Picture of the Week - 1/26/2017

Hi all!

Thought I would provide an update on Spencer and how he's done following his shoulder surgery on Tuesday.  The surgery went smoothly and there were no surprises.  Spencer has 4 anchors now to help his labrum repair.  He also had some "scuffing" on the ball of his shoulder from where it had gone out of socket.  All of that's been cleaned up as well.  Here's a nice little infographic of what his injury looked like and how it was fixed.  In the picture the thing that looks like the egg in the middle is the bone of his shoulder socket and the tan stuff around that is the labrum (cartilage).

In general, I think he's done very very well.  He handles pain well - always has - and has had a pretty good attitude about recovery most of the time.  He does have his moments where he's loopy from the medicine or sore or tired or bored.  But all in all, he's doing really great!

Bob and I are exhausted.  It's been a while since we've been up every 3-4 hours through the night to take on care-taking duties.  Turns out it's harder the older we get.  Go figure!

Today Spencer took his first post-op shower and I took an opportunity to take a couple of pictures.  After this, I took off the bandages.  He is not swollen or red or bruised.  He's going to be back to 100% before we know it.  (more on that later...)  Here are a couple of pictures of him before I took the bandages off. 

The last picture is how he's basically looked for the last 2 days.  We moved a laz-y-boy into his room to help him sleep since he can't lay flat while he's wearing the arm brace.  He loves being in there in the dark surrounded by technology and food.  That big blue thing is the coolest invention ever!  It's a cuff that fits over his shoulder and is attached to a little cooler that pumps ice water through the cuff 24x7.  I think it's helped a ton with swelling and pain. 

All in all - we are very pleased - albeit tired.

Tomorrow he goes for his first (of many) Physical Therapy session with our new therapist.  He's actually working directly with the head athletic trainer for the high school.  I love this because he will be able to communicate how Spencer is doing directly to the football coaches and work with Spencer on how to merge into the pre-season football workouts (which actually started this week) when he's ready.  It's a win/win.  Spencer will be doing PT for about 4 months and should get clearance for full contact activities (i.e. football) in 6 months.  If all goes well, that's the week before school starts.  Fingers crossed for an uneventful recovery. 

Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers.  We appreciate them all!