The good word

I meet with the orthopedist today and was told that surgery would not be needed, hooray! Turns out my very loose ligaments, which generated an "oh boy" of surprise when testing the flexibility of my left arm/joints, helped, more than hurt, my dislocation. Because my ligaments are so lose nothing snapped or tore, however, the looseness also allowed for a rather extreme dislocation. This diagnosis was affirmed by: the fireman's befuddled reaction at the dislocation, the required drugged-up-and-knocked-out method of re-location, and the 4 person team needed to re-insert my shoulder.

One of the x-rays revealed a break to part of my bone, but the little bone bit just chillin there will not require surgery and should heal in place. I get an MRI tomorrow to confirm, but overall it doesn't seem to be a big deal.

The first image below is of my dislocated shoulder. The dislocation was forward and down, waaay down. When I felt the gap between shoulder and arm it felt a little larger than from my pinky to my index finger held together. The second image is after they put it back in. This must have been another sneak procedure as I have no recollection of it taking place. The third is a close up to see the break. Its not as clear in this x-ray from a week ago as it was in today's but you can still kind of see it.

I have two more weeks in the sling and then will start 4-6 weeks of PT. The Dr. wanted the extra sling time to allow the ligaments to heal a little tighter than the average joe since they started out so loose ,and he was concerned that PT now would push me too hard, too fast. The sling isn't really my favorite fashion accessory, but thankfully its fall instead of summer.



The thing that looks like 2 paper-clips is a part of my sports bra, and you'll notice, that is where my arm bone is too.  X-ray was taken straight on as I sat in the hospital bed.



Back where it should be. 

That little bump is actually free roaming, broken bone.  ok, not that free roaming.