After experiencing some significant pain in my right shoulder/arm, I decided to see my orthopedist – Dr. Keiras last September. He took x-rays and let me know that I have bone-on-bone arthritis which is causing the pain.

I knew my granddaughter was coming so I decided to try an injection to see if that would help alleviate the pain. Woo hoo! The injection in mid-October allowed me to travel to Denver to see Isabella without too much pain!

I came home and the pain started up again with a vengeance. I made another appointment for an injection in early December hoping it would get me through the holidays. I also began doing some research on Total Shoulder Replacement surgery.

I discovered this study by a surgeon in Kentucky who was doing these using a posterior approach which preserves the rotator cuff. Obviously I was intrigued.

I sent Dr. Greiwe an email with my x-ray and exam reports and asked if he thought I’d be a good candidate. He responded within a day and said he’d like to see my actual x-rays. I obtained a CD when I received my second injection and uploaded them to his Ortholive.com portal.

Thursday, December 12, 2019

I had my consultation with Dr. Michael Greiwe yesterday evening. He created an app called Ortholive.com which I used to upload the CD with all of my right shoulder x-rays (from 2015 when my local orthopedist did a “Arthroscopy, shoulder, surgical; capsulorrhaphy;
debridement; acromioplasty, subacromial decompress”) as well as the most recent x-rays from September. He reviewed everything and then we chatted via the Ortholive app on my iPhone. He was very open and honest with me and said he’s done 81 total pTSA (posterior Total Shoulder Anthroplasty) with 3 revisions; 1 due to instability, 1 due to rotator cuff problems and 1 due to stiffness. That is 3% revision rate. I did some research and found that this study USA shows a 4% all cause revision rate for standard TSA so that’s encouraging.

He did say that it is more difficult to get the stemless prosthetic aligned just right via this method but it does allow for a much easier and shorter recovery.

He told me I would be a good candidate for this if I chose to as my bone structure looks good for the stemless prosthetic.

He’s sending me a packet of information as they have done quite a few of these for out-of-state patients. They have a relationship with a small hotel close to the hospital to accommodate out-of-state patients. He said I would typically fly in Saturday or Sunday and have the surgery Monday. I would follow up with them the following Friday and then fly home.

Follow up visits will be done via OrthoLive.com portal.

I’m planning for a March surgery with him and will document updates and my experience as this unfolds.