Y'all might remember I had a full hip replacement in November, 2020.
Long story short, I was teaching class one day, I turned and stepped - just stepped, as I wasn't doing a drill, I was just talking - and I started limping on my left leg. After a lot of trying to figure out what was wrong, we discovered an arthritic cyst was destroying my hip joint, so I had to have it replaced.
Before I hurt my hip - a year before, in fact - I hurt my right shoulder. It had been sore a little for a long time (I chalked it up to age), but I know exactly when it got really bad and stayed that way. I attended a pretty awesome seminar in July 2019 with GM Shelley Millspaugh - and after a lot of hard work there, it started hurting.
A LOT.
Over time, the pain became constant, and the strength in my right arm started to decline noticeably. My left was actually stronger than my right.
Y'all, I'm right handed.
Saw a doc, got x-rays which didn't show anything, did cortisone, it came back. Saw a surgeon, did x-rays and an MRI, didn't show anything, got another cortisone shot. Saw a different surgeon, did X-rays and MRI, didn't show much but did show a partial tear and some bone spurs... and then the hip thing struck. Healed up from the hip, did physical therapy for the shoulder (which helped with strength but not the pain), got yet another cortisone shot, which wore off within three weeks...
And here we are now.
So finally, my surgeon - who is a martial artist himself, so he gets it - says, "Okay, look, this isn't going to work anymore. No more shots, no more PT." This case of severed tendonitis in the bicep tendon of shoulder is not responding to conservative treatment.
It's surgery time.
Yep, here I go again. I will be getting a 2nd big surgery in less than a year. As tough as recovery from the hip was at times, I think I'm going to really hate having to recover from the shoulder.
With the hip, I was back in a teaching role in just a few weeks.
With the shoulder, I can't do any upper body training AT ALL, for at least 8 weeks. Maybe 12, depending on what he finds in there.
So nope, it is NOT the opportunity to become a bad-ass with my left hand while I heal up from my right. I guess I'll be doing... footwork?
I'll see what my surgeon says, I guess, but I can't imagine being completely sidelined for two to three months minimum.
The saving grace here is that I am finally going to see end of the shoulder pain I've been fighting for a couple of years now, and eventually, I'll be able to train again without the severe pain that sometimes comes when I do.
THAT is a relief.
Date's not set yet for the surgery, but I'm not going to do it until July or August, because I have big-time training plans for June, and I'm going to do those, even if my arm falls off and I end up having to turn into a middle-aged stubby suburban Winter Soldier.
While I'm glad to get this addressed finally, I had some big-time plans for training this year that are going on hold.
And that, I'm not thrilled about.
But I'm super-stoked about the end of the shoulder pain being on the horizon. Eventually I'll be back to training like I want to again!
You ever have a surgery that knocks you out of training for a long time? How did you manage it? Let us know in the comments!