Life After Tommy John Surgery

     There are many things that change in your life when you can't use your right arm for much at all. Thankfully, it will get better, but there is still a while to go until my life is back to normal. 

    Before I got the surgery, I obviously knew that I wouldn't be able to do a lot of things for a while. Playing baseball being the most obvious. But after the surgery I realized there were many more things that would be a struggle.


    One of the more annoying things was not being able to sleep on my stomach. I've slept like that for pretty much my whole life, so it was tough to find a comfortable position to fall asleep. Although the good news is that it is starting to get more comfortable to sleep on my stomach which makes my life easier. The next most annoying thing is getting things to open (especially for food). I was lucky enough to have my parents help me out for the first few weeks when we were still on break, but it is quite difficult to use only my left hand to cook. I basically have to wing it and use my right arm without pulling much weight.

    Two more important skills that are tough to do are writing and typing. With my brace on, it takes me a lot longer to do both because of the strap by my hand. That should be a lot easier when I get my brace off (should be tomorrow). To go along with school tasks, one thing I didn't think about until the first day of classes was putting a backpack on. I can't really get it on my right arm, so I just sling it on my left arm. It feels pretty weird even though it is something of small importance. 

    There are many more small things that I didn't realize would be an inconvenience, but those are the main things. Even though most things I will be able to do soon, there are some things that will take months, or even a year. One of those tasks is rehab. Every day for the next year I will need to rehab my elbow, which won't be my favorite thing ever. 

    
    Even though these first six weeks have sucked, I know I have gotten the worst part out of the way. It is only improvement from here. Soon, I'll forget that these small annoyances even happened. 

Comments

  1. Isaac MorrisonFebruary 7, 2024 at 2:46 PM

    When I was in middle school I had a pretty nasty break in my right arm. This forced me to learn how to try and do everything I once did but with my left hand. I remember I could barley eat because I could not guide my fork to my mouth with my left hand. Eventually things got more comfortable and easier to do. It is nice when you are finally able to get it back and go back to normal but know you'll know how to do everything with both hands. It is weird that it takes something like this for us to realize how we glance over things because it is what is comfortable until you can't do it anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Christine BrunoFebruary 7, 2024 at 8:30 PM

    I never thought about all the minor inconveniences that come with having surgery/not being able to use both arms. Hopefully you have a fast recovery and are able to use both arms soon!

    ReplyDelete

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