State of My Arts

Last year at this time I was feeling miserable from the effects of the anesthesia.  Here is a recap of my first few days post-surgery.

At this point, I don’t normally notice my shoulder any more.  I do what I need to do without issue.  I do tend to have my shoulder and neck muscles locked up a bit on that side, but other than that, things are good.  I’m still careful with it when doing BJJ, because some of that stuff can do bad things to healthy shoulders.  I’m comfortable with doing everything in TKD and almost everything in Hapkido.  I haven’t done Kali in a while, but that’s more due to lack of interest (and time) than it is due to my shoulder.

Strength in that arm is good, but it definitely isn’t as stable as my right arm.  It is hard for me to tell how much of that is due to the fact that it is my non-dominant arm, how much is from my 20-years removed surgery, and how much is due to this surgery.  I’ve been playing with my new kettlebell a bit, and I have a tough time stabilizing it when trying to do kettlebell windmills.  I think that means it is a good exercise for me to do.

Wife-of-State was able to feel one of the surgical screws in my collarbone through my skin at one point recently, which is a bit freaky.  I’ll try to have a picture up for you at some point, but we’re going full-bore on getting our house ready for sale so that I don’t have much time.  In fact, it will be cutting into training time.  But, hey, moving things around is good exercise, too.

Health

Well, the cold I mentioned the last time was a bit more serious.  I finally went to a doctor the day before Thanksgiving, and her diagnosis is that it started as a viral infection, then I got a secondary bacterial ear infection and another bronchial infection as well.  I got put on three prescriptions and am now feeling a lot better, but not back to normal yet.  When I take a deep breath, I start coughing.  Ears are still a bit clogged as well.

It turns out my health problems could be worse.  My Hapkido instructor was out sick with pneumonia, and his symptoms started the same way mine did.  And the guy I was working with at BJJ on Monday had basically the same thing as well, though he went through two separate courses of antibiotics (one of which was the same I took).  So I guess this sort of thing is going around this area.

But, not being one to allow such minor complaints stop me, I started working out again on Monday.  I went to BJJ class, which was a normally-structured class: warmup, techniques, then sparring.  One of the techniques was a half guard sweep, which I should really remember because my half guard is atrocious.  Tuesday I had a family thing to go to, so I did the P90x Chest & Back workout instead of teaching TKD and going to BJJ.  The P90x knocked me down for the count.  I had to pause it twice to catch my breath (and push the nausea down a bit), and even then I couldn’t do nearly as many reps as I normally do.

Tonight was the class trifecta: Hapkido class followed by teaching the TKD intermediates (greens and blues) followed by the red and black belt class.  The Hapkido class wasn’t too physically taxing.  But then I kept the intermediate class pretty high energy since we had two visiting teenage 2nd dans who just moved into the area and are looking for a new school.  Hopefully they had fun.  Anyway, I joined in with most things and gave myself a pretty good workout there.  Then the next class took most of the energy I had left.

Being out sick for several weeks allowed my inner glutton to surface.  My caloric intake remained about the same (until Thanksgiving), but without exercising I put on some weight.  My BJJ partner thought I felt more like 225 than my current 200.  And tonight I told one of the black belts that I put on 6 or 7 pounds in the last few weeks, and she said “Oh, is that all?”.  I’m taking that to mean that I look like I put on more like 15.  Okay, she didn’t really mean it that way, but it makes a better story that way.

Regardless, I need to lose some weight, so I’m trying to eat less without necessarily counting calories.  Trying to get from the 201 I weighed at today down to 194 by Christmas.  Then I’ll screw it up by gorging on cookies, but at least I’ll have gotten down to a better weight before I do.

BJJ, Hapkido, Health, TKD, Teaching

Today is 1 day short of 7 months since surgery.  I saw the doctor 2 weeks back (and failed to blog about it, I know) and he has cleared me for all physical activity.  Yeah!

Of course, that doesn’t really mean that I’m completely healed.  The skin around the incision still doesn’t feel normal; there’s a bit of decreased sensitivity there.  Strength is good, due to the weightlifting I’ve been doing.  Flexibility is pretty good — actually, it might even be too good.  The doctor thought that my ligaments are probably a bit more lax than most people’s, which could explain when I get so many soft tissue injuries.

There still is pain, and the doctor said that it will take until a year after the surgery before that fades nearly as much as it is going to.  I’ve been backing of of Kali practice, since that aggravates my shoulder more than anything.  I’m cleared to return to BJJ, but I’m going to hold off on that for another month and a half, at least, until I have my 3rd dan TKD test.

This past Saturday I was doing flip falls and dive rolls without incident, so I’m good to go with falling (I’ll give front falls a pass for a while longer, though).  Some of the muscles around the shoulder are kind of spasming with all the overwork I’ve been giving it, but all in all it isn’t too bad.  Kind of a tepid endorsement, I know, but major injuries are slow to heal.

Health

So, this is a funny thing.  One of the red belts in the school (in fact the one whose story I’ve mentioned before), had been having problems with a swollen knee — he wasn’t sure exactly what triggered it, but it was swollen up a lot.  He rested it for awhile, but it wasn’t getting much better.

Then, a couple weeks ago, he and I were sparring.  He did a nice turning back kick with the swollen knee leg that I was late in recognizing.  I just checked the kick by raising a leg, which meant that he kicked my shin gear.  It was a bit of a “thud” which didn’t hurt me at all.  He ended up turning his ankle slightly, but was able to keep going after a short time.

Well, when I saw him the following week, he pointed at his knee, and the swelling was completely gone!  It turned out that somehow the shock of that contact caused something or other to dislodge, and allowed the fluid to drain.  Or at least that’s the operating assumption.  The swelling had decreased later that same day, and was basically gone by the next day.

The only other time I’ve known about an injury that ended up healing something came early on when I started BJJ.  I was rolling with a similarly inexperienced white belt in a no-gi class.  I got caught in an inverted arm bar, and (stupidly) figured I would be able to slip out of it.  So I fought it and he ramped up the pressure.  Then we both heard something that sounded like paper ripping.

I had a little bit of pain, but really not like I was expecting.  After a couple of days, that pain went away.  It turned out that the ripping sound was some scar tissue.  I had had shoulder surgery for a subluxing shoulder (kept popping halfway out and then going back in) as a teenager, and for the following 17 years or so I had limited range of motion in that shoulder.  Put your elbow by your side with your fist in front of you (elbow bent at 90 degrees) and try to move your fist around your body without moving your elbow.  Normal shoulders can go roughly 90 degrees, but my shoulder could only go around 30 degrees.  After that arm bar, my range of motion improved significantly — now I can rotate that shoulder maybe 80 degrees or so.

Anyone else get an injury that ended up being beneficial?

Health

My shoulder surgery was Jan 19, which was exactly six months ago today.  It actually seems like longer ago than that to me.  All in all, I think my shoulder is doing very well.  I’ve been lifting weights and making good gains in strength.  I can do pushups now without having my shoulder feel like it might come apart.  I also don’t need to limit any of my activities, other than Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, for fear of reinjury.  My next appointment is in a couple of weeks, and he’ll probably clear me for that as well.  We’ll see.

That being said, I just took another picture tonight, and… well.  The shoulder itself doesn’t look much different than it did before surgery, which is slightly disturbing.  Despite that, the collar bone is actually connected to my shoulder, which it wasn’t prior to surgery.

And without further ado, here are the shots:

Before Surgery:

12 days after Surgery:

6 months after Surgery:

Seriously.  You wouldn’t think to look at it that it is any better than it was before.  But it is, and that’s all that really matters.

Health

Today was my latest appointment with the doctor.  Two X-Ray’s and an exam, and I’m in perfectly good shape!  Apparently the soreness and stiffness is still to be expected.  The collarbone is still in the place it is supposed to be, and he was pleased with that.

I’m cleared for lifting weights, so I’ll try to phase that back in a bit.  I still have my chinup bar hanging from a doorframe, which I had stopped when I was getting a little bit sore.  I’ll phase some pushups back in as well.  I might go back to Physical Therapy once or twice more, but I think at this point I don’t really think that it will be helpful enough that I’ll continue to devote time to going there.

I’m still not allowed to get back into grappling, nor do I wish to stress it in that sort of way.  I’m going to have to be comfortable rolling over that shoulder in order to start grappling back up again.  And I’m still kind of babying it when I fall in Hapkido.

Here’s hoping it continues to improve.

Health

I haven’t written a shoulder update in a while (in fact, I haven’t written much in a while).

Over the last week, my shoulder has begun hurting a more.  I backed off of Physical Therapy and some of the other strengthening exercises I was doing.  The AC joint itself is sore to the touch, in addition to the upper trapezius and other back muscles being locked up tight.  The doctor had said that the surgery is designed to be overly tight at first, and is expected to loosen up.  I’m starting to wonder if it has loosened up more than it was supposed to.

Of course, I haven’t really backed off of other things, such as tennis and sparring, and I’ve been doing some light falling in Hapkido.  I haven’t specifically reinjured it in any way since Day 5, when I thought I may have tweaked it.  But it still has some instability in some directions, which troubles me slightly.  Fortunately, I don’t have to wonder much longer.  I have my next appointment with my doctor tomorrow.  Hopefully everything is fine, and I’m worrying about nothing of import.

Health

Today was my doctor’s appointment, and it is all good.  I had another two X-Rays taken; I think I’m about to start glowing green over here.  The doctor was very pleased with how my collarbone is sitting.  Everything is healing well, and he was happy with my range of motion.

I convinced him that I really wanted to do some physical therapy to start building my muscles back.  The danger at this point is still that I’ll overexert it and rip the graft.  So regular weightlifting is still out of the question.  But I’m allowed to do isometric strengthening exercises: internal rotation, external rotation, abduction, and uh, pushing forward and pushing backward.  And I’ll also be continuing with range of motion exercises.

On my way back from the doctor’s office today, I stopped at my friendly neighborhood physical therapist office with a shiny new PT script from the doctor.  They checked out my current state, and got me going on those isometric exercises.  Afterwards, I got electric stimulation and ice.

I think I might have to get in touch with the doctor prior to my next appointment on May 5.  Since that is two months away, I really think I’ll be ready for some additional PT prior to that.  In the meantime, I’m cleared for most of TKD, though not for punching heavy bags and other things of that ilk.

And knowing me I’ll continue to push the boundaries of what I can do.

Health

Today marks exactly six weeks since my shoulder surgery.  And, based on the original estimate, I can stop wearing my sling today.  In point of fact, I haven’t worn the sling for nearly a week.  It feels great.  If someone didn’t know I had an injury, they probably wouldn’t notice it observing me go about daily life.

I see the doctor again on Thursday, and it will be interesting to hear what we tells me to do.  The original estimate was 6 weeks in a sling, the following 6 weeks regaining range of motion, and then 3 additional months of strengthening exercises before resuming contact sports.

Obviously, I’m pushing that particular envelope.  I did a few pushups from my knees yesterday.  I can throw some punches, though not with full force.  Two days ago I hit Kali sticks with my left hand.  And today I shoveled the walkway and used a rolling snow pushing contraption to clear the driveway.

Range of motion is also good.  There is a little tightness around the incision, but I can reach my arm straight up and then backwards.  External rotation is good.  I can grab my hands together behind my back.  In fact, for someone who has dislocated his shoulder a number of times, it is probably too flexible for the amount of strength in my shoulder.

So, I’m hoping that the doctor will tell me that everything is healing ahead of schedule, and will clear me for some light/medium strengthening exercises.  We’ll see.

Health

My surgery was 5 weeks ago today.  And for a guy still supposed to be in a sling, I’m doing really well.

Tonight I participated in a martial arts class without my sling for the first time.  As it turned out, I didn’t end up being able to participate in a large portion of the class, as the focus was on Hapkido — takedowns and falling.  I did do a couple of very small shoulder rolls on my good side, and that felt fine.  I did the exercise bike right before class, so at least I got a workout, and I did some extra kicks and ab work off to the side while the rest of class was going on.

I’ve been working on lightly stretching my shoulder.  I did some arm circles today.  Not full ones, but a respectably large circle.  I’ve been doing shoulder rolls forward and back.  I’ve been working external rotation (elbow at your side, rotate your fist away from your midsection).  And I’ve been stretching it upwards as well.  Those motions are all difficult to different extents, but nothing seems abnormally painful.

As far as my daily life goes, I’m hardly wearing the sling any more, except to sleep.  And I’m probably safe without it even then.  I’m driving without my sling, and in the last few days I’ve begun using my left hand to turn the wheel, rather than turn it exclusively with my right hand.  I’ll pick up small objects with my left (such as a glass of water), and I’ve used both hands a few times to lift two-handed objects (such as the cats’ litter boxes).

There is a little bit of a pulling sensation for a couple of movements, like trying to put my right ear to my right shoulder.  My elbow/nerve issue that I’ve mentioned a couple of times is still present, though it isn’t as bad as it had been.  And there’s just enough of an odd feeling with my shoulder that I’m aware of it most of the time, though it isn’t necessarily painful.  The incision itself is healing well, though many of the people I’ve showed it to have thought it a little grisly, despite it being a nice clean line about 4 inches long.

So I’m pleased with my progress, and will  be interested to hear what the doctor has to say the next time I see him.

Health