Surgery and Rehab

I'm not sure if many of you know, but I finally had the surgery to fix my shoulder. I had surgery on the 17th of July so tomorrow will be the beginning of my third week. I'd like to give you all a brief synopsis of what the surgery process was like and what rehab has been like as well.

The surgery they did was because I had what is called a Bankart Lesion. Basically, one of my tendons was completed ripped off and my shoulder joint was just sort of hovering near the socket held by the remaining tendon.

I was put under anesthesia completely, and they also put a "nerve blocker" in my neck which numbed my entire right arm. I felt nothing and remember little of being in the hospital save for them putting in my IV and preparing my shoulder by washing the area.

Once out of surgery and awake I was taken home - the surgery lasted about one and a half hours and they let me sleep for about an hour after. My arm remained numb most of that day and though I was uncomfortable, I was not in a lot of pain. As the numbing agent wore off I still felt pretty good and kept ice on my shoulder.

The second day was regimented and segmented by pill-taking: 2 Percocet, wait two hours, 3 ibuprofen (600 mg) wait 2 hours, repeat all day. The percocet was overall pretty ineffective at killing pain and just made me feel weird - I couldn't move my head without feeling dizzy and felt slightly naseauos most of the day. The ibuprofen however, worked wonders on the pain. At one point I took my dose of percocet only to have some pretty intense shoulder pain 40 minutes later (7-8 on a scale of 10). However, soon after it was time for my latest dose of ibuprofen I was feeling much better. That night the percocet kept me up with intense vomiting and queasiness. I stopped taking it and stuck to the vitamin I from there on out.

The third day things were much, much better. It was a Thursday and my first rehab appointment (yup, started that early). The ibuprofen fended off any pain and kept my shoulder feeling only mildly irritated throughout the day and night.

Since about the Wednesday after that I haven't taken any pain killers and my shoulder has started to loosen and strengthen a bit already.

As of today, I am about one week ahead of schedule as far as range of motion in my shoulder for the assigned physical therapy protocol.

I feel lazy doing nothing except rehab exercises (which are quite simple for the first few weeks), so my mornings usually go like this:

1) Rehab exercises (25 minutes)
2) Gym - stationary bike
a) 10 minute warmup (on Kilimanjaro Hill setting, level 15)
b) 6 minutes of 30 seconds on/30 off peddling as fast as possible.
c) 4 minutes of normal peddling (usually at about the peak of Kilimanjaro)
d) 9 minutes (or 18 reps) of 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off peddling as fast as possible.
3) Physical Therapy (assisted stretching by PT guy, some exercises, ice) (3x/week)
a) On non PT days, I ice myself and then head to work.

I then do my rehab exercises again when I get home from work, and once more before I go to bed, each time icing afterwards.

What's most interesting to me are the similarities and differences between rehabilitation and a track workout or a game of Ultimate. Rather than pushing your body to an extreme state of exhaustion, it is more a factor of allowing your body to regain a familiar motion that is now inhibited. It is MUCH more like stretching out a pulled muscle.

You push to reach a thresh-hold, then slightly past it, then relax, then to the new threshold, then relax.

The key for me has been keeping my body in proper form, breathing deeply and evenly, and then pushing myself mentally - "just a few more degrees of motion" is what I started with, now, I just tell myself "degrees." At the same time I picture myself stepping onto a line, one of 7 people about to play at a tournament. The soft grass, the quick direction changes, catching a disc at full speed with no inhibition.

This whole process has been a big learning experience for me and I hope that you all can read this and perhaps reflect on it if, under some unfortunate circumstance, you all may need to have surgery for one reason or another, Ultimate related or not, someday. The lessons I've learned from working hard on the track and harder on the field have translated well to my rehab, as well as the memories of playing hard Ultimate without concern and with total trust in my body.