Jeff had shoulder surgery today and has just gotten into his room. We are in Patewood and this place is amazing - more like a motel than a hospital. He is resting now and not in a terrible amount of pain but he does say it hurts. The doctor said he had a large spur that had torn the rotator cuff real bad. Also his tendon was pulled lose from the bicep. Now he is all fixed up but will have a slow recovery. A full recovery back to normal strength and activities could be six months. It may be up to 4 months before he can ride the motorcycle.

HOPE JELF IS NOT IN TO MUCH PAIN.YAWL ARE IN OUR PRAYERS.  WE HOPE HE GETS TO FEELING BETTER REAL SOON.
BUD & PAM

Get Well Soon Jeff!

Laughter is the best medicine and you just gave us a dose!! Thanks!      Jeff was awake longer this afternoon than he has been so far and he ate a good supper.  I talked with the doctors office this morning about cutting his medicine dose in half but they said not yet. He has his first physical therapy session tomorrow which will consist of dangling his arm down in front of him. We have been told he is not to take it out of the sling except to shower and not for any reason to try to straighten it or lift anything. They said he would much rather sleep than have the pain so keep sleeping. I just hooked him back up to the little cooler unity ice pack and tucked him in his recliner. We are camping in the den right now!  He really has been a good patient but was so anxious about his surgery before it that he didn't think alot about what was involved in recovery. He said yesterday he didn't realize how much stuff he could not do. He was handling some work things this morning and was frustrated that he could not think as good as he would have liked. But day by day he will improve. And it is just one summer out of a lifetime of fun!!!   Send us more funny stuff!!!

Jeff said they have to wear perfume!   That would be a real funny sight!
When we went to his physical therapy appointment last week we were told it had been cancelled until he saw his doctor. Someone just forgot to let us know it was cancelled!  We saw the doctor on Wednesday and he wanted Jeff to wait until this coming week for physical therapy because of the extensive work they had done. Apparently the spur had worn a pretty good hole in the rotator cuff - the pictures of it looked interesting. The doctor told Jeff he could take his sling off if he was sitting in his chair and he could start some of the moving and rotating exercises on his own but very carefully. The first day he tried, his arm would not hardly move. He has continued to work with it and is making a bigger rotation now but still minimal to what it is when healed. He stopped pain meds last Wednesday and has only taken about 5 tylenol since then. His biggest problem still is sleep. It is hard to get comfortable. He wants to sleep in the bed but each time he has tried, we end up moving back to the den in the middle of the night. He can only get settled good in the recliner. Friday night we had a 6 hour span of sleep which was wonderful. Up until then each night was in 1 1/2  to 2 hour increments. Last night was not quite that good but was still okay. Hopefully tonight we will sleep longer. Broken sleep is not restful sleep. He is getting out but cannot drive for about a month. Thank you all for your prayers, notes, cards and phone calls. It really does perk him up and it is nice to know someone is thinking of him!

Opps, got too busy with life in general and didn't post his updates! He is now just a little over 3 months since surgery. He still goes to Physical therapy twice a week and does daily exercises at home. The rotator cuff seems to rotate pretty good and he is now working on resistance to the muscle to build it back up. He goes back to the doctor in about two weeks but has not been released to be working again. It will be some time still before he will be swinging a bush axe or 4 pound hammer at work!  Thanks for all your prayers, phone calls, cards and concern.