Can you ever disconnect?

You know how when you buy something nowadays and they ask you for your email address...do you ever think about why they want it? Are they wanting to follow up, see if your new dress fits or your toaster is satisfactory? Are they going to use it to notify you if there is recall on the item? Probably not.

Remember when you first had email and you were thrilled to receive any kind of internet communication. And when you sent a friend a message and then callled them to tell them to check their email. What innocent days! Little did we realize what was coming.

Now we are innundated with emails. Our doctor's office sends emails. Church and school use it to communicate. The bank sends statements, the power company sends our bill by email. The airline reminds us of our upcoming flight. Our favorite hotel chain wants to know when we are going to take a trip. High school classmates are looking for us and current friends are keeping tabs on us. Receipts for purcchases are easier to keep track of in email form rather than as slips of paper in our purse.All that is okay, mostly.

But the ads! The solicitations! Every night, in the middle of the night, little unseenn gnomes hit "SEND" and my mailbox fills up with  coupons and flyers. Links to sales and bargains click into view pretending to be from firends who want to share their weight loss secrets. New shoes,  presecription drugs, worthwhile and dubious charities, mom and pop stores and major corporations, all knock on my virtual front door. Do I want a female companion from the Balkins? Will I rescue my distant acquaintance stuck in Greece with no money? Surely I will invest $10,000. to help free up a
million dollars being held hostage in some third world fiduciary morass. From legitimate entrepreneurs to blatant con artists, they queue up in my mail box hoping to catch my eye.

Scroll to the bottom and the more traditional ones offer an "unsubscribe" link. How many times I have clicked that! A promise that I will no longer receive notices from them appears on screeen. But has it ever worked? Have i even once managed to divorce the solicitor? Not yet. But hope springs eternal and I persevere. But I alwaus wonder if asking to unsubscribe actually adds my email address to some other list of victims.

In the meantime I slog through my inbox trying to separate the wheat from the chaff, deleting and deleting and hopefully not deleting a message from you!

Less than perfect 17 months PO

I wore a smock like dress a couple days ago. It had a kind of square scoop neck, not too low cut but wide. For the first time it was apparent there is an asymmetry between my two front shoulders. The unoperared side has some flesh or fat under the skin so the transition from pectoral muscle to the head of the humerus is smooth and full. On the operated side the scar vertically bisects that junction, there is a lack of fat beneath the skin and that makes the bony humerus more prominent.

Am I complaining? Heavens, no!  I continue to be very satisfied with my surgical result. I do still have some limitation of movement. I can't comfortably move my right arm behind my back. I can't lift heavy items above my shoulder height on that side. I tend not to roll on that side to sleep. And I do most of my heavy lifting with the other arm. But I have very good, nearly full extension of that arm. I have very good development of the deltoid muscle, necessary to raise and lift the arm after surgery. And my flexibility has improved so putting on and taking off a shirt or jacket is easier, if not always graceful.

Compared to the limitation of movement prior to surgery and the constant pain, I have nothing to complain about.

Unfortunately there are no guarantees with the human body and surgery. I guess that's one reason doctors want you to wait so long before going the surgery route. If you are truly miserable, even a less than perfect surgical result is an improvement. Interestingly, I read a study that reported, based on the SST ( Simple shoulder test ), patients were typically more satisfied with the surgical results that were their surgeons. I guess the doctors want things to be perfect and we just want to feel better.