Re: Ouch

egads that sounds bad. Mine doesn't hurt much and I about 75% strength.
Luckily it's my left arm and I don't do anything left handed. I think
I'll live with the floating collar bone. I just wonder what happens when
I break the collar  in half. 

Jay C wrote:
> 
> "Paul" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > How long did you go until having the surgery? Why was it so bad? I
> > assume they cut 1/2" or so off the end of the collar bone.
> 
> I had to get the surgery because I couldn't hold any weight with my arm in
> front of me.  My shoulder degraded over time to where I couldn't lift it
> over my head or throw overhand at all.  I did PT for a few months to try and
> get out of surgery, and my mobility did improve greatly - after a few months
> of intense muscle building, I could do just about everything pain-free,
> except hold a weight out in front of me.  For example, if I was carring a
> vacuum cleaner through a doorway, and I put in front of me to go through,
> I'd crumple.  I got the surgery because of the inability to do that one
> movement and because I knew that the condition was degererative.
> 
> The surgery involves cutting down both scapula and collar bone ends at an
> angle to make more clearance room (not to mention removing the big hunks of
> calcium that has grown there by then), then drilling holes near the end of
> the collar bone.  There are two ligaments in the shoulder that go from one
> spot on the scapula to another place on the scapula - basically put there as
> spare parts from what I can figure - that get cut and threaded up and
> attached to the end of the collar bone via sutures into the holes drilled
> into the ends.  The ligaments are laced onto the bone, and that's petty much
> it.  Once the ligaments attach, they keep the collar bone from moving up and
> making the telltale bump, and keep things stable.  My surgeon also did some
> grinding through the center of my shoulder to open up some passages in there
> that seemed a bit tight.
> 
> It is a pretty major surgery as you are making fairly drastic changes to the
> anatomy of your shoulder - bone is cut and drilled, and you are grafting
> ligament directly to bone (unlike an ACL replacement, that uses bone plugs)
> so the recovery time is very long.  You can't move anything for a month,
> until the bone and ligaments fuse, then PT is gentle and slow (and really
> painful).  It hurts WAY more and for WAY longer then knee reconstruction
> surgery (I had two of them).
> 
> Jay