i’m going to skip capitalization and might leave more misspellings than usual in this post. i will explain .

friday was the day of my rotator cuff surgery. i walked the dogs just before dawn, and we were waiting at outpatient registration by 8 am. after they took me back for prep, they injected about a dozen different medications. prednisone for nausea. a couple of pain meds. antibiotics. some other stuff.

they gave me this stylish cap because i was getting the special on hair highlighting, or so leah told me. i recently got a haircut [yay second vaccination!], so there wasn’t much hair to work on.

despite my expression, this was before all the injections.

after they injected the sedative and stuck a mask for oxygen and anesthesia, and i was out, they stuck a syringe into my neck and gave me a block that paralyzed and numbed my right side from the rightmost part of my diaphragm to the tips of my fingers.

shortly after that, by my own perception, i woke up dazed and confused. i couldn’t understand why they had me carrying around a bag filled with someone else’s arm, but it turned out that they had placed my right arm in a sling.

after freely emptying my bladder, a requirement for release, and a few other adjustments, leah drove me home. there i was able to explore the effects of the block.

my arm felt cold and dead, until i touched my hand and realized it was still alive, at least in some cruel parody of life. at this point as i write this, about 12 hours after the block, i can make weak grASPING [dang. hit the caps lock] motions with my fingers, but have absolutely no ability to extend my fingers in the opposite direction. see below.

you might hear zoe whining in the background. she likes peanut butter and was afraid i wouldn’t be able to open the jar. leah came to the rescue.

as to my rotator cuff, i have no doubt that if and when my power of movement returns, and my shoulder heals, i will have a fully functioning shoulder. the same surgeon who did my left shoulder did this one, and my left rotator cuff has been operating at or near 100 percent for more than a decade. he’s a good surgeon, and the ladies agree that he is “cute” as well. the ladies keep asking whether i agree. he’s certainly passable in a surgical mask and cap.

he told my wife that operating on my shoulder was much easier than some he works on [probably including the strapping young man who waited in line after us] because i have no fAT [what, again?] on my shoulder. so, collecting all my body fat around my waist finally paid off.

aside from an arm that feels literally dead, or in its death throes, my only after effects have been slight nausea, lack of appetite and a terrible taste in my mouth, that, i assume, comes from all the chemicals my body is trying to eliminate. the block will wear off in a matter of hours, maybe by the time anyone happens to read this post, and i expect to have some level of pain. i have been supplied with drugs for that eventuality

in the meantime, i expect to have my first night’s sleep in weeks that isn’t interrupted by shoulder aches and pains.