Week 16 bicep tenodesis update / SAD / DCE

It is now 16 weeks since my major surgery. Last night during my strengthening exercises, I did 5lb weights on both arms, when I did the arm curl. It felt like my left arm was lifting 10lbs to the 5lb weight on my right arm, so we do have strength issues there. And I can't just power lift, because I am looking for toning. Then, once I get my muscle toned, I can start to do heavier weights. It was the first time I tried the 5lb weight on my left arm, and boy was it hard. I only was about to do 20 reps. I will shoot for 30 reps tomorrow. (I do strengthening every day).

On another note, my "sleeper stretch" is improving. I am almost able to put my arm all the way to the ground, just a few inches to go. I have my next physical therapy appointment in a week and a half, and I hope to be able to be close enough to show off!!

I am in pain still. A lot of movements in my left arm cause pain. But, I have to say that it isn't excruciating like it was before the surgery. And, I almost have full range of motion, which is nice. It is just that my arms are so weak that I have trouble with certain movements. Don't know how I am going to paint walls this weekend!!!

I am sleeping better. While I still have a lot of pain at night, and especially in the morning, it IS decreasing. slowly but surely.

Where I am most tender still is the tops of my shoulders, where the acromium is, where they cut off the end of the clavicle. This is very tender on both shoulders, and like I mentioned in a few earlier posts, it is because of the ligament that is up there, I can't remember the name. It is traumatized from the surgery and can realistically take up to 8 months (one person said 6 months, the other said 8 months, so what I want to hear is the 6 month one. That way in 3 months I can hope to have both shoulders back to normal!)

I can't wait. This is a struggle, a daily battle. I am exhausted from all the things I have to do, on top of the physical therapy. If I miss a day of physical therapy I REALLY feel it. It is amazing the difference that it makes. And, I THINK the pain is slowly going away. It is hard to tell when you live with it day after day, hour after hour, minute after minute. I know my range of motion IS getting better, and my strength is getting better as well.

I will just keep on keeping on!

My ultimate goal is to be able to work my garden come spring, and not have ANY pain associated with my shoulders. I can't wait!

week 15 Bicep Tenodesis update!

I can't believe how bad I have been this week! With my brother and his family driving from Washington State to Minnesota for the week, I have been very lax in my physical therapy. I maybe did 1/2 of 1 session every day, vs. 2 sessions twice a day. And, I didn't do any strengthening.

And, I am feeling it. A lot of stiffness. More pain during the night/morning. When you are so exhausted, and dead on your feet from all the sightseeing, cooking, visiting, etc. the last thing on your mind is to go through an hour of stretches and strengthening exercises.

So, I am back to the grindstone. Still exhausted, but by Monday I will be on a roll again (this weekend I am playing catch up, focusing mostly on my stretches!!)

I have almost full use of both arms now. 15 weeks post op, and while I have tenderness during the day and pain during the night, and of course, stiffness in the morning, I am able to open heavy doors with either arm, carry bags, lift things, etc. What limits me now is my strength (which I am slowly working on).

I can now reach behind my back with both arms, even though it is still painful. That stretch with my left arm, and the one where I bring my arm across my front, to the other shoulder, to stretch, are still the most painful stretches that I do.

I definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel. Even though I am tight and stiff from not doing my physical therapy this week, (well, for 5 days since my appt on Monday where the PT said I was doing well), the pain is actually getting better, day by day. little by little.

Next week I hope to have a better update for you!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Rebecca

left shoulder: bicep tenodesis, subacromial decompression, and distal clavicle excision 8/12/2010
right shoulder: subacromial decompression and distal clavicle excision 9/16/2010

Week 14: Bicep tenodesis and SAD/DCE

I am doing good. Moving right along on my recovery. Not much difference to report this week, except that I started seeing an S.O.T. chiropractor about 2 weeks ago, and that has made a remarkable difference in my range of motion with his active release techniques.

I have to admit I have been slacking off the past few days on my physical therapy. I have basically been doing the stretches to make sure that I can go as far as I have been able to go previously, and then I move on to the next one. I can't believe how busy I have been, and as a result, have been so exhausted all I can think about is sleep.

So, I have to get back on the bandwagon. Physical therapy is key!

My range of motion is getting a lot better. The pain is decreasing. The pain at night is still pretty bad, and I can't get comfortable, but oh well. That will decrease as time goes on, I just know it! I can reach behind my back now, but not move my arm up my back very far (my left arm). With my right arm, I can go halfway up my back. I am still working on those specific stretches. Those are the stretches that I have been slacking off on, mostly. And, Steve has been helping me with the sleeper stretch.

I am up to 2lbs on my left arm, and 3 lbs on my right arm, while doing most of the shoulder strengthening exercises. I know, that doesn't sound like a lot, especially after 3 months since surgery. But, well, you don't really go much more than that at all, ever. And with the arm curls, I am up to 5lbs on my right arm, and 3 lbs on my left, so that is good. I can see some muscle definition starting to show. Woohoo!

Long hard process. Tough. Painful. You have to be persistent. And patient. And follow the instructions of the physical therapist and the OS.

Oh, just a note... I am not icing very much at all anymore, maybe a couple times a week, at night. The doc said that there was really no need to at this point now.

The most painful things for me are the tricep muscle where it meets the teres minor rotator cuff muscle.(in my left arm). I am still using Soothanol X2 before bed and sometimes in the morning. And in the morning I am taking either Aleve or Advil, but only once per day. I know I should take it more often, but it just isn't happening, I forget, or am too busy to think about it. Then before bed I am too tired to go all the way downstairs to get it, and already brushed my teeth and can't take on an empty stomach, so I just say oh well, and go to sleep.

I have been using the Far Infrared Sauna about 4x a week.

So that is my latest report. My thoracic spine area has been causing me pain, but I don't know if it is still the chronic pain that I experienced before my surgery, or temporary. I did have a rib pop out early last week, but the chiro put it back in and it was the most amazing feeling of relief. But I still have some muscle pain between my shoulder blades.

Week 13 post op bicep tenodesis and subacromial decompression

Is week 13 unlucky? I don't know, but I am sure stiff and sore!

I have realized a few things:

1) if I miss a morning or evening of doing my physical therapy exercises, or if I don't do all the exercises (especially the sleeper stretch, which is the "death stretch"), then I am going to be extra stiff the next day

2) while it seems like the pain isn't going away, yet, I do have to acknowledge that I am doing MORE -- more weights on my strengthening days, more repetitions. So all in all, I would say I am improving.

3) alternative therapies do help. For example, I started seeing an S.O.T. chiropractor last week, and I walk away from his office feeling great. And the medical massage that I get every other week seem to help, as well.

I am borrowing a TENS unit from a colleague who had a frozen shoulder a few years ago. I wake up being super sore after using it, like I had a huge workout the night before.

I also had some issues with my thoracic area, a rib had popped out, which caused a lot of pain in the surrounding muscle groups around my shoulder blade.

But, overall I am doing good. Sleeping still sucks big time. I am not taking any pain killers at night, but I do take an anti-inflammatory in the morning with breakfast. I switch back and forth from advil and aleve. Last night I didn't do my stretches -- I did a sauna, but I got home late and had so much to do that I scrimped and cut out my stretches. Bad mistake. This morning when I did them, I was super stiff!! I have to remember not to do that anymore. Even if it means going to bed later, I have to do my stretches. That is key!! Even more important than sleep!

The only movements where I do not have full range of motion in, are putting my left arm behind my back to try to scratch my back, for example. That is a very difficult move. I can get my arm behind my back, with the help of my other arm, or with the wand. Another movement that hurts is bringing my arm across the front of my body to the other shoulder. I can do that, almost full range of motion, but it hurts like heck!! And not a stretching too much kind of hurt, but real, honest to goodness pain!!

Well, I am 13 weeks out. The doc says I am going along just fine for the time it has been. I am ready for it to be a month from now... I hope I am feeling amazing then! Week 17 will be my magic week!

My right shoulder hurts near the acromium (up at the top of the shoulder where they cut the clavicle and took out the bursa). That will take months to stop being so tender. I am ready for that to be done, now! It has been 8 weeks now, and from what I have read and heard, it is doing fantastic. Full range of motion, not much pain at all doing the movements I do, and it is easily bearable.

Week 12 bicep tenodesis post op left shoulder and week 7 SAD/DCE right shoulder

I am crazy. Well, those who know me already know that. It is those little quirks that make each of us so lovable (yeah, right!)

Why am I crazy? Well, I had my shoulder surgeries only 5 weeks apart. Looking back on that, I can't believe I did it.

I have gotten to my 12 week post op on my left shoulder. This is a big deal because it takes about 12 weeks to heal the bone where the screws were screwed in. Now, my chances of pulling out the screws are almost nil (well, probably 100% nil because the screws disintegrate and become part of the bone). I can, however, still injure the bicep muscle or what's left of the LH bicep tendon. I don't think I will, they say I really have to TRY and do something drastic to do it. But at least now I can start doing arm curls and strengthening the muscle (slowly).

But... here is the bad news. I went to my post op appt on Monday and got some bad news. My shoulder capsule is very tight (the beginning of frozen shoulder!!) Very painful. I don't know if the pain I am experience now from certain stretches is the worst I have had since my surgery, since the pain I have had in the past was pretty bad, but it is up there. I don't even know how to explain it. The bone beneath my tricep and deltoid muscles is just extremely painful, deep inside. And, my range of motion is much more limited than it was a week ago. So I am extremely worried about that.

My thoughts as to what happened are, after I injured my arm in my sleep last Wednesday night (8 days ago), that when I did my stretches, I overcompensated, not stretching that area like I should have. I don't know how to explain without physically showing someone, but imagine your shoulder in a shrug. I can lift my arm up without limitations if I do the shrug. And inadvertently I have been doing that the past week, vs. having my shoulder blade down while I do my exercises, causing the shoulder capsule to tighten. Oh boy that is painful. So, I am working diligently on my stretches so I don't get a frozen shoulder.

Sleeping is still very painful. I didn't like them telling me that my shoulder will probably be painful during the night for the next 6-12 months. Who wants to hear that!! Yikes!

It definitely is harder than I thought it would be.

But I will keep going. Keep trudging on. I am not afraid of hard work.

11 weeks post op today!! Bicep Tenodesis, SAD and DCE

Today marks 11 weeks since my bicep tenodesis surgery.

Since this past Monday (and I don't know whether it was the new stretches I got assigned from the physical therapist, or whether it was the magic "10.5 weeks since surgery") I have seen a tremendous improvement. It was like a light switch just flipped on. I have such an amazing amount of range of motion (passive), and am slowly regaining the strength.

Except for one thing. Last night I tweaked my arm while I was sleeping. I was laying on my back with my arm around a pillow near the side of the bed, and it fell off (my arm -- not off my body, but off the pillow) and overextended as it fell toward the floor, jarring me awake with a cry.

I am going to assume I just tweaked some muscles and that in a day or two it will be all better.

The time it takes (approximately) for the bicep tenodesis to heal, is 12 weeks. Then, the next 12 weeks after that is focusing on strengthening and completely getting my range of motion and strength back. I understand I won't be able to be as strong as I was in my heyday (in my bicep muscle) but no worries on that.

One more week until I hit that magical 12 week mark!

I am so excited. I am still having trouble sleeping, it is very painful, but I am off all my painkillers, and only take Aleve or Advil when necessary (about 1x every two days it seems now).

My range of motion is about the same as it was before surgery now, so that is something. The pain may also be about the same, but of course it is a different kind of pain -- soreness vs. pain with movements. And it gets better every day!

I am still pretty cautious about what I do, but I am slowly doing more. Starting to lift things with both hands vs. only using my right hand, starting to maybe lift a pot or pan in the kitchen with only my left hand. Things like that.

And, I am very serious about my physical therapy. I do stretches every morning, and evening, and I do strengthening like I am supposed to do, every other day. It does seem like a long time, and patience is an issue with me, but I have to keep on keeping on, and focus on the long term effects, vs. what I want NOW.

My right shoulder is now 6 weeks post op on the subacromial decompression (SAD) and Distal Clavicle Excision (DCE). I have full range of motion and am doing weights up to 3lbs on my strengthening (not the rotator cuff muscles, that is set at 2 lbs, no need to ever go more than that -- but the arm curls I am at 3lbs now, and hope to move up to 5 lbs within a week). I have a lot of tenderness on the top of the shoulder, where the acromium and clavicle meet. But as I mentioned before in previous posts, that was to be expected and it may take a few months more to have that fully be gone. And, other than that, the pain is completely gone in my right shoulder, which is great.

My fears? Yes, I still have them. I fear still that I will get a frozen shoulder. I know that is a silly thing to fear, as I am very active and consistently do my stretching and physical therapy. But I still worry.

I also worry that the numbness in my left arm near one of the incisions will never go away, and it will stay like that forever.

My left elbow hurts, too, as a result of all the stretching that I am doing, it is carrying the brunt of the weight from over compensating for my shoulder. So the tendons around my elbow are very sore and right now, it hurts more than my shoulders!! But I have been told that once I regain my strength in my shoulder and the elbow stops overcompensating, then it will go away. Let's hope! It would be sad to fix one problem only to cause another.

So, my goal of being at full range of motion by the end of the month... I actually still may be able to achieve it, I am almost there now! (Passively, which means when I use the wand for range of motion exercises, I guide the stretch with my other hand). I cannot do the stretches actively yet, at least most of them. But who knows, at the rate I have progressed these past 3 days, I just might! I can put my arm straight over my head perfectly now, but not hold it there long because it is still weak... with the wand I can hold it there forever! And I can now get it behind my back, but not up to my shoulder blades yet, unless I use a door handle or something to help. So that is cool.

My ultimate goal is to have everything "back to normal" by Thanksgiving. I have a lot of cooking to do! This includes strength and range of motion. I understand it will take months to achieve my max strength, what I mean is so that I can perform my daily tasks with ease.

I can do it!!

I also understand it will probably take 6 months to a year before I can sleep without pain. Of course I would like it to be closer to 6 months, so I will pray for that!

surgery updates -- 9 weeks and 4 weeks post op bicep tenodesis and SAD/DCLE

I am sore. I understand that the soft tissue in the body, after the trauma of surgery, takes months to heal. So I am definitely learning patience and determination.

It has been 9 weeks since my bicep tenodesis in my left shoulder. I know it takes 12 weeks for the bone to heal, and I am almost there, I can't wait! Only 3 more weeks!! Then I can start strengthening the bicep (I think!) Right now my arm is skinny and flat, looks like a child's arm (haha!) I am taking narcotics sparingly, and then religiously doing my stretching.

I am still in pain. For any of you reading this, and thinking about doing the surgery, or wondering what is going to happen when you have the surgery - -well, every body is different. I was in decent health and shape before my surgery. But, I am in a lot of pain now. I know the pain will go away, and it is better than it was a week ago, or two weeks ago, or a month ago. But it is a long, painful process. It will be worth it in the end, though. I have my ups and downs, but the downs don't seem to be as bad, and slowly getting better. It is no walk in the park, for sure.

In the mornings, I get out of bed in pain, and I think to myself "I don't remember it hurting this bad" and every morning I think the same thing, it is just that I went to bed without feeling the pain... and I wake up stiff and sore. Once I loosen up, do my physical therapy, put Soothanol X2 on, and ice it, I am fine.

I think the pain I should be more descriptive... it is really extreme soreness and tenderness, not jarring pain. But it is a lot of soreness and tenderness. Especially the days after I do the strengthening (I do those every other day). I do more weight on my right arm because it is only recovering from a SAD/DCE, and not the bicep tenodesis.

Another thing... my clavicle on my left side is much more prominent and tender than the one on my right side. I talked to the doc this morning (well, her P.A.) and mentioned it. She had called me back because I left a message requesting a doctor's note to bring my exercise wand on the plane with me, for my business trip next week. I called the TSA, and emailed them. They basically told me that any disabilities would be respected, but that the airport security has the final say in what I can and can't bring on the plane. The wand is only a 2' PVC pipe, weighing like 7 ounces. I suspect it could be used as a weapon, but my bags are really going to be checked in at the gate, (just not baggage claim)... not even on board with me. (regional plane). I use the wand for about an hour a day or more... for the various exercises morning and night. I don't want to mess my physical therapy up.

So... overall, I am healing. I am getting impatient though!!

I am still shooting for October 31st to regain full range of motion on my left arm. I don't know if I will succeed, but that is my goal. And if it takes longer, then so be it. But at least I have a goal to work toward. The hard ones for me are putting my arm behind my back, and also rotating my arm outward, when my elbow is tucked in to my side. But I am getting better!!!

Glad this past week is over and a new one is beginning

I have been very grumpy and moody this week, which is why I have been putting off writing. The pain is really bad in my shoulder, which really seems to encompass everything else in my life. And since I felt like I had the flu for over a week, I just figured out on Thursday night that I had a shingles outbreak. No fun. Of course, the nerve band affected goes around my left shoulder. Go figure. That most likely has been adding to my shoulder pain.

I don't know why I ever even had a shingles outbreak. I did have chicken pox when I was about 8 years old... and then my first shingles outbreak was in my early 20s. Boy did that hurt. Thankfully it is only on my left shoulder blade on my back. Steve has never had chicken pox so I need to be careful around him. Otherwise, I am getting better. But I still shouldn't get it, since I am an otherwise healthy adult!!

Ok, I started writing this 2 days ago, and now (Monday) am finishing it. Today is a much better day health wise / shoulder wise. I have a lot more mobility in my shoulder, it is amazing. I really feel it healing. I don't want to jinx anything, but 8 1/2 weeks after my bicep tenodesis, and I am doing pretty well.

I have to remember to NOT OVER DO IT! I don't want to mess anything up.

I also am afraid of getting addicted to my pain meds. So, what I am going to do is do one darvocet tonight, and then tomorrow night do none. Then the following night, a vicodin. Then the next night a darvocet again. So in any 3-day period, I am only taking 1 vicodin, and 1 darvocet. Then I will also trade off iboprofen and aleve during the day. And, keep icing!!

I am still doing stretches morning and night (the range of motion, etc). And every other day I am doing some strengthening. I think a lot of my soreness is stemming from my muscles after the strengthening. And, I am able to sleep better the past two nights. I just have to remember when I wake up in the middle of the night in pain, to move my arm, stretch it a bit, and then turn into a new position.

I will report again at the 9-week mark (which is really in just 3 days... since I waited so long for the 8-week update!!

Physical Therapy -- Is it worth it?

I used to ask myself whether physical therapy actually works. Here is my take on it:

There are a few different reasons for physical therapy (in my case). After chronic bursitis in my shoulders, along with rotator cuff tendinitis, bicep tendinitis, neural tension, dyskinesis, etc. All these issues became extremely painful to deal with. I had been going to a rolfer, acupuncturist, 3 different modalities of chiropractic, massage therapy, gua sha, etc. They seemed to help temporarily. But my quality of life was sorely affected. Finally, I was referred to a physical therapist.

There are many different types of physical therapists. One clinic I saw before, was Physicians Neck and Back Clinic. They used the Med-X (sp?) machines -- isolating your muscles and strengthening them. They have a pretty good success rate. But it wasn't for me. It caused me more pain (as it wasn't treating the problem and only focused on the back -- and they call my upper back "the neck" which bugged me, since in between my shoulder blades is NOT my neck). As it turns out the extreme pain in between my shoulder blades was affected by my rotator cuff -- it is all connected and I don't know how, but I will accept that is the case and move on (I am not in the medical field so I trust them on this).

I then went to a physical therapist's regiment of stretching and strengthening the right muscles... my rotator cuff muscles which are the sub scapularis, teres minor, infraspinadus and supraspinadus. I may have spelled some of those wrong. But strengthening those and stretching really did help my range of motion and my strength. But the pain did not go away, and it was on both shoulders. My right shoulder did have a very good result, it used to be the most painful of the two, but as it healed and consistently ranked on a pain scale, only 3-4 out of 10, it did not stay my biggest problem. My biggest problem was now my left shoulder. (This was also after getting a cortisone shot in both shoulders, it worked for a while, but then wore off).

Since I had been doing physical therapy on my shoulders for over 6 months by this time, and the pain was not gone, THEN, as a last resort, we decided to opt for surgery. By now I was seeing an orthopedic surgeon who specialized in shoulders.

Physical therapy was EXTREMELY important BEFORE surgery for a couple reasons:

1) There was a chance it could have worked -- therefore avoiding surgery!
2) It strengthened my muscles so that recovery AFTER surgery would be a LOT easier.

But, you have to remember that this is homework - - you can't NOT do your exercises and stretches. You have to be consistent and  do them frequently. Sure, it takes time. Right now I am spending about an hour and a half every day, total, on stretches and range of motion. Before my surgery I was spending at least 45 minutes on them.

So, now that we know the importance of trying physical therapy BEFORE surgery, let's talk about AFTER surgery.

This is very important. Even more so than before surgery. You have to be committed to this, or I suggest not even bothering with surgery and sticking with pain pills for the rest of your life.

I will use myself as an example. I had SAD (decompression surgery) and DCE (Distal Clavicle Excision) on both shoulders. Those are pretty simple processes and heal quickly. Basically, they remove your bursa, cut out any bone spurs, and cut off the end of your clavicle. Soreness can remain for months, but on my right shoulder (I am not even 2 weeks post op right now) I have full range of motion, and no "pain" -- just tenderness and soreness as a result of my bone being cut off, and my bursa removed. I expect soreness for the next month or so, going away gradually. Then, I will be 100% better in my right shoulder. Currently I am using my right arm to carry any heavy stuff I have to carry.

Almost seven weeks ago I had the SAD and DCE on my left shoulder (the bad shoulder) but along with that, I had a bicep tenodesis. They removed the longhead bicep tendon, and re-attached the little stub that was left, to my humerous bone. THAT was major surgery. As a result, I was in a sling for 4 weeks. I could only do basic pendulum and isometric exercises, and then the wand exercises a few weeks afterward. (Wand exercises ROCK for range of motion, by the way). Because of this, many of my muscles in this shoulder atrophied, and I lost a LOT of range of motion. Besides, my shoulder is still so weak I cannot hold my arm above my head for any length of time yet. So.. here is where physical therapy comes in. I seriously was afraid of getting a frozen shoulder. So I did my pendulum exercises from day one, although they hurt and weren't the most comfortable to do.

So the first reason why you need to do physical therapy for shoulders after your surgery is to avoid getting a frozen shoulder. The second main reason is that you can heal properly. I was told by my surgeon that the first month at least, after my surgery, would be worse than the pain before my surgery. I am now through that period, and the main pain associated with all this, is the soreness I am getting from my physical therapy. I started doing more stretching exercises, to get my range of motion back. There are some motions where it is SO painful I feel like my bone is breaking. But I am working through that. Every day, as I do my physical therapy, I go to the point of almost wanting to cry. Some days I think I am regressing. But overall, I can see how much farther I am able to stretch, and how much easier it is. Even if it is just a centimeter farther. That is improvement. It is slow going. I was told this would take 3-6 months MINIMUM. And strengthening really doesn't start until after 8 weeks... of course actually living it vs. just being told what to expect, is very different.. I wasn't prepared for the difficulty that physical therapy has become.

And, each time I am given new exercises, to do along with the previous exercises, I wonder where I am going to find time to incorporate it all into my hectic schedule. Luckily I have found that I can do some at work, in my office, while I am on a conference call or on a webinar, or during lunch or break. Sometimes it also feels like I go 3 steps forward just to take 2 steps backward. But I AM coming along.

I also sometimes regret not doing these physical therapy exercises sooner, I look back and figure maybe I didn't really need to be in a sling for 4 weeks... letting my muscles atrophy. But the more I read about a bicep tenodesis I realize that I NEED to allow my bone to heal. There are two screws holding the muscle in place right now. A fall or an accident or me trying to lift something heavy when I am not ready, could ruin the whole surgery and give me a tenotomy (where they just cut the tendon and you end up with a popeye bicep). That would be very bad. I am about 5 weeks away from when I am considered a "successful healing". (It takes 12 weeks for the bone to heal, they told me). I am glad I didn't screw it up.

So, while I am still in physical therapy, and have been for the past 8 months straight, I am very thankful for my decision to continue with it. DON'T GIVE UP. LISTEN TO WHAT THEY SAY. If they tell you to ice your injury 2-3 times per day, then DO it!! Icing sucks in Minnesota in the winter time, for sure. But Thankfully it has been warm this past summer, and by the time winter comes along I plan on being healed :)

My goals are to be fully healed in my right shoulder by the end of October. There is a ligament on the top of your shoulder that attaches the acromium and the clavicle... well, that might be sore for up to 6 months, I was told!! Sore or tender... but I already feel so much better I am thinking that will be completely gone by October. That will be 6 weeks for my right shoulder. Then I can start some strength training for all my shoulder and upper back muscles!!

My goal for my left shoulder is to have complete range of motion back by the end of October. I know that is almost 5 weeks away, and seems so far out, but I have to have goals that I can accomplish. And, since I will be starting some simple strengthening exercises, I think I will be able to do a lot more with it by then as well (i.e. carrying bags of groceries, etc). Then, by December 23rd, I want to be considered fully healed so that I can start strength training, kickboxing if I want, etc. That also is the day that I leave for my Panama vacation, and I want to be able to kayak, etc. That is almost 4 1/2 months from my surgery, and it is 100% do-able!

Yes. Physical therapy is worth it. In just a few more short months, I am going to be pain-free -- a total different quality of life. I am so excited about it. Lots of peaks and valleys throughout the process, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

6 weeks post op from bicep tenodesis left shoulder / 1 week post op from S.A.D. and D.C.E. in right shoulder

First, I have to say that my right shoulder, 1 week post op, is doing amazing from the subacromial decompression and distal clavicle excision. I have full range of motion and although I still feel tenderness and soreness when I do certain movements, I am still amazed at how quickly I feel better. It is wonderful. After my experience with my left shoulder, and how extreme that pain is, I just feel so good that my right shoulder is better than it ever has been! Woohoo! Even 2 days after surgery my range of motion was better than it had been for years!! This is something to be excited about. It was the easiest surgery I had, with a quick recovery. I am already doing all the physical therapy for that shoulder, that I have been doing for 6 weeks on my left shoulder, with no pain at all!

Now, on to the left shoulder. It is 6 weeks today since my surgery. I had the subacromial decompression and distal clavicle excision, like I did on the right shoulder, but I also had a bicep tenodesis. Basically, they removed about 3 inches of my long head bicep tendon, and then re-attached the muscle to my humerous bone with 2 screws. That was the major part of the surgery. It takes about 3-6 months to recover, and maybe up to 12 months to get the strength back.

So I am 6 weeks post op, as I mentioned. I was at the physical therapist yesterday (my first appt since my surgery LAST week on my right shoulder, but after he looked that over and had me perform different arm raises, etc. he disregarded that shoulder and focused on my left). He gave me 2 new stretches to do. These are killers. I mean, PURE AGONY. I thought I was doing well, but yesterday was my first time second guessing myself. It didn't feel good at all. One of them, is an additional wand exercise (AAROM) I searched for a picture online but couldn't find one, so we can just use our imagination. The first wand exercise (ROM) that is agony for me is the one where I take the wand (broomstick, etc) and hold it horizontal behind my back with both arms, hip width apart. Then I have to pull it up my back, as my arms stretch. My right arm is fine, but my left arm is very hard to do. I had tears streaming down my face when I first did it. And, this morning when I did it before work, I actually felt so sick that I thought I was going to throw up from the pain.

The next exercise is where I am laying on my left side with my left arm bent at the elbow at a 90 degree angle, my fist up, my triceps laying on the ground, out to the side. Then, I take my other hand (my right hand) and grab my left wrist, and slowly try to get it to the floor, toward my feet (not toward my head, I am not supposed to bend it that way, yet or maybe ever). I think I can barely get it to go 2 inches. It is extremely painful.

Well, I will do these exercises/stretches at least 2 times a day (more, if possible), and see where I am on Monday, when I have my next appointment. I WILL be taking pain killers through this next week, I know it. I cannot believe my body would produce this much pain for simple stretches. I am just weak from pain fatigue, and sometimes feel like I want to give up. BUT I WON'T !!!! I am in this for the long haul.

I will report back how I am doing next week. I sure as heck hope it is better than this week!!!!