More complicated at first..PODay 102

   My local hospital where I had my rTSA surgery holds a once a month seminar for upcoming joint replacement surgery patients. I don't think it is required but it is highly recommended. It is led by the Joint Replacement Surgery Coordinator and a physical therapist. They have a power point presentation, then spend about an hour answering individual questions. Many of the participants are repeat joint (after all, we do have two of each major joint) replacers and are full of practical information that they love to share. It was very informative and reassuring.

Except...of the approximately thirty attendees, I was the only person who was going to have a shoulder procedure, the less common rTSA, no less. It made me a little nervous.What I've since learned is this really is a less common procedure. A Dartmouth study showed that between 2000 and 2005 the incidence of rTSA surgery in the US increased by 67%. Still, in 2008, 61,000 shoulder operations were performed in the United States. Of those, only about 10,000 were reverse total shoulder replacements.

Do I feel like a guinea  pig? Part of a giant clinical trial? A pioneer, a trail blazer, a medical miracle? Not really. Just a fortunate person for whom this procedure was available when I needed it. It helps that my surgeon is a specialist in "upper extremity orthopedic surgery" who has done more than 100 procedures. It was kind of awkward but I asked him how many.  I didn't want to be among his first seven cases! You know what 'they' say, Trust but Verify.


Archive timeline: 2014: May and June - preparing for surgery, July - surgery and post op problems, August - recovery and physical therapy, September...