Good morning, all of you lovely people on my son’s old computer. I don’t think he’d mind me using it, since I haven’t seen him in twenty years. Ever since he ran off with that–
Oh, I’m sorry, I can go on sometimes. And that’s not what this community is for, is it? No… but I do have a shoulder surgery I’m preparing for. It’s actually quite a big one, my doctor tells me: a full shoulder replacement. It’s a little bit scary, I won’t lie to you, and I will be needing a bit of support over the coming few weeks.
I’d just gone in to see my doctor because my shoulder was hurting so much at night, when I was trying to sleep, and he explained that I had arthritis – in my shoulder! I asked him if there was any cream or pill I needed to take to clear it up and he shook his head and told me I was actually going to need a total replacement. I must have looked quite scared, so he explained it to me pretty quickly.
Firstly, he’s given me a referral to the most highly regarded shoulder surgeon around. Melbourne is only a little drive from our town, and he said that he could talk to his wife about taking me if I needed a lift (which I will). Then he told me about the surgery itself.
He told me to picture a ball in a socket, which is all your shoulder really is apparently. Because my arthritis has gotten so bad, a bunch of the cartilage on the end of my ball and my socket has worn away, so the bones can’t move as freely anymore. That’s where my pain comes from, he tells me. So they’ve got to replace those bits where the cartilage is supposed to be, with metal or plastic or ceramic, or some such.
I’ll keep everyone posted on how my journey goes
Ta,
-Dorothy