The Left-Handed Adventures of Righty
Chapter 1: Before Surgery
1)
At my last appointment with the surgeon before
surgery, I received a prescription for an arm sling that I needed to bring with
for the day of surgery. It was called a “slingshot”. I expected a normal cloth sling. At its baseline, it was… but it included a
foam piece to hold my arm away from my body and enough straps to trigger a
claustrophobic reaction. I think the
associate at the medical supply store saw the apprehension written all over my
face because she quickly pointed out that there were quick release “escape”
clips for the shoulder and waist straps.
I felt better though I’m not sure I’ll be able to do this myself after
the surgery. She quickly finished my
fitting and I was on my way. Not too bad.
I still felt pretty confident going into surgery.
2)
The day before surgery, the surgical center
called with my arrival time. 6:15am … I
live an hour away so leave the house no later than 5am. Did I mention I’m not a morning person? Still excited though as I’ve been waiting for
YEARS to get this fixed and endured 3.5 months of physical therapy, cortisone
injection, and a wacko orthopedic surgeon who though it was fun to play with
loose shoulder joints by popping it in and out during a follow up appointment
(and then finding a better expert who thought I’ve suffered enough and it was
time to fix the root cause). Got the run-down
of what to bring the next day; photo ID, insurance card(s), list of medications
with dosage, beasty sling thing, and a super huge t-shirt.
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