Surgery

December 3: Surgery went well. The tears were fixed and the bone spur was shaved down. He found the bicep tendon was detached. So a 4th incision was made and he re-attached that. In addition to general anesthetic, they did nerve block using nerve in the neck. It can last 6 - 24 hours. I slept throuh the night but was told when this wears off, I need to keep on the pain meds.

Next medical adventure

December 2: Tomorrow I am going in for surgery on my left shoulder. I have a torn rotator cuff, torn labrum and bone spur pushing on a tendon. Hopefully, this will eliminate the pain I've had since March.

It's arthroscopic surgery unless one of the tears can't be fixed this way and in that case, the surgeon will make a longer incision and make the repair. He expects the surgery to last 1-1/2 - 2 hours and I'll go home after coming out of the anesthetic.

Recovery time is unkown until he sees the extent of the repairs. I'm expecting to be home for a week.

Still good news

April 16: CT scan and blood tests were normal. No signs of cancer. The contrast dye has made me sick this time and the last, so the doctor wants to go back to a chest xray every other time. So, alternating between a chest xray and CT scan every three months. Each time the tumor marker blood tests are done and a exam by the doctor. Next year it should move to just 2 CT scans per year.