Monday, September 08, 2008

Shoulder

I went to see a shoulder specialist on Friday and here's what I found out.

First off, my rotator cuff is fine. My bursa, though, had so much swelling that the doctor could actually see the difference between my shoulders. So it's bursitis and tendonitis, plus maybe a partial tear of my labrum (can't tell without an MRI).

For now, he gave me an injection (which makes your shoulder hurt worse for 2-3 days before it gets better, and man, it hurts today, which is one day after the injection, since I'm writing this on Saturday). He said there's about an 80% chance that the injection and physical therapy will take care of everything, and about a 20% chance that I would need some arthroscopic work done.

It's funny--20 years ago, I would have been devastated to find out that there was a 20% chance I'd need surgery. Now, though, I find those numbers make me feel pretty optimistic.

Worst part: no swimming for at least three weeks. This is a great time of the year to swim, and it's killing me to be out of the water. It's so bad that I turn into our neighborhood on a different road now, just so I don't have to drive by the pool.

This also kills playing the drums for now, although I can still practice with my right arm and can still work on my bass drum strength.

In general: bummer.

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