Surgery recap and physical therapy update

Ok, so I'm typing with both hands now, what a relief. The first week was brutal as I felt pretty helpless doing everything with just my left hand. Went in for the surgery 2 weeks ago tomorrow, they actually gave me a nerve block so my right arm was basically limp for 24 hours. This really helped with the pain they said, the downside was that no matter how hard I tried I couldn't move my fingers until Saturday which was uncomfortable to say the least, and I got two pretty good 1 inch long blood blisters between my thumb and index finger from the strap in the sling as it was way too tight. I didn't notice obviously until it was too late, so I haven't used that strap since.

The day after the surgery I got the hiccups, BAD. 2 1/2 hours straight, really started to get annoying. The nurse called to check on me and said it was a side effect of the nerve block. She also said if they continued through to Sunday that they could give me a prescription for them, never heard of medicine for hiccups, but ok. So I had 2 more 2+ hour hiccup sessions Saturday, then they seemed to go away, until Tuesday when they came back and brought their older brother Francis, who everyone calls "Psycho" (Stripes reference in case you missed it). Man, 4 2+ hour sessions of the deepest most uncomfortable hiccups you've ever felt, I was miserable. But as of today they are completely gone, knock wood.

I've been to 5 physical therapy sessions so far, the first one was basically electrical stimulus and squeezing the right arm against a rolled up towel then ice. Day 2 they put me on a pulley, basically a rope and 2 handles, I pulled my right arm up with my left, just freeing up range of motion. The first pull netted me a whopping 3 inches of ROM, wow that's scary. After about 10 minutes I actually got my hand above my head. As of my last session on Wednesday I can do it pretty easily up to 90 degrees, which is the extent of the ROM that I'm allowed at this point. I can go much farther but they won't let you push at all in the first 2 weeks. This last session I also got to use basically what amounts to a bicycle for your arms. Same deal, right arm was just along for the ride and I moved very slowly, but it felt very good to extend and contract my arm like that. I ran that thing for 15 minutes and I could definitely feel the soreness this morning.

Now apart from the soreness, I really haven't experienced any pain at all. I was given Hydrocodone and told to take 1-2 pills every 4-6 hours. I started with 1 pill every 4 hours and weaned myself off after that. The last pill I took was Sunday morning at 1AM which was after back to back 12 hour differentials, and I'm completely good pain wise, so pretty excited there. I find myself reaching for doorknobs, helping when putting my shirt on, etc. when I don't have on the sling / brace contraption that keeps my right arm immobilized. Good and bad I suppose.

The PT and I set a schedule of 8 weeks from date of surgery to resume putting. Now I'd be lying if I said I hadn't tried the motion a few time sans putter, and there's really no shoulder movement during the stroke obviously, just rocking back and forth, however the act of the pre-shot routine, picking balls out of the hole (you know, cause they ALWAYS go in the hole baby) could certainly cause me pain. Again, I'm sticking to whatever we feel is acceptable schedule wise, so if it's 8 weeks, then it's 8. I'm going to push him for 6, 4, whatever but he has to agree or I won't do it. I know you'll be shocked to hear that my line of thinking is if I can accelerate the putting, then I might be able to accelerate to chipping and fuller shots that much sooner as well. Hey, you try sitting on your couch every weekend and tell me you'd stick to 8 weeks yourself. Liar.

That's it for now, going to hook up the electrodes on the bicep to keep blood flowing there as well, not moving your arm at all can wreak havoc on your muscle structure, I can literally see the difference in my right and left arm already. No clearance to start on the eliptical, running, etc. just yet, but the minute we get that it's go time again. The PT works with a bunch of professional rodeo guys, BMX kids, etc. so he understands the plan isn't to get me back to playing bingo, it's a little more aggressive than that, but being on this side it's never fast enough. If you don't have plans already, go play golf this weekend you lucky bastard. I'll be the guy sitting on my couch watching it on tv scratching off one more day on the calendar.