nearly full range of motion (I was off by a few degrees), but was still working on strength and endurance. In mid-June, after a week long family trip to Ireland, I started my summer job working at an all boys overnight summer camp.

There is no better strength and endurance training than working at an all boys overnight camp. On top of my normal physical therapy, which I continued on my own, I was doing everything from making lanyards to frog catching to archery, and even some heavy lifting (wooden war canoes are not light). The only thing I didn't do that I might have done I had 2 perfect shoulders my whole life was to help lift the giant dock sections out of the lake, I decided that was a little overkill. Instead, I stuck to moving cinder blocks and making sure the docks in the water didn't float away. Of course, stories had to be told about how I got the scars. It turns out I was once a professional MMA fighter. My shoulder wasn't perfect the whole time, there were a lot of days that I was pretty sore and very happy that ibuprofen existed. But sore is okay, I mean, I basically took a year off from physical activity and threw myself into a situation where that is all I did. To be honest, there were plenty of days where my shoulder was not the only part of my body that was sore.

After camp, we drove back to Colorado (our new home base) where I spent a month getting to know the area. There, I also had a check up and two physical therapy appointments for both shoulders. I now have some new exercises to further strengthen some of the muscles in the back of my shoulders and  ensure that both shoulders are in perfect condition. They have been working very well in eliminating the few small issues of random tightness and mild pain that I was having in both shoulders about once a week before starting them. Since then, I have started school again, with a slightly revised schedule because of not taking 2 classes last semester. This basically means a heavier class load this semester, but it's not to bad, and I like all my classes. Overall, my shoulder is doing really well and doesn't really affect my life much anymore apart from the at home physical therapy, and in my opinion, those 15 minutes a day are definitely worth it.

Follow-up Appointment

I am two months out of surgery. Yesterday we flew out to Lexington for my follow-up appointment this morning. Though I definitely still have a lot of work I do, I am doing better than they expected! I still have trouble with properly raising my arm above my shoulder, but I knew that, and am just starting to work on it in Physical Therapy. My strength in the muscles attached to my scapula is very good, and impressed Dr. Kibler (my surgeon). He says that this indicates a very good, strong attachment of all my muscles in the area. My AC Joint was also very stable. The challenge now will be learning how to do more with my shoulder, strengthening it, and then building endurance. I got permission to swim now, though not freestyle or back stroke, and in another month I am allowed to canoe, paddleboard, etc. This is very exciting as previously, I was only walking/hiking, which is fun, but it will be nice to be able to mix it up some.

They did say that people tend to get frustrated that they can't do things around month 3 or 4, because of lack of strength/endurance, so I will have to continue to be aware of my situation and know that it will get better as time goes on. In other exciting news, Dr. Kibler and Aaron's (program coordinator) study on scapular muscle detachment was approved for publishing. This is very exciting as their work is now recognized and legitimate to the medical world, helping them and people with these injuries. Overall, it was a very exciting and uplifting appointment.

Sling Freedom Day

Disclaimer: I am usually not one to take "selfies" in the
 mirror with my phone, but I was excited,
so you are going to have to forgive me.  

Today was my first day going to Physical Therapy at Boston Children's Hospital (they have been following me throughout the years and have excellent Physical Therapists). Every thing went very well. Most importantly, today is the first day in 14 months that I can stop wearing a sling with out significant pain or worry about my shoulder! For this reason, I am calling it Sling Freedom Day. Basically, it is one of the best and most exciting days in the past year. Now, I cant really do much with my arm, I can't raise it, or lift much of anything, but I can use my elbow and hand (if I remember that I have them). Before you think that I can basically do nothing, remember that my previous brace was very bulky, and I had to wear it 24/7. So, here is a list of things I can do as of today:

Type normally
Double thumbs up
Wave (though awkwardly) with my left hand
Walk around with out getting stared at or asked about my shoulder
Plug both ears when the firetrucks/ambulances go by me on the street
Fit into a normal public bathroom stall (my brace was to bulky to do this)
Change by myself!
SLEEP! (Without my brace on, I'm sure tonight I will sleep better than I have in five weeks)

Okay, so, I know, those all seem pretty easy, and it may be unusual to get so excited about these things, but I haven't been able to do this stuff in over a year, and this is just the beginning.

Back to School

This Tuesday, three weeks after surgery, I returned to school. I am returning home this weekend as I am not fully independent yet and it is Easter weekend. Next Tuesday, I should be able to take off my brace, allowing me to be more independent, this way, I will not have to go home Friday-Mondays. I hope to be caught up with all of my school work by next week.

Doing Well

Everything is going really well. I was only on narcotics for 4.5 days, which for this surgery is really great. I got my staples out Monday (I had 30) and was able to start very light PT Tuesday (the staples came out a little early, so we had to wait another day to make sure everything was good to go). Tuesday I was also allowed to shower for the first time after surgery. It was a very long wait and I was very excited to be able to. Now it's just a lot of sitting around and waiting until I can actually do stuff, which can get incredibly boring. There is definitely a time where watching TV is no longer entertaining no matter what you're watching, but school starts back up soon, so I should have something to do once that happens. At the moment we are trying to see if I can start going back part-time, but we have a little more planning to do for that to take place.