If it were me, I would want my liver doc and ortho doc to consult together on this to come up with a plan of action.
Having been through 48 weeks of treatment, I would never consider doing surgery during treatment (unless it was an emergency situation) . As you know, the treatment meds lower the immune system and the risk of infection is great during orthopedic surgeries (any surgery). Getting an infection in a joint or surgical wound is never a good thing even when one is perfectly healthy to begin with...especially MRSA.
Hi there,
I actually work on Orthopeadics in a Toronto hospital, I would be more concerned about how your hepatolgist feels your liver will handle the ansethetic. It is ture orthopods love to operate - having said that I have seen people with torn rotator cuffs that leave it way too long and end of with signitificant damage in the muscle and nerves. If you hepatologist feels your liver can take it - I would suggest you go for it. Also you might want to ask about having a local block rather than a general anthestic
I had exactly the same symptoms - hand over head - severe shoulder pain. The PT gave me stretching exercises, and within 3 weeks, I was 100% better.
I would seriously consider another opinion :-) It never hurts to be sure.
RBW
Do the surgery first. Has your liver Dr. had any say in this? Any surgery has its risks in the best of situations and being on tx, you perhaps wil be already challenged with low blood levels - at four weeks you should start seeing some changes in that department. And then it's during the most critical time of tx - the first twelve weeks when you really want to maintain doses and all. I'm thinking the healing process may be compromised as well.
I was having gallbladder/pancreas issues during tx and they said if I had to have surgery, tx would be stopped. Luckily what ever the problem was, it went away, but it was a scary time.
Hope you find some answers soon, Pam
Ya I tried the PT and it didnt work-cant put my arm up over my head,hurts to get dressed and oh boy if i turn the wrong way-OUCH !!!!!He said the muscle is detatched from the bone so I dont think PT is gonna help it.Im falling apart in my old age !!LOL!!!!!
Actually, I forgot to mention that my orthopaedist told me he would consider it rare indeed to find an adult over age 40 who didn't have some rotator cuff damage. The shoulder is the most complex joint in the body.
These orthopaeds are always in a hurry to get you under the knife. That's where they make their big money.
The best thing you can do for a physical injury is to rest and let it heal. Granted, ligaments and tendons heal very, very slowly since they don't have much blood supply.
Have you tried physical therapy? That was the first thing my orthopaed prescribed for me after I made it clear to him I was going to do everything possible to avoid surgery. Went for a month, and I still do the shoulder stretching exercises to this day. I've never needed surgery, and rarely notice my shoulder problems anymore. That was 6 years ago.
Once you get cut on, it never seems to be quite the same. I'd get a second, and even third opinion.
Best of luck with w/e you decide.
RBW
Hey ginger....hope all is well
Yea Cindy do the surgery first. Not after starting tx. Back to the laundry I go. Hi Will
After I sent that I saw your last post....Again if it was me I wouldn"t want to go into shoulder surgery 4 weeks into treatment.....but thats just me.
Personal choice tho,,,,with the advice from your docs.
WILL
Cindy....if it was me I would get the shoulder fixed up prior to treating. If you let a torn RC go too long you could end up in fairly serious trouble with it ,frozen shoulder etc.
Your ortho will do a set of bloods prior to surgery to make sure platlets and other levels are fine for surgery and he will obvoiusly be aware of the HCV so there should be no problem.
Then you can start tx. after this is healed up or at least mostly so.
Good luck...
WILL
To be honest what im trying to do is start my tx in june(I have 9 weeks off from school)then have the surgery last part of July.I get 12 weeks of fmla and that would put me at 21 weeks-my tx for hep would be finished possibly ,and I wouldnt have to tell my employer whats going on-Id have documentation for a torn rotator surgery-Make Sense?????
somehow I thought you were already on tx , sorry my mistake.
Yep you knew it was torn though. Didnt you! Gee how many months and unnessary ins co pays and payments did that put ya back for what you already knew? Cindy everyone I know of who had that surgery went right back to work. How good is the stearing on your bus? could you put two hands on wheel yet use one hand primarly? I dont know about all your med questions, but. If you had the surgery prior to tx. Then went into tx. I dont see where that might be a problem. As long as your not on meds for ?.. But I dont know..I have read where people take meds while on tx. All kinds. Good luck
I suggest you show your doctor a recent copy of your blood count and let him decide.