Lack Of Sleep Has Finally Got To Me

This was not a side effect I was expecting when I had the surgery but the lack of sleep has finally caught up with me and I do not like it.  My fuse is very very short today and it seems like anything will set me off.  Two more weeks from tonight until I get this immobilizer off.

What Does Therapy Consist Of At First?

My therapy sessions last about an hour right now and consist of the following:

• 5-10 minutes with a heat pack on the shoulder
• An exercise where I put my right hand on a table, bend over with my left arm hanging straight down and rotate my hips clockwise for 2 sets of 10 and then counter-clockwise for 2 sets of 10.  This moves the whole body including the shoulder without actually rotating the shoulder joint.  Pretty painless exercise.
• Sit on a rolling chair with both hands in front of me on a table.  I then push back with my feet, leaving my hands on the table, until my arms are fully extended.  I do 3 sets of 10 and again a pretty painless exercise
• Now comes the "fun" part.  For about 20-30 minutes Beth performs the range of motion exercises on my shoulder.  She moves it in multiple directions to loosen it up and break down the scar tissue.  This is by far the most painful part of the session.  The pain is not so much pain as it is just a really super tight feeling in my shoulder which just happens to be painful on some stretches.  I know that doesn't make sense but it is the best way to describe it. 
• After the range of motion exercises I go and work out with pulleys for 4 minutes.  It consists of me pulling down on the pulleys with my right arm causing my left arm to rise to just above shoulder height.  Then I let gravity take my left arm back down while controlling the decent with my right arm.
• After this my shoulder gets iced down while receiving my electro-shock therapy for 15 minutes.  The electro-shock therapy (that's what I call it) consist of 4 patches stuck on my shoulder that are attached to a machine that sends electronic pulses to my shoulder creating the feeling of a massage. 

Hopefully that paints a decent picture of what therapy is like in the beginning.  As the routine changes I will post an update.

Things Feeling Much Better Today

After last night's therapy session I was fearing the worst for today but the shoulder actually felt great and I had very little pain.  That shocked the hell out of me!  I guess all of the pain last night was worth it.

Tonight's session wen really well.  I am limited in the range of motion exercises I can do but in just my 3rd therapy session since surgery there has been great improvement in those few exercises.  I have improved my arm movement by 15 degrees.  That may not seem like a big deal bu according to Beth that is really good an my overall movement for my first week of therapy is above average.  So things are starting off in the right direction so let's just hope that this continues.

Tonight's PT = Ouch!

Well, the joy of a smooth PT session last Thursday night came to a screeching halt tonight.  Tonight's session was a rough one.  Even though my flexibility was still there the pain was pretty intense.  We did all the same stretches as we did on Thursday and added my first exercise on the pulley system but it was the stretches that killed me.  The shoulder seemed very stiff and I was getting a shooting pain down to my elbow as Beth stretched my shoulder out but the pain will be all worth it in the end (that's what I keep telling myself to get through this.  LOL)

As of right now though I am feeling pretty good.  The shoulder is feeling better now than it has it the past 3 days so something good came out of the therapy.  Then again it may only be feeling better because of the pain meds and the electro-stimulus treatment I had after the session.

Finally, in case you were wondering, this is how my session went today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRFkCIQAjBU&feature=related

Just Curious

I was looking at my "stats" and noticed that in addition to people from the U.S. reading this blog there are people from India, France, Great Britain, Slovakia and Croatia reading this blog.  Leave a comment letting me know your name and where you are reading this from if you feel like it.

Shoulder Pain

Well, I has been 3 full days since my first PT session and the shoulder is just as sore, if no a little more sore today than any day since.  I wasn't expecting that but we will see what Beth thinks about it tomorrow night.  The next 2 days are going to be the real test...back-to-back nights of therapy.  Hopefully I come out of it with as little pain as possible.

Oh yeah, I took 2 Unisom...let's see if it helps me get more than 3 hours total of sleep tonight.

Pain Has Set In

Hopefully everyone had a happy and safe New Year's Eve.  Well, it took 2 days but the shoulder is finally sore from the PT session on Thursday.  I fully expected this seeing that whenever I do something that I haven''t done in a ling time the pain and soreness usually sets in 2 days after the fact.  I knew I wouldn't get out of that first session pain free.  The pain isn't horrible though, it is just like a dull throbbing sensation.  It is the lack of sleep that is still killing me.  January 19th can;t come fast enough...until then I will be living on a few hours of sleep a day.