KGB That's Me!: Surgery Recovery, 2nd COVID Vaccine, and Impending Snow

I had two passive physical therapy sessions this week, and it seemed to go well. I made progress already. My therapist said he hoped my surgeon would release me early from the sling so I could start actively using my arm and at least getting it swinging while walking. That was a struggle after the last surgery because it had already become frozen.

Between those two appointments, I went for my 2nd dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday. The county sent me half an hour away this time, and I had to drive in my sling. Thankfully, they let me park in the ADA parking lot, so I didn’t have to maneuver the big parking garage with one hand to steer. The line of vehicles was very long, and the standing line inside was very long, too. It was a smooth operation, though, and it went off without a hitch. I was observed for 30 minutes in case of adverse reaction, and then I was free to go. I felt fine until about bedtime, and then I had body aches like I was coming down with the flu. I felt a little flushed, and my temp had gone up by 1.2 degrees. I went to bed and had terrible chills and sweated right through my clothes. My husband said I thrashed around in the bed all night and knocked over my water in the bed 3 times! He ended up working from home the next day because he said he needed to sleep in! LOL. My arm was a little sore at the injection site, but not painful like the first shot. I continued feeling bad with body aches the following day, but by Thursday, I felt just fine like nothing had happened. In any case, I’m thankful and relieved to be fully vaccinated, and I know I’ve got two more weeks before I’ll reach maximum protection with a 94.1% efficacy rate.

I had my post-op appointment with my surgeon on Thursday. I had to reschedule to the afternoon due to really bad icing overnight that had caused a 133-vehicle pileup on I-20 just outside of the downtown area, which is where my orthopedic office is located. Thankfully, I made it in the same day.

Dr. Dolce was very pleased with how the incisions looked and with the passive range of my arm. He had the nurse remove my stitches, so now I have to keep steri-strips on until Monday, and then I’m good. He said I could go ahead and ditch the sling unless I’m gonna be in the car or need to rest my shoulder as the day wears on. He said I was cleared to switch to active therapy this next week, and he gave me two stretches I can start doing to increase my range of motion. Both the therapist and the surgeon said that my shoulder blade is still engaging too soon when moving my arm forward, but they both agreed that it has improved a lot from how it was before surgery.

He also went over my surgery photos with me. They put me out of the outpatient surgery center so quickly that he said he missed seeing us afterwards to let us know how it went, so we talked about it at my appointment. He said I had an incredible amount of scar tissue from my previous surgery…it was everywhere and was thick…and then he showed me how inflammatory tissue was growing attached on top of the scar tissue. And the labrum, which originally had lots of small tears and was debrided during the first surgery, also had lots of scar tissue and inflammatory tissue on it. It was a hot mess! Even my new bursa (the previous one was removed during the 1st surgery) was already inflamed! So I truly was chronically inflamed, and since scar tissue does not disappear on its own, it means I would never have gotten better without surgery, and it makes me feel better about my decision to go ahead with the second surgery. I feel vindicated for all the struggles I’ve had for the last 15 months! He said they removed all the scar tissue and inflammatory tissue and cleaned things up and then freed up the joint capsule so they could manipulate my arm through full range of motion during surgery. He said it looked good when they were done.

Dr. Dolce wants me to continue taking Aleve twice a day for another month to help with inflammation. He wants me to come back and see him again in 6 weeks. All should be healed by then.

The wrench in the plan is that we have two back-to-back winter storms moving in this week that are expected to bring record-breaking low temperatures and significant snowfall for North Texas. Icing is expected tonight, switching to snow all day Sunday into the wee hours of Monday. A second storm front is expected to bring even more snow on Tuesday/Wednesday, and temperatures are not expected to rise above freezing until Friday afternoon!

All that snow and ice in an area that can go many years without any snow at all means bad roads, accidents, and things shutting down. I would not be surprised at all if both of my physical therapy appointments this week get canceled! That’s not good at all.

Meanwhile, I’m going to sit back and enjoy the snow. Wind chills are expected to be as low as –15 degrees F! This reminds me of VA winter weather, and I can’t say I’m sorry to see it. I’ve missed my snow!

I’ll leave you with a picture of the lovely acrylic paint-by-number painting I just completed today. I love the cute little fox!