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More hospital fun

It’s a beautiful day to have a shoulder hacked on.

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Stephen is having a shoulder surgery today. This is a long story that I will try to make short and concise.

Way back in college days, he dislocated his shoulder. He put it back in place and took some advil and called it fixed. In college, the invincible flows deeper than the bad booze and student loans. Over the past 20 years, he had a few times when it shifted or got sore but nothing serious.

Well..3 weeks ago he went fishing. And he braced his arm on the dock to stop the boat and the dock was slimy with leftover mud from the day before. His arm went sliding and slid right out of his socket. It was a bad bad dislocation. He managed to put it back in. He asked the work doctor who he should see about it and he quickly got an appt with a local (Tuscaloosa) doctor. He got the MRI and had an appt for surgery. Then, he decided to ask around to see about others’ experiences with this doctor. Yikes. He decided to seek further attention with a team in Birmingham and they happen to be very highly referred because this group treats the Alabama football team, the Atlanta Braves, and quite a few pro athletes. Surely, they can fix this shoulder. So here we are in St. Vincent’s to see Dr. Cain of the Andrews Sports Medicine Clinic. Made famous recently by treating an LSU police officer after the game Saturday.

After he got sent back for pre-op, I went to find lunch. I was amazed at the selections. Good food! Pecan crusted chicken, herbed green beans that were tender but not slimy, and roasted butternut squash. I devoured every bite.

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Then the big wait started. It was only supposed to take 45min- 1 hour. I kept checking the handy progress board and that stupid surgical mask icon hung around for 2 hours. I was pacing the floor, imagining the worst, texting my momma, watching the board.

Finally, he was sent to PACU which is recovery stage 1.

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I waited another hour to get the phone call that I could go see him. He was sitting up asking if we won the game. It turns out that one of his nurses was also an SEC referee and they had been talking football before he went under.

On the way home! That smile should last a while. The nerve block is good for another 12 hours 😉

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He has a long road to recovery. He will be out of work for 6-8 weeks minimum. We will be tightening the purse strings and I’m hoping my extra tutoring during the week will help stretch my paycheck. With his job, you don’t work, you don’t get paid. They do have a “light duty” program that will, hopefully, get him back on plant site in a few weeks at 50% average pay. This will be a slim holiday for us, but we have all we need…our health and each other. 🙂