I've not written in over two months. It's not for lack of excitement in my RA life, it's likely due to overexcitement. I just can't seem to bring myself to write down the amount of poking and prodding I've been through this summer - somehow this the final step in accepting that I am having a total shoulder replacement on October 16th. There I said it.
This summer I've had a shoulder biopsy, three bone scans, series of x-rays and blood work all in an effort to rule out an infection in my right shoulder. When the results came back negative, I was relieved, no one wants to deal with the extensive pain and procedure involved in managing an infection in a artificial joint site. At the same time, it was hard to hear. What it really meant, was that all the pain I've been feeling in my shoulder was all mine and could not be explained away by an infection. And it was a tough pill to swallow. If I didn't have further shoulder surgery, this would be my life and my pain forever. And it's unacceptable. Right now, I'm taking from one to five Tylenol 1's per day to manage the pain. That's up to 40 mg of codeine a day to manage the pain. I'm not comfortable with that as a lifelong ongoing pain management tool. It's off to surgery I go.
I'm essentially having a total shoulder replacement this time. This is my third surgery in as many years. They are removing bone from my iliac crest in my hip and grafting that into my glenoid (socket part of the shoulder) and replacing the humeral head hardware from my current smaller implant into a full 10 cm stem that runs down the shaft of the humeral head. Essentially, more bone, more metal, more robust shoulder.
I've struggled sorting through what I think about all of this. On one hand, I feel like I'm watching a movie of someone else's life - like I have many times before on my RA journey. But I'm not that lucky. There is no dream to wake up from. This is it, man. This is my life. And I'm still trying to process. I've taken quite while to publish this post, but I always had a song in mind - Oasis, "Don't Look Back in Anger". I'm looking back. I'm angry.
3 comments:
So, so sorry to hear the news Megan - I can only imagine how discouraging this must be. Sending you mega huge wishes for the best possible outcome and a speedy recovery.
I can't blame you for being angry, Megan. You've had so many surgeries and so much pain with this shoulder already. But perhaps this will be the one that ends the pain and disability, the painkiller dependance and the constant frustration. My fingers are crossed for that.
In the meantime, please know that you have friends out here in the blogosphere who care and wish you only the best.
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