I had a type 8 SLAP tear done up on Friday. I'm a TRT guy, not a gear-head, so my rehab experience won't be directly applicable to a lot of you guys, but I'll be posting highlights for while.

At least until I get my 100th post.
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Anyway, I'm five days post-op and the most painful thing I've had happen thus far was removing the bandages. Before the procedure the anesthesiologist gave me a nerve block in my neck to numb the entire shoulder. I think he targeted the brachial plexus, using an ultrasound to locate the right spot. And he done good.

Then he installed a sort of battery-less pain pump, basically a rubber bladder full of diluted nerve block, with a tube inserted through the same hole in my neck as he used for the needle. The tension on the bladder material causes it to squeeze the fluid and pump a slow but steady stream of nerve block through a very tiny tube, which ran into my neck and dribbled it onto the targeted nerve. In less than 48 hours I regained complete feeling in that hand but the shoulder area was still completely without any sensation when I removed the tube from my neck on the third day. It was six or eight hours later before I began getting feeling back in the shoulder.

I'm afraid this ain't my first rodeo because I had a torn supraspinatus repaired almost two years ago. I had been taking particular pains with this shoulder ever since, and I have no idea how I'd hurt it, but I'm hoping that now that he's seen the damage, the surgeon will have some insight what might have caused it. I go back to see him later this week. My worst fear is that he won't have a clue, or that he thinks it was 'spontaneous,' which basically amount to the same thing. It's natural wear and tear from old age and decrepitude. Or it could be the long-term consequence of all the dislocations and subluxations I gave myself when I used to ride motocross. Ah, the joys of a misspent youth!

With the rotator cuff surgery I had to wear the giant-sized DonJoy "cradle" immobilizer. What I'm in now is another DonJoy product but it's like a 1/3rd scale version of the cradle. The elbow and forearm are carried much closer to the shortribs. The difference is they want the elbow carried further away from the body to take tension off of the rotator cuff tissues until they can begin to knit. When worn, the whole contraption is somewhat narrower than the cradle which makes it easier to navigate around the house and get in and out of a car. Especially since both of these surgeries have been to the left shoulder, closing a car door once you're in the driver's seat is an adventure, especially with the full-sized cradle.

At this moment I'm in absolutely no discomfort. The only real pain I've had since the surgery is pulling off the bandages, especially the tape that held down the delivery tube for the nerve block. It wasn't just taped, there was a glue applied to the skin with a brush, then the tape was pressed down onto the glue, because they really, really don't want you accidentally pulling out the tube before you're likely to be past the worst of the pain. And that glued-on tape was a bitch to get off.

The part of the tube that ran into my neck measures about 0.035" OD, which is about the same as a 20-gauge needle. There was about a 2" length of it left in my neck but it was painless to withdraw.

I know they make en electrical stimulation nerve block for post-op pain but I've never experienced one of them. However, this chemical gizmo definitely was the dog's balls, the shortest possible route to being both clear of mind and free from pain.

And the doc gave me a butt-load of percoset in case there was still pain so about two hours after I pulled the tube, I took a dose of Doctor Feelgood. Which probably wasn't necessary but it made going to sleep easier.

Because trying to sleep while wearing an immobilizer is a motherfucker. It reminded me of "stress position" interrogation in SERE school. You can't stand not to try to move but trying to move only makes it worse. It's maddening. Especially if you move around a lot in bed. Me? I move around so much I wear a GPS when I go to bed so I can tell which continent I'm on when I get up in the morning. The last time I did this it left my circadian rhythms were fucked up for months after.

The moral of this story is: don't fuck up your shoulders.