Brace comes off on Tuesday and I start strength conditioning next week.
On topic. One of the most frustrating things about this has been the number of things I never thought about being unable to do before this accident, all made much more difficult by the fact that I live alone. For example, for a week or so, I had to go to my neighbor to tie my shoes in the morning. There are so many things you just do not think about until WHAM- you have no choice but to think about it.
Over the next couple of months, I think I am going to write a manual on how to recover from a shoulder injury and post it online, with tips and suggestions for people. I’ll post the preliminary results and you all can add in.
cleek
yo. let me comment again!
Punchy
No offense, but this just made me spit water on my keyboard. Too damn funny.
Richard Bottoms
Wah. My neck surgery hurts worse than your shoulder. :-)
Bret
That’s why God invented loafers.
Henry
I am a new reader and didn’t catch how you got hurt but you have my sympathies anyway.
I too got whacked, in the knee cap by a car bumper in my case. You’d be suprised about how often you NEED a knee to bend. Especially living in a trailer as I did at the time.
I had a dog that needed walking, steps to get into my small home, just getting in bed at night was a challenge , not counting the short toilet in a travel trailer.
My shoulder ? Ugh. Knee was bad enough thank you.
Get well soon, please.
Henry
MattR
Tip Number 1: Let the dog walk on snow and ice.
Tom
I either tore or pulled something in my shoulder a week ago. It’s slowly getting better, and not nearly as serious as John’s injury, but I can relate. I could barely put my socks on my myself.
But the biggest thing was watching the Olympics and thinking of how much pain I would be in if I attempted anything close to what they were doing (especially checking someone in hockey).
clone12
You need to sell a “shoulder strong” bracelet. :-)
carlos the dwarf
Via Yglesias:
Primaryfail
So now the Texas democrats are as crazy as the Texas republicans.
GReynoldsCT00
Well you could go full metal hippie and wear clogs…
lol
When I had my shoulder injury, I found I couldn’t punch hippies as often as I would’ve liked.
Violet
Congrats on getting this far. Tuesday will be a big day. Your shoulder injury recovery manual will probably be a big help to other folks down the road.
JenJen
@Bret:
And Velcro.
SP
You didn’t switch over to Merrells?
Incertus (Brian)
I am making a brief appearance in blogworld during a daring escape from gradingland. Maybe I can make more than one comment in a place in a day, though I wouldn’t count on it.
Anyway, here in Florida, another whackjob legislator wants to put doctors in jail for doing abortions.
MBunge
That’s why you need a wife. Or one of them trained monkeys.
Mike
Steeplejack
Cole:
Great idea on the manual, and to do it while everything is fresh in your mind.
When I broke my jaw I was surprised at how little information I could find on the Interwebs, and what I could find mostly had to do with outlandish schemes to liquify “normal” food. That proved to be useless for me. I sent my appetite to stay with relatives out of town and subsisted on protein shakes and broth for two months. And I think I mentioned before the horror of not being able to brush the backs of my teeth. For. two. months. [Shudder]
Dork
Can we call it the Rahm A. Manual?
nancydarling
OT, but could all of you call Stupak’s office and voice your concerns because he is willing to torpedo HC because of his religious beliefs—not shared by many Christians. I just called. Let’s jam his phone lines. The number is:
202-225-4735
Fergus Wooster
@MBunge:
No monkeys! Dear God, man, haven’t you seen Monkey Shines??
Tsulagi
Damn, that would really suck. I hope you had sense enough to ask a hot neighbor to bend down to tie your shoes rather than the nearest asscrack displaying bubba.
Michael D.
From The Onion:
My Constituents Care Way More About Political Gamesmanship Than Jobs, Health Care, And The Economy
– By House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH)
Stooleo
carlos the dwarf @ 8
Is there a new meme that I’ve missed? Obama is now under the control of imperial Brits? Please tell me that’s a spoof site. The crazy burns my brain.
J.W. Hamner
I broke my left wrist and a bone in my right hand in a car accident… that was an awkward recovery. Luckily I was at my mom’s house and the pain pills knocked me out for the worst of it… once my right hand recovered it wasn’t so terrible.
WereBear
@Tsulagi: You go with the neighbor you have…
And kudos on the progress! I think a manual to help others is a wonderful idea.
Tunch & Lily not helpful with shoelace tying, I guess.
Persia
@carlos the dwarf: “Now?”
Corner Stone
@carlos the dwarf: Kesha Rogers got a thousand votes in a primary to see who could waste all their money against R-Olson in CD-TX22.
She’s like all LaRoucheians – a tool to be used by others for a reason.
I could’ve got a thousand votes if I had felt like wasting the filing fee.
This result means less than nothing about nothing.
Seth 4:10
Today’s the 10th Anniversary of the PlayStation 2!
I’m gonna celebrate via a San Andreas road trip with KDUST turned up full blast.
Rick Massimo
You always learn something when you’re hurt, even if it’s minor: Who knew that the food that makes you open your mouth the widest is salad? Cut the corner of your mouth and you will know.
Fergus Wooster
@Stooleo:
Standard LaRouche nonsense. Ever since we abandoned the gold standard, the Brits and the Trilateral Commission (and the Jooz) have been the puppet-masters behind our gov’mnt.
Bill E Pilgrim
Food.
If you ever have surgery that puts you on a liquid diet, for weeks, not to mention months, you develop the most surreal appreciation of food.
It really makes you understand why people fasted, and that we all should still. We just throw it down, particularly in the West.
I still have an extremely heightened appreciation of food in general almost two years later. Taking things for granted, not good. We just have to lose it, for not even a long time, to realize why.
FlipYrWhig
“Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda”?
James K. Polk, Esq.
Glad you feel better.
I just tried to tie my shoes with one hand, seemed to work out ok. Maybe that’s cause I ain’t in excruciating pain, though…
Corner Stone
This is the guy who, IIRC, was on pain meds and severely limited range of motion and *had* to clean his entire apartment *before* his mother showed up.
It does not surprise me in the least that he continued to insist on wearing lace-up shoes during this ordeal.
AlanDean
Don’t punch me, I’m a hippie and right now I’m wearing Birkenstock’s. No laces. Been wearing them for years. Been a hippie for longer.
I also have “Frozen Shoulder” as a side effect of trauma induced arthritis. There is a cute little forest of bone spurs growing into the joint that joins my collar bone to my shoulder. My right shoulder and I am right handed. Naturally.
The pain is sometimes overwhelming, especially when I make sudden movements like to pull my arm out of harm’s way or accidentally bump into a door jam. The rest of the time my arm throbs or the pain goes into my back or up my neck. Monday I see the surgeon. I understand recovery is faster than fixing a torn rotator cuff. Fortunately I have housemates.
John, so much of what you have been writing about your shoulder… well, just saying I’m looking forward to your “manual”. Rahm E. Manual.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Tsulagi: I’m trying to picture the geometry, or choreography, of how someone would have to tie your shoes in order for you to see his…
Never mind. I think I’d rather not.
daverave
I’m scheduled for a total hip replacement next week. Fortunately I have a compliant wife who claims she will tend to all of my needs ;-) Then again, this morning she was joking about going all Kathy Bates on me.
After I recover/rehab, I’m going to get the other hip done this year only because I’m worried about losing health coverage. I would wait to do both surgeries a few more years (I’m “only” 55) but if we were to lose our benefits, I’d never get coverage. As it is, I figure I’ll be uninsurable from this point forward. Thank the FSM that the Republicans are doing all they can to defend this system. BTW, the “list” price for each surgery is $100k.
Corner Stone
@FlipYrWhig:
“Cold as Ice: The life, loves and laments of an erstwhile dogwalker”
slag
Step 2: Click-train Tunch to tie your shoes.
freelancer
Congrats on the progress. Yeah, living alone while injured really lets you know how much you take for granted.
Two links so far this morning:
TPM – I am getting really sick of paranoid, chest-thumping, bed-wetting white people.
And James Wolcott is on Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast.
WereBear
@freelancer: re the TPM link: Lawszy.
That picture says a thousand words. But I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for rescue… they have to get out of the recliners, first.
I have to get back to work shortly, so I’m just throwing this out there: I think we have an crazy old person problem.
I really do.
RareSanity
@GReynoldsCT00:
I believe, in hippieland, they are called Birkenstock.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@GReynoldsCT00:
__
Phixt.
Pasquinade
@John Cole – glad that you are well on your way to recovery.
@AlanDean – I, too, had a “frozen shoulder”. A couple of months of painful and useless physical therapy before the orthopedist decided “surgery” was the answer.
It wasn’t really surgery, but a manipulation of the shoulder while under general anesthesia. He said that he had never heard so many “pops” – the sound of the adhesions being broken.
For two weeks I still walked around protecting my shoulder by holding the arm close to the body.
When I began to get that stiffness in my other shoulder, I exercised it frequently, and that prevented it.
Betsy
@WereBear:
Fixed.
Maude
How about doing a manual with injury categories?
Hip, jaw, hand etc.
Steeplejack
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Amen to that. I still get an intense craving for Wendy’s chili once every couple of months or so. After my wires came off I still couldn’t deal well with real food–my jaws were very weak and still sore–and one of the first successful meals I had happened to be a cup of Wendy’s chili. ZOMG! It was like crack. So every so often I have to chase the chili dragon. Even as I eat it I know it’s not that great, but it’s imprinted in my sense memory.
The reverse of that is that when I see bouillon cubes (for making broth) I almost automatically want to hurl. And there are certain thin soups that I am done with forever. (Campbell’s cream of tomato, I’m talking to you.)
BenA
@WereBear:
@Betsy:
Fixed it some more…
Seriously… no offense to a lot of boomers out there… but I’m sitting here waiting patiently for your generation to die off… or at least get to infirmed to vote regularly.
fraught
@Bret: Exactly! You’d think a smarty-pants like John Cole would know that. But maybe he’s an atheist and doesn’t get stuff like that.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Steeplejack:
That’s uncanny, I actually was going to include soup, not bouillion cubes exactly (though sometimes) as my version of your chili.
They made this consommé for me in the hotel/clinic place I was in at first and my god, I’ve never tasted anything so good.
Real food, still months away, became imbued with this glowing quality, I’d walk by people in restaurants or shops along the street and think –my god, they can just…eat that…
Homer Simpson’s line from the episode when he got food poisoning and the doctor said “You’ll be back on solids within a week!”, and he responded “Mmmmm…. solids..” became less like a joke and more like a profound prayer, that I completely understood.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@BenA:
__
No offense taken. I’m waiting for your generation to get their collective head out of their collective ass.
No offense, of course.
BenA
@Comrade Scrutinizer:
None taken… at least we had the collective sense not to vote for McCain though… *cough* ;-)
Joe Doaks
You mean you didn’t get a “shoulder kit”? When I had a hip replacement they gave me a “hip kit” that had special tools for putting on socks and shoes. You really need to go with loafers.
The Truffle
This is my new favorite music video: Shine by Final Placement.
licensed to kill time
I am happy to see you continue to make progress, JC.
In my experience, any wounded/malfunctioning body part or illness gives you renewed appreciation for what your body does for you automatically every day.
I once contracted an eye infection in Central Asia that wrinkled the conjunctivas and at one point I woke up with my eyes glued shut with blood. I couldn’t see and my eyes were bleeding. It’s scary not to be able to see.
Then there is the guaranteed weight loss program that is amoebic dysentery. You will appreciate a normally working gut after a few go-rounds with that one. I used to tell all my friends complaining about how hard it is to lose weight to buy a plane ticket to New Delhi and head straight to one of those street corner carts that sell ice cold water out of communal cups. Guaranteed to make you lose 25 lbs in a week or so – just make sure you have a bathroom handy, because you will be visiting it every 10 minutes or so, day and night.
I broke my ankle quite badly some years ago and while my experience was nothing like your shoulder, it was really an eye opener on how easy it is to break a bone and how long and difficult the recovery can be. I am still paranoid about injuring it again and it still hurts in cold weather.
Whatever part it is that goes wrong/gets injured is suddenly the most important part of your body and makes you realize how much for granted you take it.
Salud!
Maude
@licensed to kill time: Do you have a problem getting health insurance?
licensed to kill time
@Maude:
I haven’t had health insurance for years. I live outside the US so I don’t know what the situation would be as far as getting health insurance in the US if I were to return. Probably grim.
trollhattan
@ John Cole–Very happy to hear you’re being freed of your bondage, literally, next week. Maybe it will also stop snowing to prevent a re-occurrence?
Since is open thread, I share the following from Iglasias for two reasons: That a LaRouchie has won the Democratic primary for the Texas 22nd (DeLay’s old seat) and to note comment #7, which has an eerie similarity to BJ’s best known and chattiest troll.
yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2010/03/primaryfail.php#comments
Jason B at Work
God, there’s one thing in particular that I know I really need the use of my arm to do, and I do it everyday, sometimes three times a day.
Why is everyone looking at me like that? Nobody else here drinks tea?
freelancer
@Jason B at Work:
Wii Curling is the sport for you.
twiffer
@Bret: my thoughts exactly. or velcro, even.
Mike E
Sorry for being a nag–setbacks in your PT will be the norm, so try not to fret. All the comments about ‘adhesions’ and spurs describe a bell that was clocked and is still ringing–just keep in mind that your joint will be a work in progress for another 6mos, so do everything you therapist prescribes. Nothing more!
Kyle
I remember a news story mentioning that Bob Dole used some kind of device to help him get dressed using one arm. You can probably find it online somewhere.
Janet Strange
@BenA: I think you’re unclear about who the boomers are. Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964. They’re 46-64 now.
I’d like to see a link that shows that the 46-64 year olds voted for McCain. I don’t believe it. The majority of boomers did not vote for Bush in ’04. The majority of Gen X’s (aka the Reagan Youth, like our well-loved host) did.
Boomers are more Democratic than the generations on either side of them. Not as much as our kids (the Millennials), but I like to think that’s cuz we raised ’em right.
Billy K
Like you, John, I live alone. I had a broken clavicle a couple years ago. Putting on socks and tying shoes became a never-ending exercise in futility and pain. Those were a couple of the worst things I never knew I took for granted. Everything became a huge, painful ordeal. It made me really rethink not having a domestic partner. Maybe putting up with someone else’s crap is worth it in case you get seriously injured. (that is 90% a joke)
I can’t wait to become elderly.
Glad you’re progressing along.
trollhattan
@ Kyle
It’s called an “Elizabeth.”
cay
I once met a guy who broke BOTH elbows mountain biking. He said the worst thing about recovery was having his friend wipe his ass every day. Be glad you have one good arm!
drkrick
I remember a news story mentioning that Bob Dole used some kind of device to help him get dressed using one arm. You can probably find it online somewhere.
It’s called an “Elizabeth.”
No, Elizabeth was the wife he traded in his former nurse for after she’d gotten all old and stuff. Odd that the “family values” party keeps nominating guys that do that.
Steeplejack
@cay:
I hadn’t thought about that. When I was a little kid my father broke both his elbows. He was talking to the mailman, stepped backward and tripped over a low brick wall. ¡Caramba! My elbows hurt just thinking about it. Hadn’t thought of that in years.
suzanne
@Fergus Wooster:
And the Bilderbergs. Or Build-A-Bergs. Or Build-A-Bears. Or whatever the fuck they’re called.
***now envisioning a whole array of stealthy-looking teddy bears wearing $4000 suits while plotting to take over TEH VURLD!***
The Chief
Another one, huh?
cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/03/04/crimesider/entry6266524.shtml
asiangrrlMN
Glad you’re getting better, Cole, but you get no sympathy for the tying your shoelaces thing. Masochist.
@Betsy: Well, Reagan did throw out all mentally-ill people onto the streets in the eighties….Another legacy of President Trickle-Down-Economy? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
@The Chief: Yeah. What a total surprise. No once could see that coming. Hypocrites.
geg6
@Steeplejack:
I can relate. I believe I’ve mentioned here before that when I had to get my wisdom teeth out, they had to break my jaw because my roots were wrapped around my jawbone. And trying to convert normal food to liquid for those of us with our jaws wired shut simply doesn’t work. I ate a lot of baby food (the fruit kind) and broth (after the holes from the missing wisdom teeth healed enough to have hot liquids). But in one small way, I was lucky when it happened. My sister was running a gourmet ice cream shop and she kept me supplied in large quantities of delicious milk shakes and ice cream with no chunks. That kept me going until I figured out that, with my small overbite, I could push a Cheerio through the gap, allowing me to eat something that seemed somewhat solid (even though I had to let it melt in my mouth so as to not swallow it whole). The best part was losing about 20 pounds on a diet of ice cream.
That said, there really was no best part of it. It all sucked.
HRA
Good luck, John on the next phase of your recovery.
Just a thought – be glad you didn’t have to hook up a bra with one arm.
Two weeks after dental surgery for me and I am sick of the soft stuff. Harvey’s ad during the Olympics made me close to insanity for real food.
freelancer
@HRA:
Maybe John has a “bro”.
Skepticat
@cay: Now that is a true friend.
JC, I think your idea of a guide to recuperation and dealing with problems you never thought you’d have is an excellent idea. And those who say that you should do it whilst the experience is still fresh in your mind are spot on.
After stints of doing hospice care I’ve considered writing a layperson’s guide about how to handle that (but thank goodness it isn’t fresh in my mind at the moment), and am currently trying to persuade a friend to write a book about the experience she and her husband are going through with his heart and kidney transplants.
Fergus Wooster
@suzanne: Ha! You made me laugh.
There is also the weird fixation on Bertrand Russell, whom LaRouche calls the “most evil man ever to have lived”.
On the plus side, his folks do corner Joe Lieberman at meet-and-greets and sing some musical chant about what a fascist he is – to his face. Stopped clocks, and all that.
trollhattan
@The Chef 71
“Worstest: records show his name really spelled ‘Assburn.'”
Surprisingly, he’s already lasted longer than Mike Duvall did.
Carrie
@Corner Stone:
Yeah, the all important “changing of the shower curtain”.
(/Rolls eyes.)
Kobie
Sort of been there, John. Blew out my left ankle, broken my right foot (twice). Makes it a real pain in the ass to get around, especially with the two breaks, since that pretty much means no driving. I’ve been lucky with the arms, though — haven’t done much to those. Trying to go through life one-handed has got to suck. Good luck with your recovery.
Steeplejack
@geg6:
Yeah, the weight loss was a silver lining, but not much of one.