Tag Archives: hospital

Entrapment: What Framed My Suprascapular Nerve

Mark June 22, 2016 down as the day my suprascapular nerve entrapment was (hopefully) fixed. The surgeon was not 100% certain, but expected the nerve was entrapped by a suprascapular ligament. Luckily, he made the cut. Ha ha.

nerve, entrapment, shoulder, injury, surgery

The red circle, eloquently drawn by yours truly, shows where my nerve was trapped.

G-Ma spent the night and stayed with Avery the day of my surgery so Going Mom could valiantly court me to the hospital. For someone about to have nerve surgery (so to speak), I didn’t feel too nervous. But then, as waiting time in the hospital increased, I felt a slight anxiousness set in.

Nothing major, more like wanting to be done with it, but there nonetheless. I kept occupied by constantly trying to make jokes with the numerous hospital staff and posting on social media.

Grippy socks on, weird gown thingy on, and IV in. Let’s do this! #surgery #hospital #outpatient #bored

A photo posted by RC Liley (@going_dad) on

I even turned on my charm to score an extra pair of yellow grippy socks to bring to Avery. I’d say she enjoyed them.

cute kid, parenting, hospital, socks

They also make the perfect sock to wear boots that are otherwise too large.

Avery in boots with yellow hospital socks

Sorry, have to move away from the cute kid and back to the shoulder. My surgery went great, the surgeon said he just had to really “get in there” (made me cringe) to get to the ligament and clear everything around the nerve. Before I knew it, I was being wheeled out of the hospital with a throbbing arm and weak body.

Once home, I tried standing and/or moving, but it wasn’t happening. I had been fasting for about 18 hours at this point and had zero appetite. I laid down and slept.

Later in the evening, I mustered the strength for a small family walk and finally ate some food. I was given hydrocodone and took a dose that night which basically knocked me out. That was the one and only time I took that, it had me constipated for almost 2 days! I’ll choose poop over pain any day!

The next day I had more strength and posed for a shoulder bandaged shot. Notice my upbeat facial expression.

Shoulder bandage on

Eventually, as I couldn’t keep myself still, jumping in the pool, walking in the sun and sweating had my big bandage come off in a few days.

Shoulder bandage off

No, I’m not a University of Texas fan, I’m a proud Sooner (Boomer Sooner!), the tattoo is from one night in Austin, TX. Nuff said.

After several pool sessions,  many Airdyne workouts, and the associated sweat, the glued-on bandages were off a few days after that. Then I got to reveal the awesome scar!

Shoulder Scar One Week After Surgery

With each passing day, pain is reducing and mobility increasing. Two weeks later, my doctor just cleared me to use my water rower again. I’ve only used it once, but it’s nice to change things up after so much riding the Airdyne. Of course, I’m happy to do anything to keep active, so let it be known that I’m not complaining. 🙂

The scar is looking good, confirmed by the doc, and hopefully I don’t mess that up by doing things like….oh, hanging from monkey bars with your kid holding on to your leg to swing them around.

A video posted by RC Liley (@going_dad) on

But I wouldn’t do something so dumb, right? Never! So far so good, nothing has come undone.

Shoulder Scar Two Weeks After Surgery

I probably won’t do the monkey bar thing again for a while though. I go back for another checkup at the beginning of August. At that point, fingers crossed that I can start doing push ups and maybe use some weights.

It’s been a long journey trying to get to this point, and as long as I am mostly smart, I have high hopes of letting my nerve “wake up” as the doctor says and growing my right supraspinatus and infraspinatus muscles. Maybe I’ll be more filled out for the next beach vacation then….

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A Personal Opening Day + Puns for the Occasion

Upon the publishing of this post, I am preparing for my personal ‘opening day’ in a few hours. No, I’m joining a Major League Baseball team (how cool would that be?), I’m literally getting opened via incision in my right shoulder to release my entrapped suprascapular nerve.

Yeah, that atrophy thing I wrote about a couple months ago will hopefully be on its way to getting rectified with this surgery. Going Mom will be my escort to and from the hospital as G-Ma stays home to watch darling little girl. Whom, by the way, just took one big bittersweet step in growingup-ville with her new Naturepedic big kid bed.

opening day, funny, surgery, growing up

It doesn’t seem that long ago when I wrote about our first days of putting her in the crib. Seriously, this parenting thing takes a major emotional toll! I guess on the bright side, snuggling with her for a nap will be much easier than it was in the crib.

Testing out the crib on my birthday.

Anyway, *wipes tear from eye* back on track now. The surgery will be an outpatient procedure, so I get to go home the same day. Hopefully the anesthesia doesn’t make me too crazy or anything. I’d hate for Avery to see Daddy in some weird altered state that scares her or something. I might go crazy from lack of food alone since there’s no eating or drinking (even water) after midnight the night before and my opening day procedure doesn’t start until almost noon.

I’ve always been a fan of fasting, so at least it’s not a new thing to endure. And no getting the area wet for three days after means I won’t have a real shower until Saturday, but I’ll be sure to soak in a bath. You’re welcome, wife. 🙂

Once I’m able to get back in the groove of things, I have a little week long vacation to the Outer Banks I want to write about. Until then, I guess I’ll just depend on my trusty standby content of puns. And why not? They’re freakin’ awesome. Even the ones that elicit a sickly groan still bring a smile to the face……usually.

Since doctors, hospitals, and other medical areas are on the mind, today’s puns will be in these categories.

opening day, funny, puns, pun, humor, snowman

  • I had to drink food coloring after losing a bet. Luckily, I’m not sick, but I feel like I’ve dyed a little inside.
  • Listening to a brain surgeon and anaesthesiologist talk is mind numbing.
  • They tried to save him with an I.V. but it was all in vein.
  • An editor went to the doctor for help with his poor circulation.
  • The brain surgeon refused to take no for an answer, so I gave him a piece of my mind.
  • Two surgeons were joking about sutures and had each other in stitches.
  • A pediatrician is a doctor of little patients.
  • My hematologist said my outlook is good since I’m a B Positive type.
  • A doctor drank while putting on patients’ casts. He was soon plastered.
  • A surgeon’s comments are incisive remarks.
  • After 5 years with the same chiropractor, I had to change doctors. It was quite an adjustment.
  • I couldn’t decide which of two physicians to see. It was a paradox.
  • It was really crowded at the diet doctor’s office but then it thinned out.

Staph: The Worst Labor Day of Her Life

It was only her second Labor Day since birth, so a simple sneeze would technically make it the worst one of her life, but instead, it had to be staph. Apparently, Going Mom and I couldn’t save her from our own misfortunes with the infection.

My wife recently had an issue with her eye. Luckily nothing severe, and it was quickly treated and healed. And as any reader on here knows, I had that whole staph butt issue around Mother’s Day. Well, it returned once again to put our sweet little Avery in a miserable bout of pain.

What started out as a tiny bite around the lining of her diaper last Wednesday (so we think), took form into hard lump of staph. Stupid me kept playing it off as just a bite and saying it would heal soon, but my concerned wife was a little more wary. Note to self: listen to wife more!!

Avery started getting extremely protective of the area a couple days ago, and finally, once the screams of pain were unbearable (when I was saying she’d heal….dummy), we drove to a nearby Urgent Care clinic for kids.

I absolutely despise these places as feel like you’re more likely to get sick just sitting around the room waiting to be seen. We sat long enough to see Scar betray Mufasa and Simba lose his dad in The Lion King, but at least Timon and Pumbaa made for comic relief before we were brought back to a room. We’ll have to watch that movie all the way through when she’s a bit older….

In the room, we confirmed it was staph and that I’m an idiot (I bow to my wife yet again), and the nurse presented two options. She could numb it with a topical agent right there to drain the infection or we could go to an ER where they have better equipment and (she said) sedate her to make it easier and less painful to drain.

The nurse obviously didn’t want to do it herself just from the tone she used when giving us the options. I still opted for having it done right there just to get it over with and avoid another long wait. Kelley thought otherwise, and since I was in no position to argue my thoughts, we were off to the ER.

The waiting room there was filled with more sick people and I cringed as I watched parents feed their kids from the vending machines. Seriously, why do places affiliated with health care, have nothing but junk for food and drink options? Oh yeah, MONEY! Obviously, this is something I’m deeply passionate about, and was infuriated to watch it happening before us.

Pretty sure Avery was upset too, but maybe for different reasons. She went into crazy defense mode just from the nurse taking her temp, so we knew when it came time to inspect the infection, things would only get worse. Luckily, Mommy was there to help….

Mommy's Comfort in Hospital

After watching How to Train Your Dragon 2 almost 2 times through, Avery’s 10 minute procedure was underway. Oh, by the way, they said they almost would never sedate a kid Avery’s age for something like this, so we’re positive that nurse was just weaseling her way out of draining the puss from a poor child’s inner thigh area. Hmmm, after writing that, guess I can’t blame her that much. Oh wait, yes I can; it’s her job!!

They applied the topical numbing agent which had to sit for 30 minutes and we were to keep Avery as still as possible. HA!

Mommy to the rescue again; she laid beside Avery and unleashed the secret weapon…….her phone!

Wide Stare at Phone in ER

The phone works in mysterious ways to keep kids’ attention. As great as it is, Smartphones (and all technology really), actually have mind-numbing (i.e. dumbing) effects on our brains. Good for when you have to keep a kid still, not good for every day use.

Finally, after waiting more than just 30 minutes, the doc came in, poked and drained the wound and cleaned it up. It took 3 adults to hold that girl down during the procedure, but it was done. Wow, that was a lot of puss! For some sick reason, it makes me feel better to watch that crap ooze out.

Despite her attitude when anyone got near her infection, Avery handled the day-long event much better than I would’ve guessed. So, Avery, if you’re reading this years from now, way to go dear, you were great pretty good.

Now she’s on freakin antibiotics (not a fan but know it’s necessary) and we’re cleaning and bandaging like we’ve done this before. Wait a sec, we have, on my butt! Sorry for bringing it up again, but I’ve been having flashbacks after this event, so figured I’d pass it on to my fellow readers. You’re welcome. 🙂

While it was far from a good Labor Day this year, at least we got rid of something that could’ve become much worse, and even better, we were together as a family all day! Of course, I’m stubborn and have this OCD thing about not eating until I workout, so I basically fasted all day until we go home. I rushed into a heavy squat weightlifting session followed by a lot of eating the remainder of the day.

Yeah, I need to work on that, but luckily I had coffee that got me through the day. I’m just glad our baby girl is on the path to recovery and already playing like normal again.

Do you have anything that’s affected your whole family?

Do you like watching the puss get squeezed out or does it make you queasy?