Shoulder Surgery #2

Ever since my initial shoulder surgery, I have lived with a constant popping noise and mild to moderate pain when my shoulder moved up and out. At first, my physical therapist and doctor thought it would naturally fix itself. However, after 7 months my doctor decided to take more aggressive measure to determine what was causing the issue.

Thursday, December 10, I had a shoulder appointment that resulted in me having an MRI with dye to examine my shoulder. On the following Monday, the doctor’s office called to inform me the MRI did not reveal anything that required surgery. Wednesday, I called for more information, and was told I had a severe case of bursitis, which was great news as it is treatable without surgery.

On December 17, I went in to receive an injection that would address the issue… instead, we scheduled surgery for Monday, December 21 to explore what was causing the issues and fix it! Obviously, there were lots of emotions, and I left feeling as though I had taken a cheap shot to the gut.

Christy and I were immediately in scrambling mode as we had to figure out who could and would watch our kids, what we would do about our Christmas, and what we would do the Christmas and holiday break in general. We decided to do our family Christmas on Saturday morning, which was great fun (). Then we setup a drop of the kids with her parents in Atoka on Sunday, and reserved a hotel room in OKC for my 6:30AM surgery time.


To start off of Monday morning, we woke up at 4:00AM in order to make it to the hospital on time. The good news was that we were right on time; the bad news is that we went to the wrong hospital!!! Thankfully, we made it in time and the staff did not seem too irritated with us.

The arthroscopic surgery revealed I had two major issues in my shoulder. First, there was, “a ton” of scar tissue. Second, one of my ligaments was too tight, so they sliced it in order to release the pressure/tension. After my operation, the doctor prescribed some pain meds, nausea meds, and a CPM (Continuous Passive Motion) machine… aka torture device!


With all of this, there is a great deal of good news. They have fixed my shoulder (I hope). This surgery was mild in comparison to the first surgery. We will still make it Dallas for Christmas with our family. While the CPM is very time consuming (6 hours a day), it rotates my shoulder 160* adduction/abduction and 80* internal/external rotation (it took 3-4 months to get to that point last time). While there is still a great deal of swelling, the pain level does not require constant pain pills, and I do not have to wear the sling unless I am in public (so people can see my shoulder is not normal).

All in all, I am still very pleased with my doctor, Jimmy Conway. His staff has been incredible to work with, and they never seemed annoyed when I call with my list of questions. This surgery turned out to be relatively minor (compared to the first surgery), and it looks like the recovery time will be much shorter too. So why my initial thoughts were a Scrooge-ish merry Christmas to me, now it is a legitimate Merry Christmas to me… and Merry Christmas Everybody!