OUCH! YOU’RE HAVING ROTATOR CUFF SURGERY - BLOG #5

Personal Care. 

Reaching your toothbrush, shaving, styling your hair, applying makeup, putting on jewelry, and even reaching for the toilet paper are places to test out before the big day. I’m pretty handy with my left hand, so I was able to type on a computer, use the mouse, reach the toothbrush, and brush my teeth. Not everyone can do all of that with their non-dominant hand. However, I have very short arms and I can’t reach across this whole sling jail to get to the toilet paper roll. I used that handy dandy toilet paper holder (three high stacker) on the back of my toilet and put it on the floor to the left side, where it was easy to reach and dispense for myself.

While doing your planning, take time just before surgery day to get your nails all trimmed and shaped up on both your claws and your paws. Remember, you normally can’t wear nail polish to surgery. Visit your hairstylist and ask for an easy-to-care-for cut to help you get through things, or keep it long if you can pull it up into a twist, band, or knot with one hand.

And while they’ll give you a tip about letting your arm drape down and you’d be able to put underarm deodorant on the surgery side, it’s how do you get it on the other side? Can you bend your arm back under your elbow enough to run deodorant under there? Some people can and some people can’t. If you can’t, your choices are to go without or get some help. I don’t know, maybe you could get a vice grip attached to the bathroom counter and use it to hold your deodorant place, and then you just glide your arm over and back on it. Felt like some of my tool-friendly loving guys would really like that option!

The Sling Dance. The highlight of week one was learning to get my new padded cell on and off by myself. I quickly learned the sling dance, which allowed me to wrap the arm in the sling and then wiggle my hips to make the long straps swing around to the other side of my body so that I could grab them and hook them in place. Consider this your first exercise plan! Getting dressed those first few days might require a nap after each time. Hey, if it works, take advantage of it and get some naps.

The Dreaded Itch. Getting an itch somewhere on your body when you don’t have full use of both arms is an important part of personal care. Door corners can be helpful, but a good back scratcher can reach all kinds of places, even on the other side of that padded cell. I recommend making sure that you are prepared because you know the itch is going to be in a hard-to-reach place in the middle of the night, and you won’t be able to go back to sleep if you can’t scratch it. And family members might frown on you waking them up at 2:00 AM just to scratch something for you.