Carolyn K., Shoulder Replacement Surgery

All right, well, we're going to do a testimonial from one of our very special patients, Ms. Carolyn Clinker. And the question often comes up, are we still doing surgery? Because we're doing so much of the regenerative therapies, bone marrow and stem cell. Obviously, we are still doing a fair number of surgeries and Ms. Carolyn is a great example of that. So would you mind giving your full name and age if you're comfortable?

Okay. My name is Carolyn Clinker. I'm 74 years old.

All right. We did a left correct shoulder replacement, a special type of shoulder replacement called a reverse total shoulder. And you've done amazingly well.

Thank you.

What was life like before your treatment?

I'm a left handed person, so not only did it impact that, but I could not reach the bottom shelf of a cabinet, lift, laundry basket. Just about anything would give me pain.

Yeah. What were you unable to do that made you upset? What really, what really did you find.

Limiting about your being able to lift my arm any at all? Yeah, it was just there was no energy or strength there at all. So it really made life a lot more difficult.

What finally triggered you to come and meet our staff and our team?

The pain and the inability to do things.

Great. And what kind of concerns did you have prior to this procedure?

The biggest concern was the pain that I would experience afterwards. I heard all the horror stories about, you know, you can't control the pain and you will be just miserable. I was totally surprised. I had no pain afterwards. You put a. I don't know whether you call it a pain ball or what.

It's a regional anesthetic.

It took care of the pain. And even after I went home, I did not have to take pain pills.

Yep. And what was the procedure like for you? Do you remember anything about hospitalization?

I was in overnight just to make sure that everything was going according to what you had wanted. Went home the next day and started physical therapy a day later.

And what kind of downtime did you have? You know, one of the arguments that we make for biologics is that, is that there's not very much downtown. Now, a shoulder replacement, you have to be in a sling for four to six weeks. It can take two to five years to get as good as it's going to get. But what did you experience?

I was in the sling about three and a half weeks and then I could take it out when I sat down or when I was doing therapy. But after that, four to six weeks, the sling was off. I was doing my therapy. And now I can do anything I did before my shoulders started bothering me.

How long did it take you to get back to doing work or your normal activities?

Probably about four months.

Yeah. So it can take a lot longer than some of the other treatments. But sometimes our only option is surgical intervention. And there's certainly instances in which doing regenerative therapies or other types of injections are not appropriate.

And this was one of them.

Definitely one of them. And so what's life like now after your shoulder replacement?

I am back to doing everything.

No problems lifting, reaching, anything like that. So it's really a bonus to be back to normal.

Fantastic. And what would you tell somebody who's considering Pinnacle Integrative Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine as a provider?

Definitely. Come here. My experience has been amazing. I'm a former nurse, so I evaluate things a little differently than what some other people do.

High standards.

High standards. And they are met and exceeded when I came here.

Wonderful. Thank you. And do you have anything else that you'd like to say? Anything else you want to talk about? About your experience or the office?

Don't be afraid. Come get it checked out. See what the best option is, and have confidence that everybody here knows what they're doing. Are going to do their very best for you.

Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

It's your left shoulder. Let's see what you got. All the way up. Yeah. Wave bye. That's fantastic. Thank you so much.

You're welcome.