"Shoulder Surgery at Stracathro"

My older teenage son had surgery to stabilise his right shoulder after a number of dislocations despite physiotherapy to strengthen it.  Despite PRI being our closest hospital we were allocated a Thursday in September 2023 in Stracathro.  We are so glad it was there.  My son had 2 concerns regarding needles and the materials to be used inside his shoulder.  The staff explained the procedure and he was instantly reassured and the concern and worry disappeared.

Being a smaller hospital my son had a room of his own and one parent was allowed to stay with him until the operation.  We were deeply grateful as this was his first experience of a hospital procedure apart from the dislocations.

Unfortunately he was last on the list for the day and was taken to surgery prep around 2-30pm.  He was starving by then.

We were introduced to the physio but not given any advice as they prefer to see patient’s afterwards.  There was a lack of communication as they thought my son would be kept in overnight but we were told in most cases they prefer to let patients go home if possible.

The physio phoned us the next day at home but l would have preferred a chat in person at the hospital before the operation as they finish at 5 and my son did not return to his room until 5-30pm.

My son was offered a sandwich around 8pm and we were allowed to leave around 8-30 and were home around 9-30pm.

He struggled to sleep and needed more pain relief around 2am after which he slept until morning.  The first 2 days he needed the codeine but moved onto ibuprofen and paracetamol quite quickly after that.  He was almost pain free after about day 5 which was amazing.

The worst part of the experience for my son, apart from the hunger, was the sticky patches used.  They were used initially to cover the numbing cream in 3 places where a needle might have been used for the cannula.  The main area was to cover the whole of the shoulder front to back to keep the dressings in place.

The patches were clear and exceptionally sticky and a nightmare to get off, even in the shower!  A very helpful suggestion would be to advise patients before visiting to shave all body hair from the shoulder area front and back, even fine almost undetectable hair as it becomes very painful to remove the patches.  I would consider clingfilm to cover the numbing cream as removal of the patch was worse than the needle!

The staff were excellent, the surgeon and anaesthetist especially.  We were very appreciative of the anaesthetist  checking in on him before he headed home.

Stracathro gets a 10/10 from us.  The only areas that could be improved were the use of the patches without prior warning and the Physio not checking whether we would be there in the morning and speaking to us pre operation instead.  Advising to have a big cereal breakfast when being operated on later in the day would have been appreciated too as my son only had a small amount and effectively fasted all day, not easy for a growing teenager