[CAUT] Lessons from shoulder surgery

[Alan McCoy]

Hi Jim,

Interesting that you wrote this today as I just spent some time with an
orthopod this morning. I've been dealing with shoulder impingement syndrome
for about 7 months. Have had bursitis for several years, then this summer it
got worse. Luckily it's in my left shoulder, which is great except for the
fact that I tune verticals left-handed. I got a cortisone shot this morning
to see if it will have any effect. Exercises and anti-inflammatories were
ineffective at best, and the exercises seemed to actually make it worse.

Thanks for reporting on the surgery. If it doesn't clear up, I'll feel a bit
more receptive to surgery. Though I've been thinking that this might be a
way to get out of tuning verticals....

:-)

Happy Healing.

Alan


-- Alan McCoy, RPT
Eastern Washington University
amccoy at mail.ewu.edu
509-359-4627


> From: Jim Busby <jim_busby at byu.edu>
> Reply-To: "College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>" <caut at ptg.org>
> Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:21:36 -0700
> To: "College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>" <caut at ptg.org>
> Conversation: Lessons from shoulder surgery
> Subject: [CAUT] Lessons from shoulder surgery
> 
> All,
> 
> Last Tuesday (Dec. 11) I went in for shoulder surgery and came back today with
> some things I'd like to share. In the surgery the doctors removed calcium
> buildups (I DON'T know all their fancy names!), some arthritis, bone spurs,
> and shortened/smoothed the bone around the ball joint (hey, that's what it
> looked like to me). Anyway, the excess bone was digging into the rotator cuff
> (sp?) and soon would have required replacement and/or other major work. "It
> was tearing through like a knife". All I know is that it hurt to tune.
> 
> After one week, I'm a bit sore but back to work! If I had waited another 3 or
> 4 months they told me it would have been MUCH worse! What I want to share to
> you;
> 
> 
>  1.  Don't put it off! It may get way worse.
>  2.  Find a great surgeon who won't just give you cortisone shots month after
> month. (This guy does the BYU athletes and my doctor friends and nurses say
> he's the best.)
>  3.  Surgery really wasn't that bad, although the first 3 days after I wanted
> to die...
>  4.  Learn to tune left handed. Today I tuned a piano left handed (no problem
> because I've learned to) and pounding the key with my right hand was no
> problem. It's impossible for me to tune right handed for another 3 or 4 weeks.
> (Hurts like hell to even raise it!)
> 
> You can read all these articles on how to "avoid" such surgeries but in my
> studies I found that;
> 
> 1.                   Part of this comes with age/work and is somewhat
> inevitable for certain people
> 2.                   Part of it is in the genes. Bone spurs, arthritis, is in
> my family...
> 3.                   Exercises, techniques, etc. can help, but sometimes
> 20,000 piano tunings and age win out.
> 
> Prognosis? 10 to 20 years of pain free tuning! Well, after another few weeks
> of torture...
> 
> I also learned I'm one tough buck. They gave me pain pills but I'd rather take
> the pain than put that crap in my body. It always makes me feels much worse in
> the long run, and I can't make the hour long drive to work with that in my
> system. They were amazed that I didn't take anything and that my recovery was
> so fast.
> 
> Jim Busby BYU
> 
> p.s. I'm 52 years old.
> 
>