Just to let you kind folks know that all went well under GA at a Private Hospital 30-31 October.
I got the InterCity bus down to our base private hospital - ACC operation. Weatherwise cold, windy and the big bus journeyed through it OK. I settled in the Motel 200m from the hospital. The A/C was switched on 22. I put that down to 20.
The following day the Motel drove me through the wet to await my operation. I had stopped PRADAXA 3 clear days prior. I had eaten my Full Grain Organic Oats in water with a kiwifruit on top at 6am (Synthroid at 4am) (Diltiazem 5am) NO FOOD. No Pradaxa!
I was admitted, a Dr checked my credential, pills, wellness. My H/R was 77. BP fine.
I was good to go.
Then I sat on a comfy lazyboy chair and watched the shoes under the curtain!
The anaesthetist came and told me about the nerve block, then the surgeon arrived and explained what he was doing. A repir, trimming and burring the spur. All through 3 holes at the top of my shoulder.
On time at 1.30pm. Awoke and had sandwiches @ 4pm.
A comfortable time, dinner of fish grlled with herb topping, mash and broccoli under.
Discharged next day after lunch. Little pain but in a sling. Ride home came at 2pm.
It was a great experience. No discharge papers.
I saw the surgeon on Tuesday. He cut the knots off and said the rest will dissolve.
Listen to this, he said I could ditch the sling sometimes.
I hope I can say this is the last operation. Both and my arm are great. 7 December I'm back to surgeon.
Thanx to those offering best wishes. I'm still alive and getting on well thanx.
Joy. 74. (NZ)
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JOY2THEWORLD49
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Very glad that your shoulder surgery was so good for you. Long may you reap the benefits of the surgery. I take it your AF became a docile little mouse throughout all this testing time .... hope so. Did your surgical team discuss with you at all the degree of control you have with your AF.
As an aside, I had to get up the other night (the night of 14/15th Nov ) to investigate a noise ( or what I thought was a noise outside ). What I didn't know ( even with my little torch) that the cat decided to change her sleeping location and I tripped up over her. So the otherwise peaceful house was shattered by a howling hissy fit maniac cat and me flying through the air like a dying rocket about to plunge into the earth where upon I screamed as my left shoulder smashed into a door jamb.
The pain, oooooh the pain, never felt anything like it. The pain had me at the point of needing to vomit. Long story short our NHS 111 service gave us telephone advice and emailled our local Minor Injuries hospital unit where I attended the next morning for XRays and check up. Mercifully nothing broken plenty of damage to soft tissue surrounding osteoarthritic damaged shoulder joint anyway. Now plenty of Physio exercises and no work, no bus driving, no car driving ... nothing. Getting a bit of mobility now but very little sleep.
Reminds me of my second - was a fall in the bathroom.
I had done a washdown. Then I lifted my right leg to put into the lower sink. Um unbalanced the force threw me across the bathroom, I missed the back of fibreglass chair to steady me, I cracked my head on the Hardie Glaze boarding, slid down on my coccyx and my right elbow was squashed in to the nutro tall kidney shaped kibble plastic container. Ouch.
With a bag of broad beans on my coccyx, I sat outside for St John to come and check me. 2 days later the top of my arm was jet black!
The double ridge on the kibble container didn't help.
Why do we do such stupid things?
Hey, always put a light on!
When the anaesthetist read the latest ECHO she announced that DILTIAZEM had controlled my AF. This was pre operation. I had a nerve block as well as a GA. I read that the rotator cuff repair is the most painful. I thought it was the indirect ingroinal hernia which I had repaired in 1987.
Great that that is all over. Swimming, bwling, fishing, gardening, fixit Joy here I come.
I can visualize you flying through the air - like the footrot flats book! Poor you.
I lived in Sydney most of my life ... it is still my 'hometown', my party town ..... but I do remember 'footrot flats' from when my kids were little. 😂😂😂😂
Pain can do that to you - the needing to vomit bit. Most unpleasant. At least nothing broken so could have been worse. Glad you are getting some mobility back. Sounds like it will be a while until it all settles down again. Good luck with that.
Thank you. Closer to this forums interests ... my trigger for AF has always been types of foods. However, I have often experienced AF kicking off from stress generated from pain. Often I've been able to plot it from weird variations in blood pressure and HR.
My partybag of drugs dealing with BP and HR have primarily been Ramipril, Felodopine and Bisoprolol ( and since August 2023, Nebivolol which replaced the Bisoprolol ). Pleased to say this particular incident has had no impact at all on either BP or HR - all very nice. So, in the AF context I'm still normal and still boast that I cannot remember my last AF event, deffo 18 months , probably closer to 4 years. That totally delights me.
The cat survived too - minus one of its nine lives !
My digestive issues first emerged when I was in my early to mid thirties (I'm now 79 ) when I could identify tomatoes and lettuce and onion causing me alot of pain under the left rib area. At the time my GP suspected gall bladder issues. Even though many tests were carried out over quite a period of time nothing conclusive ever emerged about gall bladder. At this time I lived in Australia and so summer salad type foods were fairly normal, (as were BBQ's ). Fast forward to my mid sixties and paroxysmal AF was diagnosed. In the intervening years I just accepted that I had a gut problem and kept calm and carried on !
Once AF was identified I got to thinking about triggers (cause and effect ) and was able to identify some sort of AF event occurring after various/different foods I'd eaten. And usually ( but not always) waking me up in pain around 2 am to 4 am. I was always able to identify a range of symptoms - diahorrea, intestinal gurgling, burping and intense pain with massive bloating, really massive bloating with the onset of an AF event.
The foods that I'd identified with the bloating were - onions ( but shallots were Ok ) lettuce, tomatoes, roast duck, pork with crackling, raspberries ( strawberries were OK ) soft cheeses ( but hard cheeses were OK ), yoghurt, chinese meals ( eating out in resturants - but this varied depending on the resturant I frequented - and also the type of chinese meal I ate ). Pretty much all breakfast cereals and for many years I ate rice krispies ( and other rice foods too ) . I consulted a Nutritionist and she advised me to go Gluten, wheat and oats free as well as the stuff I'd identified. Whole cream milk too. Eggs too. I also found that re diet, as much depended on the food cooking process as the actual food itself. Fer instance, fried eggs are fine - scrambled eggs are terrible. Same goes for an egg sandwich.
I embarked on the food issues/gut issues back in 2011. When I was diagnosed with AF in January 2010 the PIP approach was not advocated to any great degree, so the medication I was prescribed was for life. I still take it. So, now I can't remember when my last AF event was ... at least 18 months but could be as long as 4 years ago. Some foods I ditched over the years I have managed to return to and others not so and others I never ever will. I also realised that much of my food tastes were born out of unhealthy eating habits acquired over many decades. So for me my personal mantra became calm the gut, calm the heart !
Apologies for the length of this but I felt you needed to know background as much as the foods themselves. I am not domestically scientific enough to do a study BUT as time has moved on I have become convinced that it is NOT just the food stuff itself but ingredients and additives and preservatives ( included in the production/marketing process ) that are a danger.
Thank you John for your comprehensive reply. I agree that nutrition is individual and important. I had not thought that it mattered how something is cooked - except that fried means it is more fatty. I too cannot tolerate raw onion or much cooked onion. If it is really well sweated or fried and not much it is OK and don’t eat tomatoes either. Am gluten and dairy free as well and chinese has too much sugar and additives although I used to love it. I love roast duck and crispy pork crackling finished off in the microwave to get the fat out.
Excellent news Joy, very pleased to hear that everything went so well for you. All the best for a speedy recovery……..
NO they refused to do the left one about 5 years ago. The pain has eased a lot but it's much more restricted now but now the right one's started and is really painful. I haven't been able to wheel my wheelchair for quite a few years now. I have to use a scooter but that's a problem as ambulances and hospital transport won't take t hem .
Oh heavens that sounds bad. How very unpleasant for you. That and a dicky heart. Lousy. They have refused to operate on my son-in-law’s shoulder. He fell badly and broke his collar bone and it is not healing. I think nowadays they can do complete replacement shoulders but maybe yours are not suitable. Sending a virtual hug
Thanks. I asked the surgeon, if I were his wife would he recommend he operation and he said absolutely not; it was much too complex and healing and physio woudl take up to a year. I guess it depends on just what's wrong. It's a very complex joint.
Have you had steroid injections which messes up the muscles. I declined and with the no anti inflammatories lots of pain. It felt like it needed a manipulation.
I fell 1 year later and although the arm went BLACK the pain left.
3 years of right shoulder repair - I kept on seeking an operation.
The right thing to do. I want to get back to my swimming, bowling, gardening, doityourself tasks and putting my clothes on.
Last Tuesday said I did not need to wear the sling so last 3 days no sling!!!!
Great.
Just no raising arm, pushing or pulling or carryiing.
I thought about manipulation but having seen the scan I'm certain it would make things worse. I just started seeing a lovely physiotherapist who is giving me carefully graded exercises to help slow down the progression. They won't cure it but should help keep mobility in both sides.
Yes I use a mobility scooter for years since my shoulders got too bad for the wheelchair. The wait for a motorised wheelchair on NHS was years. I Just had to buy a new scooter because I could no longer lift my old one in and out of the car. It's 1/8 the weight of my old one that I'd had for 13 years. I've been on opiates for 20 years for my spine but they don't do anything much for the shoulders. No- no steroid injections. I was given one when my spine started;(Triamcinolone, brand name Kenalog) completely without permission or explanation- by a pain consultant who just stuck a needle into me without warning. Never been so ill in my life; 2 weeks of constant vomiting and 2 months of horrific vertigo. Never again. They were supposed to keep you there for half an hour in case of ill effects. He sent me straight out to drive home round Manchester at rush hour. I was so ilI couldn't even read the signs and ended up in Liverpool. Needless to say a formal complaint was made and upheld and the hospital changed their methods and required written consent and full information before injections were given.
No to Radiation after a milk duct showed a carcinoma in situe in milk duct. Surgeon took it out and cut a cross-section of others.
Then no to RAI after Thyroidectomy and 12 lymphs removed (2 affected) or suppression of TSH (into toxcism). Low risk.
2 years later Gary Clayman USA top surgeon for ca Thyroid etc stated that patients with low risk should have a say. Leave out the automaticness.
So surgeon andI follow same person!
But the Endocrinologist didnt sit well with me. Also regardless of me saying that I did not want Metoprolol she ignored me and after the stroke prescribed 3 x 24.75mg of it. Proved breathless, no energy, fatigue and no q.o.live. 1 yr 3 mths aI demanded a h/specialist. The public one saw that it gave me pauses too. H/R Day 186. Changed to Bisoprolol great but156 was me not controlled.
The Locum DR asked me to see a Chinese H/Sp and CB Diltiazem was my lifesaver. I dropped 105bpm in 2 hours. Started on reduced mg so
120mg Diltiazem AM for H/R control
2.5mg Bisoprolol PM for BP control
great. 110-130mg. /. 69 Day H/R 60s. - after a 1 yr was 88-96 H/R 47 avge PM.
I was on OXI-NORM. post operation last March 2020 after removing the rough mesh TVT sling Johnson & Johnson. Stopped @ 3 post days as I know it is addictive.
Post-op right shoulder the anaesthetist put in a nerve block. It lasted and I never felt much pain but the nurse made me have codeine long life. I changed it to TRAMADOL and paracetamol. I get constipated.
For breakfast I have organic full grain oats in water with a kiwifruit, fig,banana. I add prunes if necessary. Glycerine supposities but right hand out of action.
I stopped all pain killers at Day 4 post-op.
I eat raw little carrots, apples,
Apparently some meds take out the water in the colon.
Do you play wheelchair sports or have you?
At least with H/R controlled the Anaesthetist was very pleased.
I see that I had 2 doctors in the operating room.
Surgeon repaired all the tears. Then burred the bone spur, and trimmed the small tears. He was tops. No manipulation required.
Manipulation is easy under GA. Second accident I fell and my right elbow went down into the tall plastic Nutro container which broke at the side. The upper arm was BLACK.
Do get a second opinion. Even bursitis resolves over time. Mine did. But it was instant the manipulation down the container.
Go private if necessary and have the public do operation $27,000 NZD.
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