MY LEFT SHOULDER, PRE-OP
Combine a congenital joint defect with multiple athletic dislocations, a botched surgical procedure and 20 years of ever-increasing atrophy and neuropathy, then slap a snake tattoo on top of the whole thing to cover up the extremely disfiguring scars, and this is what you get. Tomorrow morning, the doctors will be trying once again to fix it. This is the last day my shoulder will look like this . . . there will be new scars, there may be some damage to the tattoo, the musculature and shape of the shoulder will be changed by the procedure they are planning. I've been putting this off since 1985. Tomorrow is the day. This is my shoulder. For now.
POST-OP AT HOME, HOURS AFTER SURGERY
Before I cleaned the blood and iodine off myself.
DAY TWO: AND THE PAINKILLERS FELL LIKE RAIN
(That header is a line from a song by Stephen Gaylord of the Wasted).
DAY THREE: THEY SAVED THE SNAKE TATTOO
Bandages came off today. There is a bullethole looking wound in the front of the shoulder where they scoped me, then a four-inch cut in the back that's stapled closed, but ends right below the old scar, which is where the tattoo runs. Nice work, doctors and nurses.
DAY SEVEN: AND THEN THERE WAS TAPE
They took the staples out of me a week after the surgery. I have to wait another week before getting into the hot tub, then another week after that before getting into Physical Therapy. I'm sore . . . but at least the staples are out!
DAY TEN: AND THEN IT WAS JUST SKIN
Peeled the steristrips and tape off, so that all that's left (on the outside, anyway) is me. I'm able to move the shoulder just a little bit, and have been keeping the sling off for a few hours each day to let the weight of my arm stretch the repaired and new parts out a little bit. I was also able to get into the hot tub for the first time since surgery. Man . . . did that feel good.
Rapped upside the back of the head.