In late June 2024 I had a new shoulder installed; this is my three-month recovery diary.

---

Op Day…

Today is new shoulder day and for the last few days I’ve been growing a bit anxious about the procedure. Over the last few months I’ve been doing all those odd jobs around the house I’ve needed to get done before the surgery as I won’t be able to do much for at least a couple of months. Included in that list was redoing our home office as I’ll be working from home for the next few months. And all my bikes are covered and tucked in as they won’t be ridden for at least the next few months.

I was scheduled to be first on the surgery list so it was an early start to get to the hospital and get all the paperwork done before being wheeled off. The good thing about being the first on the list is you don’t have any sitting around time just waiting. By lunchtime I was back in my room, all pink from the sterilising solution, and shoulder done. And I wasn’t really in much pain to speak off.

My surgeon’s assistant paid me a visit in the afternoon and said that everything went really well. That’s great news.

While our health system isn’t perfect and could do with an injection of cash… especially outside of the metro areas. I certainly can’t complain as it’s only 10 months since my specialist appointment and my shoulder replacement which was fully covered under Medicare. I did have the option of doing it earlier under private arrangements, but I was going to be out-of-pocket by around $10,000. Given it’s been 20 years since the original injury, a few more months to wait really wasn’t a concern.

---

Side comment …

For those who’ll read this from outside of Australia –

Broadly speaking our medical system is a hybrid system. We have a public health system funded by the tax system where we, the taxpayers, pay a Medicare levy as part of our yearly tax. This supports medical appointments, pharmaceuticals, public hospitals, and other health related expenses. The public system is supported by a private system via private health insurance, which provides different levels of coverage and options. To encourage take-up of private insurance, higher income earners are charged an additional Medicare levy if they don’t take out private medical insurance.

What does that mean …

For emergencies you are treated, operated on, and provided with whatever treatment you need in public hospitals, at no charge. For non-emergencies such as elective surgeries, you have a choice of being put on a waiting list and covered under the public system, and depending on the operation, its urgency, and the size of the waiting list you may need to wait weeks or in some cases years. For those with private health insurance, they can generally get into a private hospital much sooner but will generally pay what we call a gap payment. The gap payment is essentially the difference between what the hospital and specialists’ charges and what Medicare and your private health insurance covers.

For day-to-day medical needs – Medicare covers/subsidises medical appointments, and pharmaceutical items are heavily subsidised by the Government with the majority of medication having a maximum cost, which is currently $31.60 (or $7.70 for pensioners) per script.

---

Going into the surgery the anaesthetist said that he’d put in a nerve block that should kill the pain in my shoulder for up to 20 hours. Waking up and my whole arm was numb and over the course of the next 20 hours I could feel the numbness slowly subside … it was quite a strange sensation that slowly worked down my arm, hand, and then individual fingers … from being numb, to pins and needles, and finally full sensation. And it did take about 20 hours.

Initially I was scheduled for a two-night stay following the operation, and on Saturday afternoon I was feeling pretty good and had the option of flying the coop a day early. In the end I opted to stay the second night as I was expecting a lot more pain … or at least for the pain to kick in at some point … but it really didn’t.

Come Sunday morning … I was outta there.

One-week in …

My instructions from the hospital physio for the first couple of weeks was easy passive exercises and no weight-bearing, as I need the rod in the humerus to set properly, so the only time I’m out of the sling is for a few easy exercises and elbow stretches as it would get quite stiff and sore.

By the end of the first week, I have nearly 90 degrees vertical movement (Flexion) of my arm, and I can rotate my forearm out to about 0 degrees rotation (external lateral rotation) ie forearm parallel to the ground and my hand straight out in front of me. Unfortunately, I don’t have the original measurements of my range before surgery, but it was fairly limited, with flexion of my arm only between about 90 and 100 degrees. I have to remember to ask my surgeon when I see him to see whether he has that.

Overall, my pain has been fine, and I’ve only needed strong pain medication for a couple of nights since I got home and the rest of the time I’ve just relied on plain Panadol.

The shoulder is healing well, with bruising colouring up nicely.

The biggest lesson for the week … don’t sneeze! It hurts like hell.!!

Lesson two is that I’m not very good at sitting around, while sitting reading (using a tablet – as a book is too hard to hold) and watching television all day sounds ok, it’s hard to see all the jobs around you needing to be and not be able to do them. And I’m not good at asking for help. Besides I have one good arm, and I’m figuring out new ways of doing things, or just making multiple trips as I can’t carry a cuppa and a piece of toast in one trip.

Two-weeks in …

Still progressing well and the hospital has given me some more exercises to do for the next 4 weeks until I can start engaging the services of a physio for more active exercises.

Of course, a couple of days after my hospital checkup I heard a loud click in my shoulder (Deb heard it on the other side of the room) and for the next four days I had considerably more pain and trouble sleeping at night.

An x-ray a few days later and all seems to be okay, and everything has settled down. I just need to keep an eye on it.

Four-weeks in …

I started back at work at the beginning of week three, with my boss happy for me to work from home for as long as I needed to. To be honest the first week was a bit of a struggle, and I only worked half days and took lots of breaks. A number of people questioned my decision but honestly it was good to be doing something productive rather than sitting around stewing in my own thoughts. By week four I was feeling much better, and my main challenge at work was typing one handed. The right hand just didn’t know where the keys were that the left hand generally looks after.

Six-weeks in…

Physio started this week and the first thing they did was measure my range of movement.

140 degrees … that’s over 40 degrees more range than I’ve had for the last 20 years with promise of more to come.

I can now largely lose the sling and my exercises are now both pushing the range and very light strengthening limited to 5kg.

The biggest challenge is starting to be able to do things and also not being able to do things. And not being able to ride is starting to eat away at me. I went out and started the bikes up the other day … just to get the oil running … of course. But it didn’t help. One thing I know about myself is that riding is the place where I retreat to when I need to get away, time to think, time to reset. At the moment everything seems to be mounting up around me and I’m feeling a bit lost.

Eight-weeks in

Eight weeks and another physio appointment.  Things seem to be going well and I’m starting some low-level strengthening exercises. I have also started going back into the office a few days a week, using public transport.

Twenty years of limited movement and the old muscles are having to adjust to the addition range my shoulder now has. So, I’m a bit sore, but sore in a good way. I even took the shoulder out for a bit of a test run on the weekend …

I got the mower out and took it for a walk around the backyard. I’m glad I’ve got an electric mower … much easier to start then the old pull-start mowers. And I mowed the grass (I don’t have lawn) fairly high to make it a bit easier.

It was also nice to get the tools out and do a bit of work on the VFR where I replaced the ventura rack with an alurack. I have a large and small Givi top boxes that I can now swap between the VFR and ZX14R. I also swapped out the Remus slip-on pipe for an IXIL slip-on as the Remus sounded more like an angry parallel twin than a V4. The V4 needs more … V4ness. Unfortunately, these new VFRs just don’t sound anywhere near as good as the older VFRs, especially my older generation four VFR750 with its cam driven top end. For me that’s the best sounding VFR of the series.

Next week is my specialist check-up, and hopefully, my clearance to drive … and maybe even ride.!!

Nine-weeks in ….

The specialist was really happy with my progress and provided me with clearance to drive … but … suggested I should wait a couple of more weeks to build up more strength before I get back on the bike. Technically, he said two to three weeks, I heard two…

And yes … I took the bike around the block, and yes, I need a couple of more weeks.

I’ve been curious why my arm is sore and weak in certain movements. It got me thinking about something the specialist said to me on my initial visit – when he looked at my x-ray he commented that my shoulder was dislocated and that it’s probably been like that for some time so the muscles/tendons would have adapted to that location. Therefore, I’m wondering whether this pain is more about my muscles and tendons readjusting to the new position … the right position.

Sunday was Father’s Day and we got out of the house and went for a drive in the country, enjoyed freshly made sandwiches at the which craft & coffee cottage in Harden and checked out the canola fields along the way.  It was nice to be behind the wheel again. Where’s the photo of the canola fields … well … I … was enjoying driving so much that I just forgot to stop.

---

Ten-weeks in …

I am really noticing the strength building up in my shoulder and I am starting to re-educate myself to reach and get things from overhead cupboards with my left hand, something I’ve not been able to do for a long time. Also, good exercise.

Rehab is really your friend, while it’s not always comfortable, the long-term benefits far outweigh the short-term pain. I have been doing my physio at a student-led clinic attached to the Canberra University as part of their training. I was offered a few different physiotherapy options after my surgery, from fee-free at the Canberra Hospital to full fee private practice. I chose Canberra University as it’s a convenient location and I’m more than happy to assist in the training of the next generation of physios. It also only costs $45 per visit. The students are great, and as it’s training, they go over everything each time and then after reviewing you they go off to their supervisor and discuss options and next steps. Then they come back and go through changes in your program. It may take a little more time, but I have no complaints and would recommend the service to other Canberrans.

On the weekend I re-registered the VFR, figuring it’d be best to start on the smaller/lighter bike, and went for a spin around town to see how I felt. Compared to only a week ago I felt great … but I’m certainly not thinking of disappearing out of town on a longer ride just yet. The biggest challenge, getting my leather jacket off when I got home. I ended up needing help to wriggle out of my jacket.

Monday comes around, and I reached for the bike keys … probably shouldn’t … just yet. Maybe next week.

…

But come the weekend, it’s time to take the new shoulder out for a decent run. Not wanting to overdo it on my first ride, I head for Gunning for lunch and back via Yass and some backroads. A cruisy 150km.

Damn it’s good to be back on the bike.

Being back on the bike seems like an appropriate and logical place to end this post. I’m off the bus and back to commuting on the bike. My physio appointment this week measured my range at over 140 degrees flexion and about 40 degrees external lateral rotation and they are expecting that should improve further over the coming months … with more hard work.

My next quandary … my niece’s wedding is next weekend in Taree, should I ride or drive. It’s only 600km each way … the heart says ride … but the head says the sensible thing is to drive.