Shoulder Surgery, Part II

It's been awhile since I've posted. The last thing all of you heard was that Beau would be starting physical therapy and working on getting back to normal with his arm function. Unfortunately, his arm is nearly useless and will require more surgery. Beau will be heading to Tampa, FL for Dr. Mark Frankle to perform a "reverse shoulder replacement" on December 6th. We have reason to be very hopeful that this surgery will provide him with greatly increased function in his arm and shoulder. The gist of it is that Beau's first surgery left him with little to no rotator cuff. The rotator cuff consits of the four tendons that attach muscles to the humerus and allow it to lift and move. Without these muscles and attachments, Beau's arm is nearly immobile. His shoulder is actually out of the socket and he can spin his whole arm around backwards which is kind of interesting but nauseating at the same time :) See what I mean??? You can actually see the ball of his arm bone sticking up through the t-shirt...

The secret to the reverse shoulder replacement is that it utilizes the deltoid muscle for lifting and working the arm and this has proven to be much more successful in patients with severe rotator cuff injuries or no rotator cuff function at all. Beau does still have a deltoid muscle so this surgery should help him immensely. Part of the surgery will also involve removing the titanium prosthesis and replacing it with a cadaver bone that actually comes with tendons in order to reattach muscle. Another great thing about this upcoming sugery is that it will be performed by the man who invented the Reverse® Shoulder Prosthesis...so Beau will be in the best hands imaginable. I've included a link below that explains the reverse shoulder replacement and it's benefits in great detail if you are interested in reading more about it.

http://www.eorthopod.com/eorthopodV2/index.php?ID=dbb85cd4171ee690cff1b8cc7b0a57c6&disp_type=topic_detail&area=6&topic_id=c0cef76579cc52c11d5c9f9092ca1b3d

Thanks so much for keeping up with Beau and continuing to pray for and encourage him along the way.

~Maggie