Looking Back................ the Treatment

Part 1

While I felt the initial contact of both doctors' hands, I don't remember a thing from that point forward. My last memory was a smidgen of the pressure as I felt the docs begin to pull on my arm and shoulder. From there my memory went blank.

I don't remember one single thing about the entire effort to relocate my shoulder or pulling the bone back into proper position. I don't know if it hurt........and frankly I don't care. I have no memory and that's probably best. I do know that Dave told me later he could hear me screaming clear out in the waiting room. (Today, Dave has no memory of the particulars about the exam cubicle or the waiting room. Guess that tells how traumatic if was for both of us.)

As I was told later one of the side effects of the drug I was given is a temporary state of amnesia during it's use although I remained conscious and coherent during the entire time. Once the drug wore off, I was able to remember events from there forward. I have no memory of the actual tug o war itself. The docs didn't volunteer how it all went other than to say "Good" and I didn't ask.

I have been told that I was returned to X-Ray a number of times throughout the procedure. The docs needed to see how close they were getting to having the bone back in proper position. Even with that they were never able to line the bone up perfectly.

Because the break was right at the end of the ball portion that fits into the socket of the joint, the bone could not be pinned in place. The only thing they could do was get the two pieces to line up as close to perfect as possible.

Then my arm was positioned into what they called a "gravity" cast. My shoulder was rolled far forward. My arm bent across my body with my hand nearly under my chin. The bone would have to "hang" in the proper position to heal.

That meant any and all movement would affect how the bone "hung." The more movement there was the longer it would take for the break to mend because the rebonding of the bone would be constantly disrupted. It was going to be a long long healing process.

Looking at later X-Rays perfect was with a slight rotation in the ball portion of the bone. The two pieces of bone did not fit flat together. It was like setting the puzzle piece almost where it belongs but not quite fit together. The two pieces of bone did touch on one side but at the other there was a gap. It would take longer for this portion to heal because that gap would have to be filled in.

There was another issue about this process. The correct way to heal from a dislocation is to begin physical therapy immediately. That was a contra indication of what was good for the break. It was out of the question to do what was right for the dislocation. The break took precedent.

Because the shoulder issues couldn't be addressed until the bone was completely healed, there were going to be major recovery issues with the dislocation. The longer it set without use, the more difficult those issues would be.

Due to the nature of this break, it was the worst possible scenario for the dislocation. A gravity caste is the least effective of all means to stabilize an injury. It was impossible to avoid movement of the bone so the mending of the bone was going to take much longer than a normal break. I was pretty much scr*wed no matter which way you looked at it.

To be continued..................


pic is Dandy and me when he's about two months old.

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