Nine days after the accident I was finally having surgery, the delay was partially due to being ambulanced to a hospital in the mountains that didn't have orthopedic surgeons, and also due to the fact that when I was I could go home and see a surgeon in a few days, the doctor who saw me was booked up for surgeries for 6 more days and assured me waiting would not be a problem. My doctor had decided that he would do the ORIF (Open Reduction and Internal Fixation) and hope that the bones would heal, but discussed the high risk of AVN (Avascular Necrosis) which could lead to a future full shoulder replacement. The surgery took a few hours, I'm not exactly sure how long I was in but I had surgery scheduled for 7am and I believe I was being wheeled to a room by about 1pm (this was after waking in the recovery room and having to stay there for a while). The pain was unbearable. They had a nerve block in my neck, and I was getting Dilaudid and Oxycodone I think. The meds would sometimes help ease the pain, but I was never comfortable, and the first couple days were really tough. The pain would rollercoaster from a level of 5 to 10 and back and forth. They switched me off of Dilaudid and started giving me Lyrica which had good results, I only found out later that Lyrica is really a seizure medication so in the long run I had to wean myself off of them because it would be dangerous to just quit, however, it did help with the nerve pain so I guess it was a good idea.
Getting out of bed to use the restroom in the hospital was horrible. Every tiny movement was very painful - especially bending over and/or twisting my body at all. Sleeping was all in an upright position, leaning back was very painful. On the 2nd and 3rd day, I tried to get up and walk down the hall a little bit.
I was in the hospital for 3 nights, they originally thought I'd go home after 2 but they wanted my pain level to stabilize before letting me go home.
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