When disaster occurs

I don't post regularly anymore, just periodic updates on how I am doing. But I saw this photo on the site of a major shoulder surgeon and just had to post it here.

The patient, a woman, fell and the worst possible thing happened...the bone into which the repacement rod was inserted broke just below the rod. Surgery was advised but she sought consultation with this group and was advised to wait and see. The arm was stabilized, the bone knit back together and she was back to normal, albeit with a metal rod in her arm.

The point is her fracture was treated conservatively, like a fracture in a previously unoperated arm, and the outcome was excellent.

Now, that doesn't mean we post RTS patients should be cavalier about staying vertical. We still need to be cautious and vigilant. For me, the stumble occurs, not when I am picking my way through a veritable obstacle course but, when I am at least risk of tripping, when there is no banana peel or skateboard or oil slick.

Just be careful out there!

Two years plus six weeks approximately PO

Has it really been more than two years since my shoulder surgery? I've totally lost track of how many days. There is probably an app or a website that could calculate it for me but I think 2 years plus 6 weeks is close enough now.'

I saw my surgeon for my two year post op visit in early July. Naturally the visit included an X-Ray. It always makes me wonder how doctors knew what was going on before X-rays were available, I thought I was totally prepared for the process; no metal like hooks on bras, no buttons so one does not have to undress for the X-ray. But the loose lace top I wore was a problem. The technician said knotty lace fabric (not naughty!) showed up as a jillion spots in an X-ray. So I had to change into the hated hospital gown.

I love how the X-ray is posted on the computer in the room and I can see what the doctor sees, My first orthopod did not have hat amenity in his office.  When I first broke my shoulder I asked to see the X-ray. All he could do for me was bring me a very poor quality print out that was worthless. He couldn't or wouldn't even take me back to where he was able to look at the actual films. I should have known then to change doctors!

Anyway, all  the pulling and pushing, hammering and screwing, stretching and crunching I have done in the last year seems to have had no ill effect and everything looks fine. My range of motion is amazing and he is very pleased with how I have done and his own handiwork. I have graduated to a "return in two years" schedule.

What Ihave learned as I enter the third post op year is that the healing is not over and the process continues. At one year post op I thought I was doing fine and had reached optimum recovery. But as I prepared for my two year post op exam I realized I had come along way in the second year. I bragged to my doctor about how well I was doing. Of course,I admitted, there were a few limitations but they were to be expected and, I believed, permanent.

Do I never learn? One of the "permanent" handicaps was the inability to hook a bra behind my back. I had to either do the front hook-twist maneuver or wear front closure bras. I was resigned even though I frequently tried. It was impossible. But within two weeks after my two year visit I unconsciously tried and I was able, with a bit of a struggle to do it! A small but significant step forward. Now I am almost always able to "hook up" normally. It's a little thing, I know, but a big step in feeling back to normal.

I do still have some discomfort. Some movements are no-nos. And sometimes there is a catch that accompanies an up and down motion that I don't like. If I overdo things my arm hurts but so does my un operated arm. It's good to have realistic expectations. The surgery was not a visit to the Fountain of Youth. But, even as I have been surprised by my progress in PO year 2, perhaps I will be surprised in PO year 3.

I hope so!

Catching up

It's been a long time since I posted on here. There's really nothing new to say. I've had lots of home projects over the past few months and my shoulder has met the demands well. I continue to slowly improve. For the longest time I could not peel off a t-shirt in the usual way but mostly now I can. My right arm is stronger. And I have more range of motion. It's been cold and the weather does seem to cause some discomfort. I read that the theory is that a falling pressure system allows minuscule swelling of our joints, hence some comfort.

I am now on a once a year schedule to see my orthopod so don't go back till June or July. I am quite satisfied, I hope he is.

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.

What else Is there to do?

It's 430 AM and I am wide awake. Sounds terrible but it is usually 2:00 AM when I am wide awake and looking for something to do. If you live alone the possibilities are unlimited. You can run the vacuum cleaner, fire up your Jane Fonda exercise video, rearrange the living room furniture or organize your closet. But common courtesy for the innocent bed partner demands both relative quietude and reasonable darkness. Both are hard to come by in this household. Who needs anightlight? Our darkness twinkles with red and green power strips and sleeping appliances.

But such light is not adequate to balance one's check book or do your fingernails or read a novel.  And a 100 watt bulb in the downstairs bedroom has a way of twisting and bending its light rays so they creep up the stairs and shine in the eyes of a sleeping husband. Thank goodness for the illuminated screen of an iPad. With its brightness value turned down the glow from the screen is tolerable. Used to be our neighbor's Spotlight, mounted on his dock, shined directly in our bedroom window. Enough to cast a shadow. But either the bulb burned out, the salt air has corroded the connections or some irate neighbor has taken a BB gun to the problem.

At any rate I have decamped to the upstairs porch, not quite weather tight but devoid of mosquitoes and creepy crawlers. The ubiquitous LEDs are replaced by stars that twinkle through the sunblock fabric curtains and the night has that damp, sweet feel  of  air not cycled through an air conditioning system. In old times, houses in the south had sleeping porches where people could escape the swelteringly interior rooms and catch a cool night breeze. The invention of air conditioning brought progress and industry to the south but a hermetically sealed house separates us from nighttime serenades by crickets and frogs, whippoorwills and splashing mullet. Progress has its price.

If I had to go to work at 8:00 AM I could not be so sanguine about my insomnia. But retirement has its privileges and one of them is napping on demand. I do have an early doctor's appointment. While
not my orthopod, he will ask me how my shoulder is and I will be happy to report my operated shoulder is the least of my medical problems! 

Contractors, subcontractors and inconstant contractors

Because of our house project we have been dealing with repairmen more than usual. Previously when we had a big project we would have a general contractor who oversaw everything. That worked great. The contractor was always well connected. He had every kind of tradesman who worked for him and answered to him. Showing up for this job meant they would be called on for other jobs and there was a level of reliability  of when and how and who.

But we are on our own for this project. Generally we are dealing with a company; Sparks Electrical, Down the Drain Plumbers...a business with an office, a secretary, a boss and a schedule. The repairman who comes out drives a company truck, punches a time clock (perhaps virtual) and wears a shirt with a company logo on it. He shows up timely, charges what you were told on the phone, and gives you an itemized bill when he finishes.

Sometimes a job.is less well defined. The lawnman, the tree trimmer, the guy with a pressure cleaner, the dirt man (a dump truck and hole half way to China),  the tradesman who  has a cell phone, a wife with an adding machine and no county license.

They are usually cute young guys full of personality and chatter and you can't help but like them.  Even when they promise they'll be there to do the job Thursday morning and there is no sign of them. They are repentant when you finally reach them, their voice mail box is almost always full. When they do finally show up to work, they do a good job and promise to not let you down the next time.

So why does history repeat itself? Why are we again waiting for a handyman to show up, to do what he said he would, to charge the expected fee without additions, to return as he promised, and
complete the work as we hoped it would be? Are we cursed by some cosmic alignment that sets events spinning to thwart their true desire to show up and do the job?

There is no curse. There isn't any weird alignment of the stars to explain it, no full moon to excuse it. It's much more logical than that hocus pocus stuff. It is practically Darwinian, a modern example of natural selection. A  tradesman who can meet a schedule, wear a clean company shirt, maintain a
valid driver's license to drive a company vehicle...that fellow has a regulat, albeit boring, job with health insurance, paid vacation and a pay check on every Friday. But those apparently desirable qualities select out the adventurist, devil may care, possibly hard working though independent thinking and acting fellow who chooses consciously or unconsciously to march to a different drum.

When I think of it that way, that I must accept the negative to get the positive,  that genes not unreliability defeat scheduling, I can be more tolerant of  the inconstant. contractor.

Ah, someone missed me. I have so much missed my blog but I'm afraid I have exhausted the subject of reverse total shoulder arthroplasty.

I did leave everyone hanging in suspense over my last doctor visit. Well, the little bump did turn out to be a stitch that did not absorb or dissolve and has walled itself off, so to speak. Dr. Kai said nothing to worry about. With time it may disappear or not. It could even enlarge or become infected. If that happens, he will give me an antibiotic. For now it is as small as it has been and I have quit thinking about it.

Starting a little over a month ago we have been working like Trojans to clean out and get a house ready to sell. (Those Trojans must have been some hard workers to merit that analogy that has survived through the ages)  Anyway, my orthopod would be appalled at what my poor right shoulder has been asked to do. Cleaning, moving furniture, ferreting out what to keep and what has to go, having two garage sales at two different houses, boxing up the leftovers and delivering them to the appropriate charity thrift shops, incorporating things from the second house into the first house... Wow, there has been no time to even think about a blog!

The latter, combining cherished pieces of furniture or wall pictures or paintings, from two houses into one house has been the hardest part of it all. I can't help it, inanimate things like a dining room table (bought at a garage sale years ago for ten dollsrs) or a pair of prints of Sandhill cranes (unfortunately housed in bubblegum pink frames that were okay there but not here) become part of me. They just had to make the transition.

Other beloved pieces that I just could not rationalize keeping (who needs two vintage tea carts?) found new homes and it was fun to see how pleased or excited the new owner was. It was kind of like sending your now grown up child off to a new job in a new city to a new life. I can't help but wonder about the Sunday dinner tables my mom's German China will grace (too good for every day, not fine enough for Christmas) or if the new owner will actually repair that loose rung on the maple rocker or ignore it as we did.

Dear husband had a chair that did not sell. I think he bought it at some kind of auction years ago. It  may have been called a bankers chair. Anyway, he put casters on it and used it as a computer chair for years, then it was demoted to the workshop. Time, neglect and environment left it looking pretty scruffy but it was sound and strong as a twenty dollar bill (used to be). When it did not sell at either garage sale it was added to a load of things to take to a rather nice thrift shop. After carrying in the coffee grinder, blender missing the knob, assorted unmatched pieces of flatware, three rubbermade turntables, a Martha Stewsrt cake plate, and other treasures, I asked the volunteer to come out and look at the chair. I was a little embarrassed by its appearance and not at all sure it would make the cut. After a short pause she admitted it had good bones and said they would give it a good cleaning so, sure, bring it in. We rolled it over to the door of their work area and I turned my attention to "looking around." Soon an excited voice filled the little shop. "Oh, I love this!" someone said. "Look, it even rolls. It will make the perfect chair for my office. Oh, there's no price on it. Is it for sale?"  The volunteer quickly came up with a price and the thrilled shopper paid and rolled out the door. As waves of regret washed over me, I said to the cashier "it makes me want my chair back!" :)  But I actually felt like a proud mother sending her offspring out into the world.

So that is where Willet has been. We now have three dining room tables in our not very big house and the bubblegum pink frames have been painted a tasteful taupe. The last excess sofa is sold, although the buyer is having trouble finding a truck to get it home. I have one more picture to hang, then I think I can put away my tools. I actually has time to sew a little yesterday. And made time in the wee small hours of today to reconnect here.

Back to rTSA, my right, operated shoulder has been perfect through all of this work. My left arm has been terribly sore but is feeling some better. I just need a week on a quiet beach in Florida for it to settle down. Oh! That's where I live!

Of course...PO 14 months

Of course...my appointment with the orthopod is this coming Monday and the reason I am going in is almost gone. A hard, round pea sized lump had come up in my scar line in the last month or so. It was quite palpable and one could even see it under the skin. But suddenly it is so much smaller that it is now hardly noticable. He is  going to think I am a hypochondriac. But I am keeping the appointment even if it seeems silly to go now.

I can brag that my operated side, the right shoulder, is now my best shoulder - arm. Because of some heavy duty work we are doing, my left arm is really sore. It's purely muscular, probably just due to all these months of relative inactivity. Even though myleft arm had to take up the slack for the recuperating right side, I wasn't doing much physical work. Now I am back in action.

It does seem like bodies are like cars. When you finally take it in, it does not make that worrisome noise anymore. I love it when cars or appliances fix themselves. My french door refrigerator has - had - a serious problem. Intermittently the freezer would freeze up, not allowing the cold air to circulate up into the upper refrigerator space. The fridge part would get too warm and a service call would ensue. I finally learned what to do... a hair dryer would unfreeze the air vents in the back of the freezer and solve the problem for a month or two. It was just a chronic situation. But, for unknown reasons, it has stopped freezing up. It hasn't happened in eight ot nine months. Don't know why but I am happy.

Back to shoulders... I met a man at a garage sale recently who was telling everyone about his rotator cuff repair surgery. You know how we all like to tell about our operations. :)  His surgery was more than a year past. He said his surgeon had told him that shoulder surgery took the longest to recover from, that no other joint in the body had the range of motion that the shoulder is expected to perforn. He said that it had taken a full year for his almost complete recovery.  I totally agree. And, while it seems like rTSA is a bigger deal, I think any shoulder procedure like a rotator cuff repair, is just as much to recover from.

My friend,who broke her wrist about the same time I had rTSA surgery, had to have surgery with a plate put in. She told me she, too, developed a pea sized lump along her scar.  She can't remember what her doctor said it was. Nothing bad. That is reassuring. Also hers went away with time. I just hope my little lump is still there Monday when I go in to see the doctor! Otherwise I am going to feel kind of foolish.

'Small problem...13 months PO

I am proof one should never ever brag that everything is perfect. Since my one year post op visit with my  orthopod I have a new, albeit small, problem. Well, I guess it is small.

Right in the scar line but under the skin a hard small palpable lump has appeared. It feels like a hard pea. Depending on the way I roll my shoulder forward or back, it is more or less prominent. Sometimes you can actually see it under the skin. I can't imagine what it is. I Showed it to one doctor and  he did not thnk it was a bad thing but said I should get it checked. He did not say what he thought it was.

So I have an appointment in about 8 days. My doctor is on vacation just now. That is why I am so  slow in getting it checked. I ssee him in about a week. I guess he is going to be forced to look at my scar finally..

Again, too sleepy to stay here. Talk to you later.

Medical Marijuana

There's so much news about medical marijuana these days, Legalization failed in a general election ballot in Florida not too long ago. But everyone agrees it will passs next time or two.

Previous studies have suggested that is is a treatment for a myriad of medical problems, including depression, anxiety and glaucoma. It was suggested as a treatment for post chemo nausea, boost the appetite in HIV patients, and ease symptoms of Tourettes Syndrome. It could leven help insomnia.

Alas, recent studies at Yale have taken a different position. Researchers studying over 6500 people concluded there is no evidence that marijuana helps any of these conditions. It does seem to relieve some of the muscle spasms associated with MS.


So for the first time in my life someone asked me if I wanted some medical grrade marijuana. being a "goody-two shoes, I said no of course. I really am a boring person. But it might be fun to be a living part of a great social experiment .I  wish everyone would report how it goes. But I would hate to find out it helps.

My typing has not tuned into gibberish yet but I am so sleepy that I need to go. Nite all.

Way past one year...13 Mo PO

It's been way more than one year since my shoulder surgery and I had thought I would stop writing the blog at one year. But it is turning out to be a hard thing to do... give it up, I mean. I would miss you all even though I don't even know if you are out there. So I have decided to stop counting the days and go with the number of months since surgery. And I won't try to write every day. I don't know what my schedule will be, probably irratic. We'll see how it goes.

Tonight I have only the health scare of the week to report. Can you remember back when microwave ovens first appeared on the scene. It must have been in the early 1980s. There appeared signs as you entered a 7-11 or even the office break room. They read something like "Microwave oven in use."I think the thought was that they could be dangerous to folks with pacemakers. I don't know if that ever was proven.

Well, it's time to put up the signs again. Except now you'll be wearing the sign. Researchers now report that smart phones can confuse things like pacemakers and defibrilators. The pacemaker can misintrepret interference from the smart phone and think it is a signal to shut down, causing the wearer to faint. A defibrilator might misundrstand a signal and cause the patient who has an implanted devise to receive a painful shock.

They recommend that you NOT carrry your phone in your chest pocket and do keep it at least seven inches away from the implanted device. Use the phone on the opposite side of your head from the device.

Maybe they should also warn us not to hug someone who is wearing a smart phone in a chest pocket!

Reminder call...PODay 377

It's true, I made fun of appointment reminder calls when I first started this blog. As I recall I received a reminder call five days before the day of the appointment. That's long enough for me to need a reminder for the reminder.

So, I knew I had an appointment yesterday, it was on the calendar. But the phone rang Friday and it was another doctors office to remind me of an appointment the same day, the same time. Oops! Thank goodness the second doctor's office is so accommodating. They rescheduled me for a couple days  out.

We keep a calendar, a paper one. And we keep a calendar app that reminds us a day before the appointment. But if I don't put it on there it can't be expected to remind us. Dear Husband tapes the appointment card to the door to his office but it can still get overlooked.

Often, even when our next appointment is one full year off, they will give us the lab orders for the next visit. Do they really think I am going to be able to find those orders twelve months later? I always have to call and ask for them to be resent. I am surprised with the rules for medical offices to be paperless now that there are paper orders. My primary care doctor is computerized but he keeps a paper copy of everything. I guess he is just old enough to not trust storing everything on the computer. So the EHR (electronic health record) is really double work.

Even trying to be paperless, there are papers. I have to sign at least four papers every visit. One is even just a paper attesting that I was really there on that date! On the other hand the hospital has one sign the electronic notepad. My signature on that thing  in no way resembles  my real signature.   But it always "says" signature accepted. Used to be they gave you a stylus, anymore they just say to use your finger tip to sign.

So, remembering to go to the doctor is a job and getting there and signing in is an even bigger task. I don't know how we ever managed to work and keep doctor appointments. Well we definitely didn't go to the doctor as often. And I think I was more organized.

You know that saying..if you want something done, give the job to a busy woman. I guess I am not busy enough.

Missing in action...PODay 376

i know, I know. Where did I go? I've been struggling to get my new blog up and running. I guess my brain does not work like a computer program. I stumble from event to entry without success and then suddenly something works and I have no idea why or how to do it again. I will admit that there have been some changes in Picasso, the photo site for storing your pictures to post on your blog and it works,at least for me, much better.

My new blog is about cooking, eating and making aprons and bibs, my new favorite hobby. There are no rules to creating an apron. No pattern that tells you what to do. The fabric decides the design. It's kind of like when Michelangelo was asked how he decided what to carve from a piece of marble. He replied that the statue was in the marble, he just released it. Not that I am comparing my hobby to great art...but the apron is there, in the vintage tablecloth or the linen table runner or even the 70s party dress. How fun it is to repurpose a piece of cloth and give it a new life.

But, unfortunately, there are no new ideas. When Dear Husband started wearing a hand towel around his neck to catch crumbs and dribbles, I thought I could come up with something better looking. He, and certainly not I, was not ready for the adult version of the terry cloth baby bib. My great idea was the "bub."  I swear it was my idea! But la belle fille is in Idaho and saw my idea in a upscale kitchen shop. NO! Oh well, at least it is an upscale kitchen shop.

Why a "bub?" Do you watch Seinfeld? Kramer and George's father saw the commercial need for a male bra. But they needed a more macho name than bra. Naturally. So it was dubbed the "bro." Well, not many men think a bib is very masculine but a "bub" ? Jack Nicklaus would wear a bub, jack Nicholson would wear a bub. Heck, Jack Palance would wear a bub while doing one handed push ups.

As tidy as we women are, there could be occasions when we might need a bib. But there's that name again. We do tend to be a bit more secure than the guys but still, it's all in the image. So if it's not a bib and not a bub...it's a bab! With a long a, like babe. I've got to find one of those pronunciation mark things like in a dictionary. I bet I can copy the mark over. We'll see.

So to my loyal followers...I'm going to try to keep both blogs going. Maybe posting in an alternating manner. Here's the address of my new blog... Bibbitties.blogspot.com

 I'll see you there. 

Youth is wasted on the young PODay 375

I looked out our kitchen window a few days ago and lo and behold, one of our palm trees was dead. When did that happen? How did it happen? And so suddenly. Usually death comes slowly to a palm tree. Dead fronds fall to the ground or something. The tree just doesn't suddenly give up the ghost. I don't think it was struck by lightning.

At any rate, a dead palm tree has to go. So I called our neighbors' tree guy, an older guy with an old truck, a trailer perpetually full of palm fronds and ladders (his main job is trimming palm trees), four younger guys who do the grunt work, and a dog. You're visualizing a rotweiller or a pitbull, aren't you? No, his dog is some kind of miniature white ball of fluff. He sits in the truck looking for the world like a miniature french version of a junk yard dog.

The "team" arrived within thirty minutes of the phone call ready to work. The purr of the chain saw warming up filled the quiet morning. Mr. Tree Man attacked the thick fibrous trunk of the palm first cutting it off at about 4' above ground, then slicing it into 3' to 6' sections. The crew, sometimes two together, sometimes one guy alone, picked up the sections, military pressed them above their heads and hoisted them up and over the built up walls of the trailer. The act was so effortless, so smoothly executed.. No torn rotatator cuff among them. No tender bicept, tricept or deltoid muscle.  Of course, being female, I was never that strong but I do rememner tackling physical jobs with a gusto that is no longer in my repertoire.

Some years ago, not long after laproscopic knee surgery, I was hobbling into the grocery store. There were three worker type guys ahead of me. I was struck by the power of their walk, the spring in their step. It was like watching John Travolta in the openning scenes of Saturday Night Fever. And are
these  young(er) people even aware of the effortless power of a youthful body? Of course not.

I always knew old people walked funny. What I didn't realize is that they walk that way because "it" hurts. That, and the ever present risk of falling, It's a wonder that we are out there walking around at all.  http://youtu.be/okpCx87orOA  (Touch the link twice to see and hear the video)

correctedpost 374

I'm trying to do better about using the right tool for the job. I no longer use a table knife as a screw driver. Mostly it is to save the table knife. If I am hanging a picture I go and get a small hammer instead of grabbing a high heel shoes. Fact is as I have gotten older there aren't too many stilletto heels available here. I love kitchen things so I usually have the esoteric kitchen apparatus like a lemon zester or a ginger grater. I have one kitchen drawer that  overflows with cooking hand tools                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

So when I wanted to replace the battery in a watch today I went and got  that hox of miniature screw drivers, the ones you use to replair your glasses frame or unscrew that tiny screw that is holding parts to the packaging of the newly purchased electronic item. That's a whole other post...don't you hate the way things are packaged now so that you need a utility knife, a screw driver and a pair of pliers to remove the new house portable phone from the box?

Back to the subject though. I was experienced. A few days ago I took the back off of another watch, infrequently worn, and went to the drug store and bought a replacement battery and installed it. The only problem was that the drug store purchased battery cost more than my jeweler charges to provide the battery and put it in. Surely there was a less expensive source of watch batteries.

Omigosh! A Google search took me to Amazon where I learned I could  buy fifteen (15!) "373" Eveready watch batteries with free shipping.for fifty cents motre than one such battery at the drug store.  I placed my order. I will have enough batteries to last the rest of my life! But for now I had to open the watch of the moment and learn what size battery it uses. Hopefully, a 373. I found the little notch under the edge of the bezel back on my watch. I placed the tip of the screwdriver into the notch (it didn't seem to drop into the little groove like it should have). I pried, nothing happened. I twisted the blade, no success. I tried the slightly bigger miniature screw driver. I tried the smaller. Nothing happened, Well, other than nearly stabbing myself with the point of the screwdriver as it slipped out of the supposed groove and skidded across the back of the watch leaving a big scratch and stopping millemeters from my fingers of my left hand which were gripping the watch case.

An hour later and an unknown number of attempts to remove the back with every conceivable household instrumment that one could imagine might work, the back had not budged. I even slathered the back of the watch with penetrating oil in case it was corrodid and that was why it wold not pop off. No luck.In frustration and despair I scooped everything up and went to the jewelers. She took my watch, walked behind her workbench and immediately I heard a loud snap. "Was that the back popping off," I asked. It was! "How did you do that?"

With the right tool, of course. A watch back remover. The basic model available on amazon for $4.00! It kind of resembles an oyster knife but with a short stocky blade. My kingdom for a watch back remover! I am definitely getting one of those!

Next I will want the press that makes it easy and efficient to put the back on after installing the new battery. I wonder how a hammer or heavy pliers would work. I'll let you know.


And I wonder when I will start realizing the savings from buying my batterys on line.

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Posted By Blogger to  Reverse Total shoulder replacement surgery, A Patient's Point of View at 7/02/2015 10:56:00 AM

problem of the day..PO Day 374

I don't know why post 374 has lines through all the words. I don't know how to get rid of them. And I don't know why there is a big gap of just lines after the first paragraph.

I don't know why the stock market fell so much two days ago. It's not like the Greece thing was a surprise.

I don't know why countries choose to go to war. It seems like such an irrational act. Like if ou have a disagreement with your neighbor, just bomb their house.

I don't  know why we have to suffer and then die. Isn't dying enough? Why can't we just slip away?

 I don't know why time goes so fast when you're having fun and so slowly when you are miserablee? Did Einstein explain that?

I guess there is a lot I don't know and why there are lines through all the text in post 374 is pretty low on the list of what is important. But it is the issue (no one has problems anymore) of the moment.

So sorry. Guess you will have read between the lines. :)

The Bad and The Good..PO Day 373

There is an article in The Week Magazine about medical professionals who scam the system. The Department of Justice reports that 243 people have been arrestedfor stealing $712 million from Medicare. Forty-six of the 243 were doctors, nurses, pharmacy owners or other medical professionals  who billed the government for fraudulent therapy sessions or prescriptions.

I know that sounds terrible. They say fraud probably consumes ten percent of the total medicare budget of $500 billion annually. Well, put that way, it is terrible. But if only 46 medical professionals or even 243 medical related persons out of all the medical care related people in the US are scamming the system, well that's not so bad. How many doctors are there in the country?   According to Dr. Google, in 2009 there were 970,000 physicians in the US. The number of nurses woud be much higher. I am guessing the number of pharmacists would be fewer.

Being a medical professional does not weed out bad people. But in spite of this latest information, I continue to believe most doctors and their staff are honest and hard working. I have personal experience with one such doctor...

The radiologist, Dr. My Hero,  who saw my first post op visit xray, is the one who called me and aaid "Go immediately to the emergency room." We thought of him today because Dear Husband had an xray and picked up the report. It was Dr. "My Hero" whose name appeared on the report today. So in contrast to the medical professionals scamming the system, Dr. Hero returned a modest gift card I sent him for being so alert and diagnosing my pneumothorax. His note thanked me but said he was just doing is job and could not accept such a gift, however small.


What a difference! More doctors like him and fewer con artists!

Focus on the positive...PO Day372

To be fair one always has to balance the good points of aomething by mentioning the negative points. But right now I don't want to be fair. I just want to say positive things about rTSA because I personally have not experienced anything bad. I realize things could happen in the future but right now everything is wonderful.

How could I not love the surgery?  It has given me such tremendous reflief from the constant pain I had post shoulder break. My first orthopod sent me (to his facility) for three months of physical therapy. I did my exercises at home. He said with time it would get better. It got worse.    When I was at my wit's end I found my new orthopod who said it was not going to improve. He didn't push for surgery but did say surgery was the only option for possible pain reflief and better function.

Now to the point:

Reverse Total Shoulder Arthroplasty gives a much more stable shoulder joint that can function pretty nearly nornally when the patient does not have an intact rotator cuff.  This is because the surgery creates a deeper socket that prevents the ball from sliding up and down. The force of motion is pushing the ball and joint together rathen than apart. The deltoid muscle takes over and is used to raise and lower the arm. The result is an arm that functions better, is less painful and can last for years without loosening, as happens with regular shoulder arthroplasty.


 Now the patient has to do their part.  Very little use of the arm during the first six weeks post procedure.  Gentle use until the doctor says you have reached optimum healing and strength.  Avoid ]]]reepeated forceful blows. Do NOT fall! It's natural to put your arm out to catch yourself. Not a good move. 

Here's wishing everyone who is considering this surgery has as good a result as I have had.

New cholesterol drug PODay 371

New drugs don't come along very often. At least not as often as those of us who take them wish. A new drug is full of promise. Think about the new drug for hepatitis C. One course promises to CURE hepatitis C in 93% of the patients. It does cost in the neighborhood of $63,000.00 to $95,000.00 though.

So a new drug to treat high cholesterol seems kind of anticlimactic. But it is expected that the FDA will approve two new cholesterol drugs this summer. Repatha and Praulent are PCSK9 inhibitors. They block a protein that keeps the liver from clearing the blood of LDL, the bad cholesterol. These injectable antibodies (did you catch that...injectable) may turn out to be safer than statins. During trials the new drugs lowered cholesterol levels by more than 60%. It is projected that they may cut a patient's risk of a major cardiovascular event in half. Further testing is needed to confirm that.

Certainly it will be more expensive than the old tried and true. Hopefully it won't cost $63,000.00. But since it is injectable there will be an office visit involved. And starting a new drug will mean returning more frequently to be sure it is working. And most difficult of all, you'll have rto learn a new drug name.