Many of you have been praying for my shoulder, so I wanted to give a full update and to say thank you so much for your prayers!
I had arthroscopic surgery on my right shoulder 4.5 months ago (July), due to a shoulder that easily dislocated and also due to tears in the shoulder capsule that had happened due to an old injury.
I had arthroscopic surgery on my right shoulder 4.5 months ago (July), due to a shoulder that easily dislocated and also due to tears in the shoulder capsule that had happened due to an old injury.
The big blue ball in the picture here is what I use now for my physical therapy exercises. We bought the ball here, and it took Eric 2 weeks to pump it up with a 15cc air hand pump! (He got some exercise in, too. :) )
However, this last week I had been having intermittent pain in my shoulder again - similar to the pain I had had before the surgery....Yikes! Two days ago, Eric and I decided it was time for me to see someone. A local friend found the name and contact info for an orthopaedic surgeon in town. When I called, they initially said they were booked till the end of February, but in looking again, they found they had a cancellation for the next day, in the afternoon after our language school is out! And the office is downtown, a place that's easy to get to using public transportation (since we don't have a car). Not only that, but I later heard from another physician here that this orthopaedist has the best reputation in the whole region. That's all God's work, there....
I just had the appointment yesterday. The physician thought my exam was really pretty good and that I'd had a very good result from the surgery. He thought the shoulder felt stable on his exam. He didn't think any hardware had slipped. He thought that the pain comes from the internal surgical repair sites as they rub with moving tendons and bones and cause increased inflammation. He said that sometimes with this, there are localized muscle cramps that can also be painful and wax and wane like the pain I described to him. He said to expect pain like this, off and on, for many months still as the shoulder continues to heal, and that that is normal and just part of the process.
He thought that maybe I had been too ambitious with my postoperative physical therapy exercises and recommended that I take it more slowly. He recommended ibuprofen three times a day for a week, and that I follow up with my US surgeon over Christmas break as scheduled. Overall, it was a reassuring visit and I was blessed!
It was actually an interesting cultural experience to go to the doctor here, too. In the waiting room, when you walk in you're supposed to say "bonjour," and everyone replies, "bonjour." And when you leave, you're supposed to say, "au revoir," and everyone replies again. The doctor himself called me back to the exam room, and there was no nurse, no asking of past medical history, and no vital signs taken, just: "Tell me, what's going on?" (Except all in French. He knew some English but stated at the beginning that we were going to speak French - "Mais, nous allons parler Francais," is how he put it.) And he took notes on a plain old pad of white paper, sitting across a big desk from me. The other shock was that the visit cost less than $40! That's lower than our Swiss friends expected, and we were initially told it would be $100-200, so we think the orthopaedist gave us a discount :)
Thank you so much for your prayers. Jeremiah 32:27 says, "Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?" It's true! NOTHING is too difficult for Him, if it is His will to accomplish it.
It was also encouraging to be able to to this all in French - the phone call to make the appointment, and the appointment itself. We are learning!
However, this last week I had been having intermittent pain in my shoulder again - similar to the pain I had had before the surgery....Yikes! Two days ago, Eric and I decided it was time for me to see someone. A local friend found the name and contact info for an orthopaedic surgeon in town. When I called, they initially said they were booked till the end of February, but in looking again, they found they had a cancellation for the next day, in the afternoon after our language school is out! And the office is downtown, a place that's easy to get to using public transportation (since we don't have a car). Not only that, but I later heard from another physician here that this orthopaedist has the best reputation in the whole region. That's all God's work, there....
I just had the appointment yesterday. The physician thought my exam was really pretty good and that I'd had a very good result from the surgery. He thought the shoulder felt stable on his exam. He didn't think any hardware had slipped. He thought that the pain comes from the internal surgical repair sites as they rub with moving tendons and bones and cause increased inflammation. He said that sometimes with this, there are localized muscle cramps that can also be painful and wax and wane like the pain I described to him. He said to expect pain like this, off and on, for many months still as the shoulder continues to heal, and that that is normal and just part of the process.
He thought that maybe I had been too ambitious with my postoperative physical therapy exercises and recommended that I take it more slowly. He recommended ibuprofen three times a day for a week, and that I follow up with my US surgeon over Christmas break as scheduled. Overall, it was a reassuring visit and I was blessed!
It was actually an interesting cultural experience to go to the doctor here, too. In the waiting room, when you walk in you're supposed to say "bonjour," and everyone replies, "bonjour." And when you leave, you're supposed to say, "au revoir," and everyone replies again. The doctor himself called me back to the exam room, and there was no nurse, no asking of past medical history, and no vital signs taken, just: "Tell me, what's going on?" (Except all in French. He knew some English but stated at the beginning that we were going to speak French - "Mais, nous allons parler Francais," is how he put it.) And he took notes on a plain old pad of white paper, sitting across a big desk from me. The other shock was that the visit cost less than $40! That's lower than our Swiss friends expected, and we were initially told it would be $100-200, so we think the orthopaedist gave us a discount :)
Thank you so much for your prayers. Jeremiah 32:27 says, "Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?" It's true! NOTHING is too difficult for Him, if it is His will to accomplish it.
It was also encouraging to be able to to this all in French - the phone call to make the appointment, and the appointment itself. We are learning!
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