Going under the knife tomorrow for a rotator cuff tear

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
I switched to Ibuprofen yesterday afternoon, and today I've not taken anything for pain yet.

Has anyone had this surgery ?

How long till you were able to use your arm to do light work, like soldering;).

Yes, I'll wait till I see the nurse and ask her, was just wondering.
 

PRR

Member
Joined 2003
Paid Member
...Yes, I'll wait till I see the nurse and ask her...

Why? Does she solder? :rolleyes:

My insights from other knife-work:

1) your body can guide you. If it doesn't want to, don't.

2) after a week+, your brain gets ahead of your body. A month after a gut filet I was lifting heavy amps. This was probably too soon.

Of course if you need to plan your work,
bb_table.gif
"start soldering May 3rd", you can't really plan ahead with any certainty. Getting notes from other cuff-work patients is a guide, but everybody (and their cuff-damage, and their surgeon) is different. For a prostate biopsy I was advised to have a driver with a large back seat to moan into on the way home. Actually I felt fine and drove my driver home.
 
Those pain meds are good for allowing some sleep during the first few days, but the clear and apparent side effect of becoming constipated is rarely considered, and the misery nearly makes it not worth it if you don't take counter measures. A decent doctor would address this, unfortunately most do not.
Hope you are sleeping well enough without...
 
I switched to Ibuprofen yesterday afternoon, and today I've not taken anything for pain yet.

Has anyone had this surgery ?

How long till you were able to use your arm to do light work, like soldering;).

Yes, I'll wait till I see the nurse and ask her, was just wondering.

I'm sure that you know by now that the nerve block was the right choice. :)

Do the rehab work, and all will be good.
 

PRR

Member
Joined 2003
Paid Member
> For a prostate biopsy you take the pain meds BEFORE the procedure.

That was the pain.

My butt-end was fine. I was so Novocained-up that I couldn't pee for over 8 hours.

Another job (I should just get a zipper), they gave me opiates for a key-hole gall-bladder job. Heck, I've made bigger wounds in myself with uglier chunks of metal. Opiates were complete over-drugging. (I didn't even get the script filled.)
 
I had my cuff re-sewn last fall. I slept in the living room in a recliner for about a month. First week was zero movement. I wore the sling for about three weeks. As long as you are not moving your shoulder, you should be able to do normal things with your hands after a week or two.

If you are hardly taking pain pills, you did a lot better than me. 60 oxys the first 2 weeks. It was rough (from what I remember anyways!). I don;t think I could have slept without them. I wish they would have offered me the nerve block, I just went under with general anesthetic. PT was hard but it definitely worked. Six months later and I am still doing the exercises, and I still get a little pain. It is better than it was though!

Get better - see if Cootie Browns will deliver! They had some all star sammiches last time I was there....

-Geoff
 
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.