Arthroscopic Surgery

The day finally arrived, I drove Steve to Terrace Hill Surgery, arrival time 6:30 am. He was scheduled for arthroscopic surgery for a full-thickness tear of his rotator cuff (right shoulder). They would be making four small incisions on the front and back of the shoulder area instead of a huge cut through the arm muscle, etc. After they started his IV, they came and got me. We were both fine until the anesthesiologist explained what he would be doing.

They were going to insert a breathing tube and Steve would be on a ventilator until the surgery was done. They didn't want him breathing on his own. After he left, both Steve and I were pretty shook up.

Steve started having a pasty complexion. When the nurse came in she immediately put a cold washcloth on his forehead and neck, then reclined him. His color started coming back after a few minutes, but I will say I was scared inside.

A nurse came in to ask questions before surgery (the norm) and then another nurse came running down the hallway saying, "Don't bring him back, don't bring him back yet!" Okay, that was a little unsettling, too. Turns out their sterilizer didn't work and they had to run the instruments through a 2ND time. Well, great. Now we had to wait an extra half-hour.

Finally, it was time for surgery and I went to the waiting room. After 1 hour and 40 minutes it was completed. The doctor said the tear was larger than they thought (about 1 cm), but that it went well. He was to come in the office Tuesday to be rechecked.

Steve went home in a sling that keeps his arm away from his body and a huge bandage on both front and back of his shoulder. He's done very well with only taking one (and sometimes only 1/2 of his pain pill). He took a shower yesterday, we had to take the huge bandage off which stuck to him everywhere. I paled when I saw the inside bandage on the front and couldn't look at it again (he had to take that one off). The back side wasn't as bad. He felt a lot better after being able to wash his hair and self.

Tomorrow is his recheck and we can't wait to get there. We've been eating lighter than our norm, hopefully it will show on the scales soon, huh? If not, I swear I need to get on some natural fat burners.