A Word of Advice

Heed the warning... If you are in a situation where you might be having surgery in less than two weeks, I strongly recommend that you stay OFF the Internet when wondering about recovery times.

I am having the dreaded shoulder surgery a week from Thursday. I am happy to get it out of the way, and I am thrilled to get my shoulder fixed, but it is not going to be easy. I just don't want to live like this and am ready for it to be healed... now, please.

I have a Bankart tear, which is a tear of the inferior glenohumeral ligament. (I don't know what that means, either.)

I searched for my ailment/surgical procedure in regards to common recovery times and got a variety of examples ranging from 1 week to 8 months. I am assuming that neither are true. The majority mention 4-6 weeks. Not too bad, I suppose, but this probably means in a sling for a MONTH and having very little (if any) range of motion for 2-3 weeks. Nevermind that I live with a four-year-old who cannot get in and out of the bath by himself due to the "extra deep" tub. Good times.

The bright side... this surgery works for 90% of patients. I won't have to worry about it dislocating while simply sitting on the couch (which is how it happened last time). Now my goal is to come up with a really great heroic story that is the culprit of my injury. Can you have an injury that did not come about from a memorable experience? Is it still called an injury? Because, I have no reason this happens to my shoulder... NONE. I don't have a, "when I was saving the kitten from the fire..." or, "once when I was skiing in the Alps..." or, "then the bike flipped over my head..." story. It just pops out of the joint when doing regular, everyday things. Have I mentioned that it's the WORST pain I have ever had in my life? I have? Just want to be sure.

This particular description of the surgery is my favorite and made me feel like a super star!

Bankart surgery aims at restoring the muscular stability of shoulders by repairing the torn capsular detachments and also by fixing ligaments in place. This type of surgery is often undergone by young athletes and other sportsmen that suffer from a shoulder injury and face the problems of recurrent dislocation.

The truth...

In reality they are going to put screws in the bone to keep the "ball" part of my arm in the socket. Attached to the screws are sutures that they will weave through the ligament and pull tight (think drawstring) to keep everything in place. I am really trying not to think about it.