Me and my chronically unstable shoulder

March 29th After two weeks of mainly resting without many news to report, today was finally getting me excited! Two things were scheduled for today: 1.        Removing the Stitches 2.        First session of physiotherapy I went to the GP in the morning to get my stitches removed. They briefly checked the wound, found everything looks alright and went ahead. The removal itself was very quick and the only thing I felt was a tugging sensation when they were pulling out the thread.   While the procedure was rather unexciting, being finally able to shower without water proof bandage is just another small win that I celebrate! Besides, the incision looks great already after only two weeks. It's approximately 5 cm long and very thin.  I went to physiotherapy in the afternoon and I was really looking forward to that. My therapist knew the Latarjet procedure and had treated a few patients in the ...

March 22nd -- March 29th I continued to sleep well without pain and got more comfortable removing the arm from the sling for a bit.  On March 22 nd I took my first shower alone! I felt comfortable enough to let my arm hang for the duration of taking a shower. I got some waterproof plasters from a drug store to make sure that the wound would stay dry. After the shower I felt reborn and it was great to see that I was making progress.  I continued to remove the arm for 1-2 hours every day while laying on the sofa and I kept on moving my elbow as well. I am scheduled to get stitches removed on Thursday, March 29 th which is exactly two weeks after surgery. I will also start physiotherapy on the same day and I am really looking forward to that!  So far, I am extremely happy with how things have turned out and I’m still surprised that I was never really in pain.

March 17th -- March 22nd Even though it was a great feeling to be out of the hospital and being back home again, I think staying in the hospital for two nights was the right choice. Thanks to the nerve block I was practically in no real pain and now, three days after surgery I was fine with taking the pills they gave me. The painkillers lasted until March 20 th and I didn’t need to take additional medication afterwards. This really surprised me! I was prepared for days of pain after surgery when effectively I had never really been in pain, thanks to the nerve block in the hospital and the painkillers. I stopped taking painkillers after 5 days and was free of pain from there on. The first night at home was quite alright as well. I was not in pain and my bed has an adjustable back rest, so I was able to turn it into a recliner with an elevated back part. That makes sleeping a lot more comfortable. I was able to sleep for ~6 hours on average with was enough to feel well in the morn...

March 16th-March 17th After the first rough night, the next morning started with switching to pills as the primary means of dealing with pain. I was fine with that and didn’t need additional nerve blocks during the day. A nurse helped me to wash in the morning and get out of the surgery outfit. I brought some large tank tops which I would recommend to other patients. During the first few days you will have issues with getting dressed and tank tops simplify that task a lot! My surgeon stepped by shortly after to check on me and answered all my outstanding questions. I felt taken care of well and was reassured that everything went according to plan. After breakfast the nurses recommended to get out of bed a bit and walk around in the station. So, I did walk around the station for a bit but spent most of the morning in bed watching Netflix. Later in the morning the nurses changed the bandage and checked how much blood had gone to through the surgical drain. Since there was not a...

 March 15th, 2018 After getting some hours of not so restful sleep, we turned up at the clinic at around 07:00 AM to check-in. I was walked to my station and room and handed over the surgery clothes. I was told to be ready by 10:00 AM just in case surgery could already start earlier. They offered to give me a pill which would help me to relax and I thankfully took it at around 09:20 after changing into surgery clothes. Pro Tip: Always, always, always change into surgery clothes before taking that pill! I once didn’t and guess what? When they came to take me to surgery I was still in my normal clothes and couldn’t care less to get changed because I was so relaxed and didn’t understand why everyone else seemed to have a problem with my clothes. The "I don't give a *****" pill At around 10:20 I was picked up and brought to the pre-surgery area to get me ready for anesthesia. After hooking me up to an IV bag, they started to place a nerve catheter in my neck to...

Today I travelled to Munich to have the final two preparation meetings with the surgeon and the anesthetist in the clinic where the surgery will be performed. Those meetings are scheduled to warn you once more of all the potential side effects of surgery and anesthesia. As usual I was quite surprised to learn about all the different things that could go wrong. Who would have thought that one of the complications of a shoulder surgery could be permanent hoarseness? Highlights of those meetings included getting a nice arrow painted onto my right shoulder – just in case – and getting a fancy new orthosis which looks a lot sleeker than the ones I used to have. I also got my final surgery appointment for 11 AM the following day which meant that I had to turn up at the hospital at 7AM.

I arranged appointments with four different shoulder specialists to get different perspectives and to be able to compare their approaches. 3 out of 4 specialist that I saw recommended the Latarjet procedure to treat the instability. 2 out of the 3 were recommending the open Latarjet procedure while one surgeon had specialized in the arthroscopic procedure. The specialists that recommended this procedure also had a lot of experience performing the surgery. This is a key point when you select the surgeon for a Latarjet procedure. Even today in Germany for example, this procedure is not widely used and usually reserved for contact athletes or people with previous surgeries that did not help. This is not something you want to get done by a surgeon next door who takes care of hip replacements, knees, shoulders and whatever comes his/her way. You really want an experienced surgeon that specializes in shoulders and has done the Latarjet procedure many times before. The procedure itself is m...

I decided to write about my experience with the Latarjet procedure because I found it very hard to find information from patients that underwent this (still today) very specific treatment of chronic recurrent shoulder instability. I am 32 years old and live in Frankfurt, Germany. I personally have had a long history of shoulder instability. It all started when I was 17 and dislocated my right shoulder for the first time while playing Badminton in physical education at school. And no, I was not falling… Just performing an overhead strike with a lot of force and there went my shoulder… My teacher was shocked and didn’t know what to do so we called the ambulance who put me into full anesthesia on the spot and repositioned the shoulder. I woke up in the hospital with some pain, but the shoulder seemed to be fine to me. I underwent x-rays and MRI examination and the diagnosis was that the labrum had be torn apart and the doctors suggested to perform an arthroscopic stabilization which is...