"Skip Gundlach"
skipgundlach.sez.remove.this.and.the.dots.to.mail
wrote:

Life is what happens when you're making other plans...

Most of you know that Lydia and I have bought our boat and expect to get
aboard and cut the cords. Target departure date is November 1, with a
variety of things to happen first, including getting a couple of houses
(emptied and) sold. Progress is happening at an acceptable pace, there, but
just as Lydia was fixated on getting the boat bought, she's now fixated on
getting aboard, *NOW!*. I, too, want to get aboard, but deal with
frustration a bit better than she :{))

However, personally, I've had a setback and a shock to the system. I went
to my orthopedic surgeon yesterday after having had an MRI done on my
shoulder (the one with the severe dislocation and greater tuberosity [the
outside of the ball end of the shoulder bone] fracture, followed by major
surgery, mentioned in this space 3 years ago). Instead of the expected
adhesion of something, or a muscle which was too long having prevented my
having full use of my arm, the original operation essentially failed - my
top two rotator cuff muscles have come off the humerus (which in itself lost
a pretty good chunk of bone in the original accident) and retracted and
atrophied a lot, plus the biceps tendon has slid about 50% out of place. No
wonder I couldn't raise my arm!

My husband fell off/onto a ladder and broke his humerus at the
shoulder joint and his elbow (on the two runs of the ladder). He
drove himself to the hospital (because I was in KY and our son was on
14) and they said he might never have full use of his arm/shoulder or
ever be able to raise his arm above shoulder level again. However -
they took him up to Bethesda (USN ret) and put a cast on it and then
he had about a year of physical therapy and now he has full use of the
shoulder. He's still in touch with his physical therapist (who was a
Navy Corpsman at the time).

I think Lydia ought to chill and consider your health first.

What all that means is that to (have a chance at - there's only a 50%
success rate in such operations) regain my full function will require
essentially the same operation I had originally, along with the requisite
rehab time.

So, it would mean a delay at the very best, which would mean a hurried trip
through the upper islands in order to miss the hurricanes or delaying the op
(which would allow us to enjoy the summer, at least!) and leaving next
November. Neither prospect (see fixation, above) is very palatable to
Lydia. So, we're currently wrestling with 1) leaving it alone (which
forecloses my chance to ever have it right), 2) taking the chance that it
won't work - but also incurring the chance that it might result in pain,
later, where there is currently none, 3) doing it ASAP so that we can get
under way ASAP (whenever that actually works out to be), and 4) doing it
later (with a presumed November 2005 departure).

In any event, recalling my last op, there's a long rehab to get any
semblance of strength. I'm waiting for a call back from them to see what I
should expect in the way of total time and intermediate times, which will
partly drive our decision, should we decide to go ahead. Either way, if I
go under the knife, we'll not be outta here in November as we'd planned. If
I don't, my arm will never be better than it is today...

L8R

Skip and Lydia

grandma Rosalie