arthroscopic shoulder surgery

[mikelongstroke]

I am now 15 days out from having my right (dominant hand) shoulder scoped.

The cartilage disk (labrum) in my shoulder tore, from front to back, just below where my larger biceps tendon connects to it. The medical shorthand for this is a S.L.A.P. tear. This was a result of a fall I took at work which took my arm from a extended to the side position (think unsportsmanlike conduct signal) to my bicep being slammed against my ear. This concludes the back story.

With my age and over three decades of type 1 diabetes, my surgeon and I both agreed the chance of repair was not worth being out of work for half a year. The solution was to cut the tendon so it would stop pulling on the torn portion of the labrum.

So now, we get to the point in the story where me being a Clemson fan has hurt my progress. What have we heard over the years of players being injured?
"Deshaun has been busting it in therapy" "we can't keep Kevin off the treadmill" and so on.
I went to physical therapy with the mindset that I was going to crush it. Whatever they asked, I was going to give them more. Another rep, another degree of movement, I was convinced I could be another success story and I was the only thing holding me back. Sound familiar?

Now, the folks at Excel Therapy in Clemson have been great.
"You are not a 20 year old college kid" "you are 10 days out of surgery" "wear the arm sling you were given and stop working at home" "tell me again how long you have been taking insulin" "you will hurt yourself"
From an outside view, these might sound like harsh things to say to a patient. Wrong. This is exactly the type of instruction I need. I have always been athletic, so hard coaching is comfortable.

If resting my arm at my side is zero degrees, I can now passively rotate my arm up to 120° without strain or stretching. So I have the starting position for a free throw now.

Fouls I can signal: holding, offsides, false start, and clipping (though nobody ever calls that anymore).

Being a Clemson fan has never hurt me this much. But I have proven I am coachable, so I have that going for me.