My Experience

Since an initial injury sustained in a white water rafting accident, I have repeatedly dislocated my shoulder every few years for a total of nearly a dozen times. Nothing seemed to help, not even physical therapy. Most recently, when my shoulder came out of the socket while I was putting my arm through the sleeve of my coat, I realized it had gone on too long and I needed to have the surgery I had long put off.

My surgeon sent me for an MRI. At first, because I’m a bit claustrophobic, I did an open MRI, but that didn’t give enough information, so I had to have a closed MRI (I took a Valium and was fine!). It showed that the tear in my labrum – tissue at the end of the arm bone where it meets the shoulder — was quite large due to so many dislocations and that the bone was scuffed, but the prognosis for surgery was good. Before surgery there was no preparation other than abstaining from food and liquids and getting prescriptions for
anti-nausea (in case the anesthesia made me feel bad) and pain medication (Percocet) filled ahead of time. I also stocked up on frozen peas, and retrieved a sling from my doctor’s office. The sling had a big foam armrest attached to it. We joked that it was so big it should have had a cup-holder built in.

My best friend accompanied me to the hospital. I met with a nurse who asked me basic questions and took my blood pressure. The surgeon came into the room to say hello and mark my shoulder with a purple marker so they’d be sure not to operate on the wrong arm. Then an anesthesiologist came to talk to me about the options for anesthesia.

I was having my surgery at a major medical center (Yale) and there was the option to have a nerve block that would deaden the feeling in my arm and reduce the requirement for anesthesia. I took that option. The anesthesiologist walked me into the OR and I climbed up on to the table myself. There were about 6 or 8 people in the room including my surgeon. They were all very friendly and I was amazed that I wasn’t more nervous since I’d put off surgery for 15 years because I was afraid of it! I was unconscious within 10 minutes, and woke up in the recovery area feeling fine, just a little groggy. During the procedure, my (very excellent!) surgeon basically sewed the torn and loose labrum to the muscle that was attached to the bone around the shoulder socket. This is meant to stitch the joint in place so that it can’t dislocate again.

In the recovery room, I had no feeling in my right arm due to the nerve block, which was a very strange feeling, so the nurse and my friend had to help dress me and put my arm into the big sling. The feeling started coming back late that evening when I could feel pins and needles sort of tingling. By the next day the feeling was totally back. I took a steady stream of Percocet and was surprisingly fine. My shoulder ached – pain of 5 or 6 on a scale of 1-10, I guess, but nowhere near as much as I had expected it to. Sleeping was difficult because of the sling and the pain, but I actually slept through most of the night and got up in the morning and made myself scrambled eggs. For the most part, I was very careful with my arm and moved slowly.

I took 6 weeks off from work, and stayed indoors when there was ice or snow on the ground. I only needed the Percocet for a week or two, other than about three weeks after surgery when I accidentally slammed my shoulder against the doorway and it was so excruciatingly painful I nearly fainted. It took about a week to recover from that, as the shoulder continued to throb and ache. I finished four months of physical therapy, which I started the week after surgery. It’s been a gradual process of regaining my mobility and range of motion and strength; I can finally hook my bra behind my back again. My arm still aches occasionally and gets stiff if I sleep on it or don’t move it for a long time — like from driving the car on a six-hour road trip. But mostly I am back to doing everything I used to — biking, kayaking, and running — with no problems.