Update on Ben

Surgery went well, as expected. Took a little more than 2 hours. We were there 8 hours in all.
The shoulder had been injured 4 years ago, in a lacrosse game, but only bothered Ben once in a while until the past year. It became increasingly hard for him to reach behind his back and sometimes, while putting a shirt on, the shoulder would pop out of place. The chiropractor , physical therapist, and primary doc all told him the same thing: have the surgery. Dx: labral tear. That is, the labrum holds the ball-and-socket joint in place. Ben's was torn.

In layman's terms as I understand, the surgeon was able to go in and anchor the top half of the labrum to the bottom half. (Don't laugh if I'm getting this wrong, you medical people reading this.) The anchor will dissolve over time.

Ben's care was all good except for the nurse in recovery. She was not very kind. She moved him too soon from Phase I to Phase 2 and when he complained of nausea and pain at a level 8 and unwilling to try to get dressed) she copped an attitude about moving him back to Phase 1 (more intense care). He said her coworkers didn't appear to like her. She treated me like I was pandering a drug addict. "How good is he at assessing his own pain?" she asked me in the hall. (It sounded condescending to me.)

"Let's put it this way, " I said, "when he tackled a guy without gear, and caught the guys' head in his chest and was sent to Shock Trauma, his pain was a 2, coughing up blood. When he sliced open his hand, it was a 5. The guy's pain tolerance is incredible." She asked me if I'd ever had pain at 10 and I told her about rupturing all my pelvic ligaments during childbirth; yes, that was a 12. " Ben was mumbling, "I thought morphine was a strong drug." The nurse assured it is, and
gave him more, to bring the pain down to a 6. I told her, "when I've been in recovery, they didn't let it get above 5. "' Anyway, I probably did come across as a coddling mama, but hey, it's my boy, not hers in that bed.

The night he came home (Monday) I went to bed at 9, woke at 1 to check on him, went to Walgreen's at 4 a.m. to get the Px filled (we had searched high and low for the 4-pack from the hospital, to no avail. I'd never been to a store in my PJs before. It was kinda cool. Cold, actually, but fun (w/ a coat on, I mean)., though I did feel all alone. It was kind of God to put a preacher on the radio at 4;15 a.m. who was praying for a multitude of requests. When he prayed "for someone out out there who has just had surgery, give him strength and comfort," I wept with joy. I KNEW God was with us. Immanuel.

Anyway, update: Ben is in a lot of pain, still . I think some of it's stiffness (it's in a sling close to his body, under a shirt). He has to lie at at a 45 degree angle to sleep. He hasn't been able to wash up since Monday (and he is Mr. Hygiene, let me tell you). He hates being dependent. He is not a reader and there's only so much TV a person can stand when he's groggy. The dog is being sweet to him, as usual, sensing that he's not quite normal. She stays by his side.

Please keep praying. It's tough psychologically , especially for such an active person, to be housebound, couchbound, and reliant on mother.

Mother is doing fine, though. I got flowers from my principal today.