It's now been 10 weeks since the surgery. My supraspinatus repair has been great, I just wish I could say the same for the messing with my biceps tendon.
I've now been out of the sling four weeks and each day I get a little stronger and a little more movement back, not necessarily in the plane of motion that I want. Any kind of forwards movement requires a lot of effort and comes with a lot of pain. If I don't use momentum from my shoulder or torso to move the arm up or outwards (forwards of course), it hurts like hell and the control just isn't there.
It's causing me issues and limiting my movement and causing me pain. I'm over it. I see the surgeon in two weeks and I can't wait to get some answers. I can do pretty much anything backwards, some things sideways, but very little forwards. I can now scratch my face without bringing my head down to meet my hand, and I can touch the hair on my head too. Yesterday I managed to do up a bra on the loosest hook with both arms (almost) behind my back.
I do of course have way more movement with way less pain than I did in the previous update. I haven't taken any painkillers with any regularity since week one, aside from the odd occasion my shoulder has become furious with me and demanded them. Stress makes it ache, the cold doesn't seem to any longer and it's been a nice ten weeks of not waking up every day at 3.30am in screaming pain.
I can now type and use my mouse (and Mac) again, which is great. The iPad is fabulous and I'll be forever grateful to Apple for it, but I've missed a keyboard and mouse. I've missed the raised bouncy buttons of my wireless keyboard and the ability to whack out a sentence at 70wpm. I've missed being able to right-click, hold down keys, do some things online that you just can't do on an iPad or iPhone, and am generally enjoying Mountain Lion too.
On the plus side, after seeing the surgeon on October 4th, I should be cleared to start strength training with therabands, providing I can get my dang arm over my head. The physio gave me a pulley last week so I could start passive overhead ROM. It's boring but necessary, and hurts like heck. Fun times.
My idea of a ragey night now involves a hot wheat pack before exercises, a nice cold ice pack after the exercises, and a skinny hot chocolate with which to wash down my myriad of pills. I swear the glucosamine and chondroitin are helping with my recovery, everything else is just for my health. I take a COQ10, multivitamin, metformin for my PCOS and diabtetes, Vitamin D becuase i'm a D deficient diabetic, and two glucosamines.
I've been on glucosamine since my major knee surgery in 2005. I stayed on it because the surgeon said it works - and he's right. Without it, I can barely walk with the pain from my knees - I'm practically crippled without it. I know it is helping with my shoulder too, I just wish it would hurry up and sort out the long head of my biceps tendon.
I'm also planning and slowly saving for a nice treat next year - a couple of weeks in Malaysia and Singapore. I haven't had an actual holiday in over five years and to be honest, I'm over it! This time five years ago, I was in Singapore, on my maiden voyage to Asia. It was amazing!
I miss Singapore like crazy, I had such a great time and have so many great memories. I adore Malaysia too, so I'm going to fly from Melbourne to Langkawi via KL for a couple of days. Then I'm flying to Penang for a couple of days before going back to Borneo - only this time I'm going to Sarawak instead of Sabah, and staying a couple of days in Kuching (Malay for Cat).
From Kuching I'm flying to Johor Bahru, as it was half the price of flying into Singapore and it's just over the causeway bridge from my beloved Lion City. I'll have a night or two in JB where I'll be visiting Legoland Malaysia, doing a speedboat ride and then a Straits of Johor crusie on a three storey ship with Karaoke and a buffet dinner, then I'll bus over to Singapore for MYR3 (about 90c Aussie) for a couple of days, then bus back to JB and either overnight train or fly back to KL for a couple of days (with a side trip to Melaka), then head back to Melbourne.
Air Asia had a well-timed sale last week and I had flight credit for cancelling my flights for my planned trip this year, which was canned due to my surgery. So, I purchased three internal flights from Langkawi to Penang, Penang to Kuching and Kuching to JB. Score! Now I just need a return Melbourne/KL and a KL/Langkawi and we're set!
I'm already researching and planning and budgeting etc. I had it all planned for this year and then had to pull the pin, so I just need to update prices and plan for a few new bits and pieces (like Legoland which only opened two weeks ago). I'm doing fllghts, hotels/hostels, transport and food as cheaply as possible, as I want some spending money for the Ramadan night markets and Petaling Street, and plan to save my shopping until the end of my trip in Singapore and KL. I'm going to travel the first ten days with just a carry on bag, then smash the shopping! By then I'll be tiny and able to fit into Singapore clothes.
Other than that, I have a new job as manager of a brand new gym not far from home. We're opening next month and between that and the physio and the holiday planning, I don't have a life. LOL.
And that's all for now folks.
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