The surgeon originally told me that most everyone with the kind of hardware I have in my arm eventually has it removed due to pain and discomfort. I need to have this done before the end of the year in order to avoid paying my insurance deductible all over again. And I'm
very eager to see if it helps alleviate the pain I get when lifting or pushing things, pain when I do physical therapy to work on regaining more extension of my elbow, pain when I hit a bump while riding my bike, pain from a bumping my elbow on anything solid, resting it on a table, sleeping on it, reaching for something on a shelf... you get the idea. Pain of a lesser or greater degree from a whole lot of "normal" things I used to take for granted.
Although this is a fully anesthetized operation, it's fairly minor and should be a quick recovery (primarily waiting for the incision to heal up, then back to normal.) I hope the have less pain and sensitivity, be able to work harder on range of motion stretches, and to start lifting weights to regain strength in my left side. I've lost a lot of strength from the injury and the ongoing pain limitations.
Here's my range of motion before the surgery:
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| flexion is very good, almost back to normal |
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| extension is a problem- this is as straight as I can go |
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| scar from first surgery |
....and... things went really smoothly! No significant post-operative pain, a soft splint that allows me to bend my arm some and use my hand fairly effectively. Nice! I even made a batch of chocolate chip cookies in the afternoon. Only took prescription painkiller for the rest of the day, after that I felt ok on my own.
I should be all set to return to work on my bike by Monday.... carefully. I built up my old touring buddy Bianchi cyclocross bike into a winterized urban warrior before the surgery. It's what I'll be riding while my arm heals (and whenever it snows.) Currently set up with narrow knobby tires, mountain bike style flat bar handlebars, brakes and shifters.
