FINALLY GAVE IN

What have I been doing lately? Nothing! Absolutely nothing. Why? Because I finally had my shoulder fixed and am totally incapable of doing anything left-handed. You see...a long time ago, when I was a senior in High School, I dislocated my shoulder dancing. I know...how do you dislocate your shoulder dancing? Well, we were practicing for our novelty and trying this move:

My shoulder dislocated and when I went to the doctor, he said that once it happens, it's pretty much guaranteed that it will happen again. It took about a year or so before it did, but it did. From there, it would come out maybe about once a year or so but after a while, it started coming out once every couple of months and then about once a month, and for a while even once a week. Originally the doctor thought that the problem was that my ligaments were too flexible so they just didn't do a very good job of keeping it in place. He told me that he wouldn't do surgery until I had tried physical therapy. He was hoping that I would be able to strengthen the muscles and they would provide the support that my ligaments weren't giving. Well, I tried that and the week before I was supposed to be released, I dislocated it again lifting a small, empty cooler into my car. I kept trying my excercises at home but it didn't seem to help at all. I kept putting off surgery because I knew it was going to be ugly and there just never seemed to be a good time. Well, by now it didn't even matter anymore. Originally my shoulder would only come out by falling on it or throwing a baseball but eventually I got to the point where it would come out when I would reach up for things, grab my purse out of the backseat, and eventually the straw that broke the camel's back was when it came out in my sleep. So I finally gave in and scheduled surgery. The doctor said that he might just have to tighten up the loose ligaments but that it was also possible that a ligament had torn off and attached itself in the wrong place. Well, it turns out that not one...but ALL of the ligaments had attached themselves in the wrong place. So basically there wasn't anything holding it in place. He told me that when the put me under, he turned me onto my side to examine my shoulder and pulled just softly down and it came right out. He said "you had an incredibly unstable shoulder." DUH!!! So anyways, now here I am, in a sling and unable to move my right arm for a full month. Poor Brian has had to do everything for me. He has been amazing. He took care of me and refilled my ice, got my pills, brought me food, showered me, took care of Bauer, did the laundry, took care of the house...everything. And on top of that he has been busy at work and had to work his butt off. Poor guy! We have had so much help and support from family and friends too. We had meals brought in for over a week and I even had two sweet friends that would come over and wash and dry my hair, paint my finger nails, and give me a pedicure. Thank you so much to everyone that has helped!
I am doing much better now. I am able to do most things on my own and have even gone back to work. I am getting pretty frustrated with this dang sling though. I feel so useless and I get very impatient with how long it takes to do everything. The hardest thing right now though is the discomfort and inability to sleep. I just can't seem to get comfortable in this dang thing and I wake up in pain and will have to switch between sleeping in the recliner and in the bed. And then the weight of my arm in the sling pulls on my neck and back and makes them ache too. I can't wait to get this dang thing off! But I am trying really hard to be careful and follow what the doctor says because I sure as heck don't want to go through this again.