- You may shower tonight, letting soapy water run over your incision(s) and patting them dry with a towel. You should avoid submerging the leg (bath, pool, hot tub, etc.) for at least one week.
- You will begin progressive weightbearing in the boot and continue this until your next follow-up. Please refer to the separate handout.
- You were given heel lifts to be used in the boot. The heel lifts are in place to reduce strain on the Achilles tendon. You should remove a heel cup every 10-14 days. The goal is to be neutral in the boot at the 6-week post-op mark.
- Use an ace bandage or a thick sock to prevent the boot from rubbing on the incision(s).
- You will start doing exercises for the ankle to maximize your post-op flexibility. You will do the following exercises twice daily, once in the morning and once in the evening.
- You should work on 3 sets of 15 reps of inversion (in), eversion (out), plantarflexion (down), and dorsiflexion (up) to neutral.
- Formal physical therapy will begin at 6 weeks post-op. A referral will be provided today following the Accelerated Protocol.
- You will continue to ice and elevate the leg as much as possible. Elevating the leg above the level of the heart will reduce the amount of time required to bring down the swelling.
- If there is appropriate healing, you will begin transitioning out of the boot at 8 weeks post-op.
- I would like to see you back in 4 weeks for your next follow-up appointment.
Achilles Debridement and Repair: 1st Post-op
- You may shower tonight, letting soapy water run over your incision(s) and patting them dry with a towel. You should avoid submerging the leg (bath, pool, hot tub, etc.) for at least one week.
- You will begin progressive weightbearing in the boot and continue this until your next follow-up. Please refer to the separate handout.
- You were given heel lifts to be used in the boot. The heel lifts are in place to reduce strain on the Achilles tendon. You should remove a heel cup every 10-14 days. The goal is to be neutral in the boot at the 6-week post-op mark.
- Use an ace bandage or a thick sock to prevent the boot from rubbing on the incision(s).
- You will start doing exercises for the ankle to maximize your post-op flexibility. You will do the following exercises twice daily, once in the morning and once in the evening.
- You should work on 3 sets of 15 reps of inversion (in), eversion (out), plantarflexion (down), and dorsiflexion (up) to neutral.
- Formal physical therapy will begin at 6 weeks post-op. A referral will be provided today in clinic.
- You will continue to ice and elevate the leg as much as possible. Elevating the leg above the level of the heart will reduce the amount of time required to bring down the swelling.
- If there is appropriate healing, you will begin transitioning out of the boot at 8 weeks post-op.
- I would like to see you back in 4 weeks for your next follow-up appointment.
Innovative Technologies used in Orthopedic Surgery
Dr. Grant Garcia: So, we’re going to talk today about the innovative things that we do here at Orthopedic Specialists of Seattle, especially for shoulder replacements. So, we have these innovative technologies to improve our patient outcomes and to get a better shoulder replacement. So, as you’ve heard us talk about this before, but going to a specialist is very important. And the reason is because you want someone that understands the new technology, because in order to do that, when you do the new technology, you can improve outcomes. And so, the outcomes and the technology we have here are we do, we get a CT scan of the patient’s shoulder, and then we can process that information, and we actually have your shoulder in a three-dimensional model on our computer.
And then what I do is; I go home and actually plan out the surgery. I can do all the cuts, I can do all the realignment, everything I needed to do to prepare for the surgery of your shoulder. And for the more complicated ones, which actually ends up being more common than we think. Because again, people tend to wait a little bit longer to have their shoulders done, then their knees or their hips. We can actually prepare for that.
Shoulder Replacement Surgery
Dr. Grant Garcia: I am Dr. Grant Garcia. I’m one of the shoulder and sports specialists here at Orthopedic Specialists of Seattle. Just to introduce myself, I did my undergraduate at Brown in Rhode Island, and then did my residency training in New York in a place called Hospital for Special Surgery. We got extensive train for shoulder replacements as well as other sports procedures. And then did my medical school at University of Pennsylvania. And then was fortunate enough to do a fellowship at Rush University and focused on shoulder, especially shoulder replacements. And then went into France for a bit and did some shoulder replacements as well over there. So that’s the background of me, I’ve been here, a shoulder Orthopedic Specialist of Seattle have been quite happy. And we’re going to talk to you about shoulder replacement today and what involves some symptoms related to it and then the procedure itself.
So, shoulder replacements or shoulder arthritis is the reason most people get replacements is because the shoulder socket or we call it, you know, the humerus and then you have the socket itself here, which is the glenoid and they start to wear down. Now there’s lots of different variations that you can get, but the most common type is ones to patients who just have had unfortunate events of a previous injury to the shoulder, maybe dislocation, et cetera.
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Skier’s Thumb a.k.a. Ulnar Collateral Ligaments to the Thumb
Dr. Wayne Weil: Hi, my name is Dr. Wayne Weil. I’m one of the surgeons here at Orthopedic Specialists of Seattle. My specialty is hand and elbow surgery, I did my medical school training at the New York University, School of Medicine in New York City. I did my orthopedic surgery residency at the Hospital for Joint Diseases in New York City. And then, I moved out here to Seattle for my hand surgery fellowship at the University of Washington and Harborview hospital.
Today, I’d like to talk to you about Ulnar Collateral Ligaments to the thumb, commonly known as a Gamekeeper’s Thumb or Skier’s Thumb. The weather here in Seattle is changing, we’re transitioning from fall and into winter, there is some early snow in the mountains and I’m sure in another month or two, we will all be out in the mountains skiing in the great Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately, some of us will have some falls and some of us will end up with a Skier’s Thumb.