Vitals & Voices
Welcome to Vitals and Voices, brought to you by Lexington Regional Health Center — your community, your health, your care. This is your trusted source for health-related content that matters to you.
Each episode, we bring you real conversations with the voices behind the care — from medical experts and wellness champions to community leaders and patients — sharing insights, stories, and tips to help you live your healthiest life.
Whether you're tuning in from Lexington or beyond, we're here to inform, inspire, and connect. Because at LRHC, your health is our priority — and your voice matters.
Vitals & Voices
Back in the Field: A Farmer’s Journey from Chronic Pain to Recovery
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In this episode of Vitals & Voices, we share a powerful patient story that highlights the impact of local orthopedic care. We sit down with Chris Larsen, a Lexington-area farmer, and Dr. Jeffrey Schopp, orthopedic surgeon at Lexington Regional Health Center, to talk about Chris’s journey through chronic shoulder pain, surgery, and recovery—all while staying close to home.
After living with shoulder pain for nearly five years, Chris reached a point where sleep, work, and everyday movement were no longer possible. Dr. Schopp explains what led to the decision for a reverse total shoulder replacement, how the procedure works, and why many patients experience faster relief and improved mobility than they expect. Chris shares what recovery really looked like—from the first days after surgery to being back in the tractor and planting this spring.
Whether you’ve been putting off care, worrying about recovery time, or wondering if surgery is “worth it,” this conversation offers honest insight, clear explanations, and real reassurance from both the patient and the surgeon who walked the journey together.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- Signs that shoulder pain may need more than conservative treatment
- What a reverse total shoulder replacement is—in plain language
- Why arthritis and long‑term wear can limit sleep, strength, and mobility
- What recovery and physical therapy realistically look like
- How many patients experience rapid pain relief and improved motion
- The benefits of receiving advanced orthopedic care close to home
Why This Episode Matters:
Living with chronic shoulder pain doesn’t just affect your comfort—it can slowly take away your independence, sleep, and ability to do the work you love. As Chris’s story shows, effective treatment and recovery don’t always require traveling far from home. With the right care team, many patients return to daily activities sooner than expected and with less pain than they imagined.
If shoulder pain has been holding you back—or you’ve been waiting for the “right time” to seek care—this episode may be the encouragement you need to start the conversation and take the next step toward feeling better.
Vitals & Voices is a podcast powered by Lexington Regional Health Center, offering meaningful health conversations that matter to you. Each episode features authentic stories and expert insights from the people behind the care — including healthcare professionals, wellness advocates, community leaders, and patients — all aimed at helping you live your healthiest, most informed life.
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Welcome to Vitals and Voices, brought to you by Lexington Regional Health Center. Your community, your health, your care. This is your trusted source for health-related content that matters to you. Each episode, we will bring you real conversations with the voices behind the care, from medical experts and wellness champions to community leaders and patients, sharing insights, stories, and tips to help you live your healthiest life. Whether you're tuning in from Lexington or beyond, we're here to inform, inspire, and connect. Because at LRHC, your health is our priority and your voice matters.
SPEAKER_01Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's episode. Today I'm so excited to talk to you guys about one of my favorite kinds of stories, the kind that reminds you why local healthcare matters. So we are joined by Chris Larson. He recently had a shoulder surgery on January 20th. And this spring he's back to doing what he loves, including planting, hauling seed sacks. And we are here with orthopedic surgeon Dr. Shopp to kind of talk about what led Chris to needing surgery, what recovery looked like, and just what it meant to be able to do all of this right here at home. So, Chris, thank you for being here today.
SPEAKER_02Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_01So, to our listeners, do you just want to talk a little bit about yourself? What do you do day day to day? What what keeps you busy?
SPEAKER_02Uh on a farm, and there's always something to do if I want to do it. Now I'm at the age I don't have to do it all the time, but I keep pretty active. And that's why I wanted to get this shoulder fixed so I could stay active.
SPEAKER_01So do you have both cattle and ground or just farm ground now?
SPEAKER_02No more livestock. Okay. Got rid of that.
SPEAKER_01The farm ground, I think, probably keeps you busy enough though, too.
SPEAKER_02Funny enough. Yep.
SPEAKER_01I'm sure the question the viewers want to know are we a red tractor family or green tractor?
SPEAKER_02Uh we are a green.
SPEAKER_01We are a green. Okay. The only way to be, in my family's opinion, too. So so with being a farmer, paint a little picture for us of being an ag. What kind of lifting, reaching, repetitive nature? You know, what do you have to do being a farmer that that maybe led to some shoulder issues?
SPEAKER_02Oh we're mostly we used to be mostly all gravity irrigated. So that required pipe all summer long, which most people know of. And just everything you do, repair work, anything. You're always using your arms, your hands, your legs. And I think over a good many periods of years, bored out.
SPEAKER_01It was time. So let's let's talk about your shoulder weight.
SPEAKER_03I think like in terms of like the scale of activities, I think there's like uh sedentary work, like desk work, and then there's like police officers and and firefighters, and then there's maybe like oil rig work, and then farmers are somewhere way up here. And then ironically, it's the farmers that need to get back fastest because the just the work is not getting done. It piles up. So there's, I feel like not only do the farmers work hard, but they just have this tremendous drive to get back to work because the work's got to get done.
SPEAKER_01I completely agree. So, with that, knowing, hey, what kind of prompted you? I'm having shoulder issues. When did you realize something wasn't right?
SPEAKER_02About five years ago, it started hurting and kept me awake at night. And that was uh the big thing. You can't sleep at night in the pain, you need to do something. And then I couldn't run a steering wheel anymore in the tractor. When I look back to hook something up, I could not rotate it around.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02And that's a necessity.
SPEAKER_01That is, that's that's day-to-day. You need to get those rows straight. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's just just uh when you can't do something that you normally have done, you want to fix it.
SPEAKER_01So, Dr. Schopp, when a patient like Chris comes in, what are you looking for? What leads you to say, hey, this is obviously a shoulder issue?
SPEAKER_03So, I mean, Chris was pretty straightforward. He came in and said, it hurts here, it aches here. Uh, when we examined him, there were obvious changes of arthritis. He had he had diminished motion, he had diminished ability to rotate his arm in space, he had lost some ability to get his arm up over uh up high in space. And then we took, you know, plain x-rays, which clearly demonstrated plain old run-of-the-mill wearing out of the shoulder joint, just clonohemol arthritis or arthritis of the shoulder joint itself. So then, did we do, did I give you a shot first or do we just jump right in? Nope, nope. So, you know, certainly I I pride myself on being uh conservative by nature. I'm I'm happy to chat with a person who comes in and says, you know, my my joint is hurting, but I'm not interested in surgery yet. You know, what other choices do we have? And certainly for some arthritis patients, some medicine, some physical therapy to stretch the joint back out. Sometimes intra-articular injections can uh traitor can help a person's symptoms to a to the extent that they're not motivated to have surgery anymore. And I'm happy to pursue that treatment as long as possible. But for Chris, I think it was pretty straightforward. He said, I can't sleep, I can't work, I got a bad x-ray. We agreed that any any sort of non-operative treatment would be a more temporary solution. So we agreed to proceed.
SPEAKER_01Talk to us about the type of surgery that that Chris had.
SPEAKER_03This is so cool. This is called reverse shoulder arthroplasty. So um the traditional shoulder, can you see this reasonably well if I hold this up? So if you imagine this is Chris's left shoulder, this is an artificial left shoulder, but still demonstrates a traditional shoulder joint. In a traditional shoulder, the ball is part of your arm and the socket is the inside, is the inside, you know, socket of your shoulder. And that's the way your shoulder articulates. It's a ball and socket joint. For this to work properly, you have to have a rotator cuff that's intact because that's an integral part of how the shoulder functions and how the shoulder rotates. For people who are becoming more mature, as I described you, sometimes the rotator cuff is attenuated or thin or even torn. And for those patients about 20 years ago, this procedure was invented where we reverse the shoulder joint or reverse shoulder artoplasty. So with this implant, the ball is where the socket used to be, and the socket is where the ball used to be. That's simple geometry. It changes the rotation point of the shoulder and allows the big muscle, the deltoid muscle, the one the bodybuilders get the thing that looks like a basketball on the outside part of your arm, the big round muscle on the outside part of your shoulder. With this implant in place, that muscle, the deltoid muscle, can be the primary mover or the primary rotation force for your shoulder. This was originally thought to be only for patients, and by originally I mean like 20, 30 years ago when this procedure started to be widely implemented, was thought to be the solution only for people who had terrible rotator cuff disease and shoulders that were unreconstructible otherwise. But as the implants have evolved, the procedure has evolved to basically be most mature shoulder arthroplasty patients. So most patients with shoulder arthritis, the outcomes for flipping the joint around are superior to the way we traditionally did it, where we made the shoulder kind of shaped like it was originally. It affords patients a quicker recovery, faster range of motion, uh, more range of motion at the comp at the conclusion of their recovery. And like this would be a good opportunity. Like when how fast did you feel pain relief after we did this for you?
SPEAKER_02I I had no pain.
SPEAKER_03Like kind of remarkably so.
SPEAKER_02I never had any pain in the hospital. Right. Never took a pain pill after I went home.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_02And I haven't had any since.
SPEAKER_03And I made you wear the sling for how long?
SPEAKER_02Uh, you told me to wear it for at least a week to 10 days or two weeks.
SPEAKER_03And how long did you actually wear it?
SPEAKER_02Well, most of the time in the morning it was never on. It would work its way up. But I wore it, I'm gonna say close to two weeks.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Just to kind of let things heal. And then I regularly take the sling away at two weeks and say, have at it, we got to get this thing motion, or we got to get this thing moving. And I tell patients, your goal is to give me a touchdown at six weeks to put your arm straight up over your head. And you're now how far out? Six. Uh I'm let's see. I finished therapy two weeks ago and that was 12 weeks. Okay. So we're well past that mark. But show off, give me your touchdown. That's pretty spectacular. Yeah. And it's kind of, you know, joint replacements, you know, there's some work done, there's some bony work done. We got to open some things to get inside of you. So you you would think patients would be really sore and really pretty dysfunctional for a long period of time. But there's just something magical about the shoulder. If you, if you kind of protect the soft tissue on the way in and are meticulous with the dissection so that you can see and then get the implant where it needs to be. Patients sense that the that the arthritis pain is gone and their recovery is just it's it's pretty remarkable. It's pretty fun to watch how fast people get better.
SPEAKER_02I was very grateful because I started when I got home, I'd I'd do the dishes. I told my wife, I says, I gotta have something to do. So I started out. I couldn't even reach in the sink the first three or four days. But by the end of the next week, I was able to reach the bottom of the sink with that. Still had the sling there, but I would extend it. House chores, the ultimate therapy. It it it just, you know, keep it busy. Yeah. That was my thought. Not not hurt it, just keep it busy.
SPEAKER_01So, Chris, you came in, obviously saw Dr. Shop, had had some had some knowledge. Hey, we're gonna have to have this done. Was January a good time for you for farming season?
SPEAKER_02Yes. Uh because the concern was to be able to plant corn in April. And I have achieved that goal. I'm very happy.
SPEAKER_01Talk to us about yeah, what what planting or what what the springs look like for you now post-surgery.
SPEAKER_02Um I'm just going about my day. I can do anything I need to do right now. Granted, I don't have the strength I used to have because I'm older. But everything I need to do, I can do right now with it. And I'm so grateful for what Dr. Schopp did and the care that I had in the hospital. It was just wonderful.
SPEAKER_01Talk to us a little bit about um, I know you had said maybe, you know, you've been living with pain for five, five years. What would you tell the fellow people living with pain?
SPEAKER_02Well, I know other people that have had experienced the same thing. And once once you get it fixed, the pain's gone. Hey, it's a whole lot better world.
SPEAKER_01Do you wish you would have done it sooner?
SPEAKER_02Probably should have, yes. But I I just put it off for as long as I could. But and I'm grateful for everything now. I really am.
SPEAKER_01Talk to us about, I know some people get the the kind of fear of hospitals or surgeries or things like that, but talk to us about your experience in, you know, in the surgery center, in outpatient. What you know, what did that day of surgery or any of that time you remember look like for you?
SPEAKER_02Uh I wasn't concerned about it. I'd had surgery before and I known people that had. It uh really went fast. They told me afterwards that uh after they put the block in that I talked to people. I don't remember that at all. I remember going into this uh operating room and and they said, Okay, you're gonna sit in this chair. I remember that. And I remember talking to, I think it was Taylor one time, and then that was it. The lights were out, and I knew nothing until I was in recovery. Yeah. Time travel. Yeah, it's it's so it just was over with. Dr.
SPEAKER_01Schopp, fill in those pieces for us of maybe what you know, what does that look like from your end?
SPEAKER_03You know, from our standpoint, there's a there's a lot going on. You know, the the morning of we're making sure that you are as as optimized as you can be for surgery. We're reviewing that you've been seen by your doctor, that your heart is healthy, that you are safe, and that you are as as ideally prepared as you can be. The anesthesia is a series of steps. First, we administer medicine into the nerves around the shoulder, which make the arm completely numb. Uh, the advantage of that is then less general anesthetic is necessary because the shoulder isn't is numb. And then when you wake up, there's residual pain relief. So instead of, as it used to be decades ago, a patient waking up from surgery and then suddenly having this unbearable onslaught of pain because they'd had surgery completed. You wake up and you're still in a numb state. So you basically wake up without any sensation at all. Uh then there's a a series of steps that we do to prepare for surgery. We're gonna uh position you in a certain way so we know we have access to everything we need access to. Uh, you're gonna have additional anesthesia so we have control of your airway and make sure that you're safe through the whole procedure. We're gonna administer antibiotics before we do anything because those antibiotics are then circulating in your system. And that's how we've been able to drive the infection rate from these procedures down to so low. We're talking, you know, single like single less than one out of a hundred or or in in that range, single digits in a hundred uh uh infection rate. And then, you know, the procedure itself is is executed, and I have a uh a team of people that help me. I have uh uh Travis Barkmeyer, who's my regular first assist. I have uh excellent uh scrubs, I have excellent circulators that make sure the procedure goes uh as well as it can. And then we're typically still patient dependent and insurance dependent, admitting the patient overnight just for observation, basically. Your other arm still work, your legs still work, your brain's gonna work. So you're not not hospitalized because you're sick, you're just hospitalized because something's and something's happened. And so we're just monitoring you. But increasingly sometimes we let patients go home the same day. If they demonstrate that they're comfortable, that they're capable, that they're that they prefer to go home and ice their own shoulder in their own comfy chair as opposed to the ones we have at the hospital, we we allow that to happen sometimes. And then upon discharge, there's an entire set of instructions. Patients know what the next steps are, how they're supposed to take their medicine, when therapy's gonna be, and when they're supposed to see me.
SPEAKER_01Talk to us about that little we can wear it as a little hotel stay, knowing, hey, you know, you're doing pretty good, but what what was it like to spend a night one night in the hospital?
SPEAKER_02Oh, it was fine. I had I everybody took excellent care of me.
SPEAKER_03Food's solidly good for hospital food.
SPEAKER_02I I had a good sandwich that night, yes. I did. Had your own TV in your room? Oh, yeah, had the TV the whole nine yards. Yep. They got me up and let me walk the next morning. That was well, like we walked down and took the X-ray again so he could look at it the second time, make sure it was in the right place. Everything was good.
SPEAKER_01Good. Gotcha, got you sent on your way then. And then you said um some physical therapy after.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, twelve weeks.
SPEAKER_01Twelve weeks, okay.
SPEAKER_02Twelve weeks of it. Three days, three days a week. And it was about an hour each session. Okay. And gradually, as Dr. Shop said you could start doing a little more resistance, then they started doing more and more. And yeah, it it came around. I'm not gonna say that I didn't have a little achy muscles from time to time, but that that goes with it.
SPEAKER_01And talk to us about, you know, Dr. Shop, what did the follow-up look like for for Chris? You know, seeing him a couple weeks after a month. What does that look like?
SPEAKER_03We usually we have a protocol in place. We're usually seen the next week for an incision check, two weeks after surgery by me to review your x-rays, review any specifics for your case. And then that's kind of when I do the rah-rah speech. Okay, we're all done. You've you've uh everything's working. Now go go work your butt off. I'll regularly say that in physical therapy. And then again, around six weeks, which is when I'm checking motion, making sure you're on the appropriate recovery path. And then usually a final time at 12 weeks. And if your motion is recovered and your pain is controlled and you look like you've healed the incision and there's no issues with your x-rays, I'll regularly discharge a patient at that point. I will frequently say, 12 weeks is not the end of this journey for you. You're gonna notice improvement in your strength, in your confidence, in your ability to tolerate tasks for longer periods of time. But at three months, you know, most of the work is done. And I regularly tell people, like, I'm here if you need me, but go back to doing your thing.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome.
SPEAKER_03So, Chris, I know you're you're kind of uh we may call you in three months and make you do a podcast with us. That's true.
SPEAKER_01We might do that. Well, Chris, I know you're uh, you know, a Lexington native or from around the area. Talk to us about, you know, the growth you've seen in the hospital or what it what it meant to be able to do this type of surgery here.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's can very convenient. It's our hometown, it's easy for the family. That's a big, big plus. You know, yeah, you can drive out of town to a hospital, but why not do it here? Everything's here. And he's such an excellent uh surgeon. I met him with my wife on her knee, and and I was very impressed with his uh diagnosis, what to do, what maybe happened down the road. And he's very confident and he's very skilled. And that was my reason for coming here.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Well, we appreciate it.
SPEAKER_03Well And that's important right now. You know, everybody knows the the the exogenous event in the community, right? We we know what's going on in this town, and we need to keep this hospital healthy. And uh I I've said it before and I'll say it again. I work in a state-of-the-art operating room with excellently trained people who have great skill. And I feel like our outcomes, our our metrics, our ability to render care is equivalent to any of these big giant 20, 20-floor hospitals. And I previously worked in a big giant 20-floor hospital. We do a good job here.
SPEAKER_01Well, to both of you, what what did I miss? What else do we want our listeners to know about? I mean, about Chris's experience about shoulders.
SPEAKER_02If you got a bad one, get it done. Don't wait. Perfect end. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I love it. Well, thank you both for being on here. Chris, thank you for sharing about your story. Congratulations to getting back in the field, successful planting season for you. Dr. Schopp, thank you for walking us through, you know, what shoulder replacement, what those things look like, and what recovery looks like. So, and to our listeners, if you have been living with shoulder pain, I mean you heard it right here from Chris. Uh, if you don't know what your next step is, hopefully today's episode helped a little bit with that to help start a conversation. Um, thank you for tuning into Vitals and Voices. Your support truly matters here at Lexington Regional Health Center. If you would please like, share, and subscribe to our podcast. And until next time, stay well.