I'm typing with both hands now! Things are going well and I'm pretty happy so far.

Per instructions given to me, I could not take wet showers because contaminants might get into the wounds. Earlier this week I went back for a pre-scheduled PO check and the doctor removed the first dressing, cleaned the bloody surfaces, and reapplied fresh clean dressings (see below). Things looked good, and I felt pretty good as well. And the first thing I did when I got home was to take a real shower, and boy, it felt good! Overall, it's been a positive experience so far -- no complications and manageable pains.

As for the post-op pics below, it's really funny that they marked my upper body all over with bold identifiers. During pre-op, the nurses kept asking me to confirm my name, birthday, and triple confirmed the correct side to perform the surgery on -- just in case!

At the PO clinic I learned a few medical terms. The repairing of the labrum was done by inserting screw anchors to the bone, and tying them around to stabilize it (Bankart procedure). It was explained to me that in time, my own tissues would grow around and strengthen parts to keep the labrum and scapula stronger (months). It's imperative that I don't stress the bones/muscles/tendons in order for the tissues to grow back properly. See the illustrations below:

During the procedure, Dr. Eklund also noticed more problems that were not clear from the CTs and decided to perform an additional procedure called "remplissage". This is a procedure that stabilizes recurrent anterior shoulder dislocations, by filling in a medium sized Hill-Sachs region in the humeral head caused by  prior dislocation traumas. Below is an illustration of the Hill-Sachs lesion (trauma areas) and repositioning of the infraspinatus tendon into the Hill-Sachs area, effectively "filling in" to prevent it from engaging with the glenoid (shoulder socket) during shoulder movement.

In total, Dr. Eklund inserted 6 1.8mm anchors + "knotless" sutures for Bankart lesions, and 2 (bigger) anchors for the Hill-Sachs lesions.

This is my second week, and pain is now manageable without opiates, when I use ice-packs intermittently. I'd like to avoid hydrocodone (opiate) because it works all TOO well -- it has a tendency to  make me feel invincible and want to move around, which is not a good thing when I am suppose to rest and heal.