Tag Archives: surgery

Back To The Grind

Today was my second day back at work; my first day back in the office was so tiring that I ended up in bed at 8:30 pm and I was only there for about 6 ½ hours.

It was very mentally stimulating though because I was asked many, many, many times what happened and how I’m doing etc. Being ‘on‘ and engaging was mentally tiring and then traveling to the clinic to find out the results of my MRI didn’t do me any favours either.

The good news of the day yesterday was that surgery on my shoulder is not required. Two more weeks of wearing this brace and then 2+ months of physiotherapy and I’ll be tip-top. My rotator cuff was not torn and the bone fracture in my socket (I don’t know the technical term of where the fracture is) apparently looks like it hasn’t changed or grown larger and should heal on its own.

Today, I started doing a lot more work. I should maybe be a lot more tired than I am but I think that, in a way, the work was less stressful and helped me to be ‘off‘ a little. I am also re-learning my job since I was relatively new to the position before having my seizure and was then on Short Term Disability for a month.

My biggest point of contention is that I’m now a one-handed typist. Specifically, a one-finger typist and I was a relatively adept typist with two hands. Now, I’m ridiculously slow and it pisses me off.

Both yesterday and today were challenging though. I wanted a drink at the end of the day… not a real hardcore craving but just the feeling that a drink would be nice to relax. Regardless, the feeling was fleeting and I maintained my sobriety. It’s been 30 days since my last drink and I’m feeling proud of that and it’s something I want to maintain.

This is reading to be a very short, disjointed collection of anecdotes rather than some kind of proper blog posting. I think this is a signal that I’m maybe more tired than I thought. Time for me to close this off before I crater completely.

Out of joint.

It’s called a Posterior Dislocation.

Basically, the upper joint on my humerus was forced out of its socket in the shoulder towards the back rather than out the front like the majority of dislocations tend to occur. I can’t say from personal experience whether one is more painful than the other as this is the first time I’ve ever dislocated my shoulder. All I can say is that it hurt… A LOT.

The real question is with respect to the severity of the damage I’ve done. Have I torn my rotator cuff? Only an MRI will tell me and that’s something that I’m booked in for tomorrow evening. From there, I find out if I have to go under the knife to repair it. The suspense is killing me, I swear.

The Exit Of The Molars

"I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse."

For my whole life, my 3rd molars (otherwise known as ‘wisdom teeth’) have been intact within my mouth. The top teeth had erupted long ago and were impacted, facing outwards. The bottom teeth were also impacted although they hadn’t really erupted.

They’d been hurting for a while and I was looking at doing some kind of orthodontics so it became time for those excess teeth to come out.

This morning, I finally had those teeth out. I was put under general anaesthetic and awoke around an hour later less four teeth. And, wow, that medication was pretty awesome. But once the anaesthetic wore off and the numbing agent in my mouth started to come out… there was a whole lot of hurt there.

I mean, I’d had surgery there. Four teeth yanked by whatever means necessary and then my gums, one of the more tender parts of your body, were stitched in four separate spots. So where there’s hurt, there is guaranteed to be a little swelling.

Or, a lot.

I’d put some ice on my face but there wasn’t anything to keep my face from swelling up and making me look like a chipmunk. Rather than trying to imitate a rodent, I’ve chosen to mimic Don Corleone. Poorly.

“Some day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me.”

I’m hoping that the swelling goes down over the night. And I’m also hoping that my mouth stops hurting so fucking much because I’m really sick of eating apple sauce and drinking beef broth or bottles of Ensure. Right now, I’d kill for… well… anything solid. Mmm… food.