A 3D printed part in my shoulder

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PRR

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......the nurse and me placed an arrow on the shoulder with a sharpie to make sure they did the right one ;-)....

Last trip to the back room, the nurse very pointedly asked me what I thought I was in for. Don't they know?? Then I realized they do get mix-ups, so in best layman language I said I expected to be knocked-out and my bladder lining peeled. If I had said "breast reduction" or "carpal pain" they wudda had a panic, looking for my breast/wrist and some other guy/gal with a bad bladder.
 

PRR

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They look like bread-bag ties to me.

So probably stainless steel wire twist-tying your chest together after open-chest surgery.

Yes, you should have been told strongly enough to be memorable.

You know the plastic thing which holds sock-pairs together in the store? There is a medical tie-back works the same except metal. The sales-brochure disclosed what a headache this could be for future MRI scans.
 
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Last trip to the back room, the nurse very pointedly asked me what I thought I was in for. Don't they know?? Then I realized they do get mix-ups, so in best layman language I said I expected to be knocked-out and my bladder lining peeled. If I had said "breast reduction" or "carpal pain" they wudda had a panic, looking for my breast/wrist and some other guy/gal with a bad bladder.

Yes, I lost count om how many times someone asked my name and birthday. They're very conscious of expensive ****-ups.

Jan
 
I wish you well, Jan. Recently I had some surgery and they wanted to use an epidural. I protested, wanted a general. But the surgeon persuaded me, saying that he'd deliver a shot of diazepam which might even put me into sleep anyway. I took that option, promptly went to sleep, and never noticed the operation at all........

Better than a GA.

Shoulder injuries are not common, sports, or genetics?

Hugh
 
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Hi Hugh, no as far as I know not genetics. Someone mentioned diabetes which can be a factor, and which I have mildly type 2, but the data don't match.
Maybe I'll settle for old age.

Your choice was a good one. At this point I am fighting the sedation effects on sleep which can take more than a week to disappear. 2-hr sleep nights are no fun.

Jan
 
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I made the mistake of watching a video of hand surgery before I had surgery to correct Dupuytren's Contracture -- my BP was 220/180 and the anesthesiologist talked me down from the ceiling.

Physical therapy for hands, shoulders, etc. takes a long time and patience is advised.

If I would want to play tennis with my shoulder, min. 10 months for a Grand Slam. SOIC soldering, probably next week ;-)

Jan
 
To all you cyborgs... did they give you some kind of card to show the airport screeners?

When my wife was given a radionuclide for a pet scan, they gave her a card detailing this in case we lit one of the rad detectors leaving the city. Also a card for a replaced hip at airports screening.

Jn
 
^ John, I have a bolt-on clavicle after a velodrome spill and I was told that *maybe occasionally* the stainless they used would upset an airport scanner. Has not happened yet, but me having a sweaty back from sprinting through the terminals has tripped it (TMI, never!).

Titanium hardware is used when you want the bone to graft to the hardware, and stainless is used when they don't. My hardware is all stainless, because it's very common for clavicle plates/screws to be removed, as some folks become extremely sensitive to touch over the plate (so anything with a strap is out). Mine didn't need removal so I can terrorize people with the screw heads showing through the skin on my shoulder. :D

I'm not sure what engineered plastics they're using nowadays for the wear surfaces, but this is very much an evolving field and I'm excited for when we can start growing cartilage over the prosthetics.

Edit to add: it will be different for each respective surgery (age and one's comorbidities), but I explicitly asked about how long until I could get back to using my shoulder post-surgery. Mechanically the doc said to let the bone heal around the screws for a few days and then I was essentially pain-limited (rather than any mechanical/physiological reason) as the bone fused. So I was back to using my shoulder pretty extensively ASAP, which meant minimal range of motion loss and not too much atrophy, sparing me any physical therapy needs. The medical establishment, by and large, has to be extremely conservative with regards to patient discomfort, but it's often to the rest of our body's detriment. So it's worth asking.
 
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