Monday, September 14, 2009

Shoulder Update

The surgery is complete, everything went smoothly (from my perspective, and from the doctor's perspective), I've had a somnambulant weekend on painkillers, and now it's more or less back to reality; that new reality being that I've got an arm in a sling for the next month, and daily physical therapy exercises for the next six months or so.

I am happy to report that I am in fact functionally ambidextrous, so eating, writing, shaving, etc. with my left hand is going smoothly (if a little slower) and improving. After all, what's the point of having the adventure if you can't enjoy these little challenges along the way?

Thank you everyone who wrote with well wishes! It was great going into the surgery knowing I was in your hearts and minds.

posted by Ian Gilman at 10:10 PM  -  0 Comments

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Shoulder Surgery

Ever since Fourth of July last year (and some overexertions on my part) my right shoulder has been a bit out of whack. I've given it time to heal on its own, done physical therapy, but it hasn't gotten better. An MRI and further diagnosis has shown that it's a tear in the cartilage on the backside of the joint, so tomorrow morning I'll be getting arthroscopic surgery to repair it.

Maybe a decade ago I had a couple of wisdom teeth removed; other than that I've never had any surgery before. After that procedure I was surprised at how violated I felt; something that had been part of my body my whole life was now irrevocably gone. This time it's repair (though presumably there will be a scar), so I don't expect I'll have the same feelings, but at this point all I can do is go with the flow and see how it all turns out. Afterwards I'll be doing physical therapy to get it back in shape; I intend to use this as motivation to be more proactive about my health in general. Anyway, it feels like a milestone of some sort.

posted by Ian Gilman at 8:40 PM  -  1 Comments