After a nice hiatus away from the operating room, Jo is back on Dr. Kelly's schedule. She will have surgery on her right shoulder on Friday, December 5th. Jo's left shoulder feels tremendous. The bone graft that was implanted into her left shoulder has been an incredible success.
As Jo's left shoulder has gotten better and better, her right shoulder has started to deteriorate. About 45 days ago, she had shooting pains in her right shoulder for about 3 days. Dr. Kelly took some x-rays, but couldn't find anything. About 3 weeks ago, Jo started to have trouble with her range of motion. As of this morning, she can get her arm over her head, but it is not pretty.
Last week a CT Scan (or maybe it was an MRI) confirmed that Jo's shoulder has started to collapse and it is cracked. My first thought was that it is time for another bone graft just like the left shoulder. Unfortunately, the body does not take well to a second graft. Somehow, the body knows about the first graft and tends to reject follow-on grafts.
Dr. Kelly will be going into Jo's shoulder and again "cleaning out" any pockets of necrosis. Then she will install a "button" on Jo's shoulder bone that is supposed to prevent further collapse and give her back her range of motion. I'll have to find out the technical name for this surgery and get back to you on that.
For the next 70 days or so, we will baby that shoulder and try to prevent any further collapse. There is good news...nothing else hurts and Jo only goes to get her blood checked every two weeks.
