Rotator Cuff Replacement

[janiece]

Have any of you had this surgery? If so, how was the recovery in terms of length and did it mess up your detecting or did the urge to detect help you get moving again sooner? I need to have both of my cuffs replaced and I'm thinking it may have to be before the year is out.

Thanks!

[KenPa]

Had it done on both arms about 3 years ago, Not at the same time, The recovery was a little painful, but the Physical therapy after it was the most important. I think I wasn't able to detect for about 4- 6 weeks after it. Good Luck

[ERnurse]

Rotator Cuff repair can be a painful surgery. The recovery time is longer than most surgerys because you are dealing with a large muscle and a major joint. The most important thing at first is to not move your arm at all for several weeks afterwards. Then physical therapy is a must. I had an Ambulance wreck and had to have mine fixed about 10 years ago. If I sleep on that arm or lift something too heavy with it I can still feel it. But I'm glad I had it fixed. But again, it is painful at first, and the recovery is long. But after about a year, all of the pain with movement or lifting should be gone. As far a detecting, You'll be able to do it with the other arm, including all digging, lifting, catching yourself if you fall,ect. Just don't use you surgery arm until the Doc. say's it's ok, or you could mess it up again.

Hope this helps


Rob

[janiece]

Thanks for the info, you guys. Now I really don't want to do it. lol I have animals to take care of and would have to find someone to trek out to the country to help me take care of them. Would be difficult to do with one arm but maybe not impossible. A lot more trips back and forth.

It is a longer and more involved recovery than I'd realized. I have a friend who had one shoulder done a couple of months ago and she said she's not sure she'll be able to ride her Harley at all this season. I thought she was being wimpy but maybe she's not. lol

[janiece]

That is so true, Free. Life is a series of cycles and phases and sometimes it's easy to see where one ends and another begins and sometimes they mesh together for a while as you're moving through.

You know what? I after I read your post about your surgery being the reaason for your first detector, I realized my first one was when I was recovering from foot surgery! lol

Well, I'm sort of down in the dumps today because my machine won't be here for the weekend - one of the coils I ordered was out of stock. I'm trying to decide whether to rent a MD to soothe the savage beast within or whether to do housework and promise myself an equal number of hours with the MD next week. I need to go through things here for a charity garage sale but that is NOT what I wanted to do with the first nice weekend of the year. I also need to get one batch of soap made and it would be good if I made 3 batches. So I guess I'll be in a *insert your own expletive here* phase this weekend.

[janiece]

You sure have that right! Thinking about all the "renewal and recovery," I'm now looking forward to getting rid of a lot of usable items that I'm not using. I've been selling things on eBay for a while now and I'm going to clear all of that inventory out as well. I'm reclaiming my house! And making room for the new equipment and the goodies I find.

Next week I'll call about that shoulder surgery and see about the possibility of scheduling it for fall.

[timbuckII]

Have you considered acupuncture? I was in a car accident and thought the problem was muscle related so I went to a chiropractor who is also an acupuncturist and had helped me with back problems. He said it was my rotator cuff and explained the muscle bone relationship. When I started I could hardly lift my arm a quarter of the way to level with the floor or reach out in front of myself. Today
after the acupuncture and some simple exercises over a period of 3 or 4 months I don't even know I ever had a problem.
TC

[DonF]

My buddy is having it done right now as we speak. 8:00 am appointment, this morning. It got to point where he was in pain just lifting his arm up, so all the best for him.

Good luck to you when your time comes. I always say sooner than later. In Feb they told me I needed surgery. The next week I reported for scalpel duty..... .

[BERT-BERT]

Hi Janiece:
Howdy,I have had a bad right shoulder joint for 15 years,I didn't go to the doctor until about 2 years ago when it got so bad that I couldn't lift it up no more than 3 inches,I couldn't shift my automatic shift lever that was on the front panel of my vehicle, I had to reach over with my left hand to shift. I went to a specialist and had MRI SCAN ALSO XRAYS taken of the shoulder joint.
Here is the findings---there is severe DJD (SEVERE DEGENERATIVE JOINT DISEASE) with total loss of joint space in the glenohumeral joint with large inferohumeral osteophyte and numerous loose bodies.
They told me the only cure for it was a complete joint replacement,but I went a different route,for about 6 months,I would take a pain reducing pill (ALIEVE), then I would grit my teeth and start walking my fingers up a wall until I couldn't stand it and then go a few inches more,when I went for my daily walk as I passed a tree,I would walk my fingers up the same way as I did the wall,It was torture, my shoulder muscles stayed painful then it got so bad that after about 6 months I decided to stop this therapy, but low and behold after a while my shoulder started feeling a lot better and it keep getting better,now I have the full use of my right arm,I can use it as good as my left arm and shoulder,call it a miracle or whatever you want to, I think the therapy caused the numerous loose bodies in my shoulder socket to dissolve and fixed the problem---No surgery just exercise-----BERT-BERT

[pris]

Gee Whiz, Bert-Bert! Did you ever go back to the doc to see what's goin' on in there, now? That's a pretty amazing story. No wonder you're so good at dowsing.