Want to see a video of my shoulder surgery?

Well, not MINE, but the same surgery that I had done. I was doing some research and came across this tonight. I'm not one for being queasy, but when the doctor starts hammering the anchor into the tissue / bone / whatever, I pretty much got dizzy. Surely my doctor was more careful than this guy right? Yeah, probably not.


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Final pre-surgery round recap

I guess I never got around to documenting this out. I played with some good friends of mine on 8/31 for the last round of golf that I got to play before the shoulder surgery. Since it was special we splurged and went to Troon North, an extremely nice track up in North Scottsdale. We played the Pinnacle Course from the back, a rating of 73.0 and a slope of 147! Pretty good stats from back there. Here we go!

As a condition of playing, one of my friends insisted that I not speak at all about how badly my shoulder hurt cause he didn't want to listen to me bitch. So I hand him my ball and tee on the first box and ask him to tee it up for me as my shoulder hurts, ZING, right off the bat. Going to be a long day. #1 is 392 yard, driver up the left leaving me 126 to the back left hole, PW to the dead center of the green and left the first putt about 5 feet short, missed it but I was still talking shit to the boys, yeah maybe we should try concentrating now. #2 is 405 yards, driver up the left side, I backed it up about 18" in the fairway, hmmm, you know some roll might be nice next time. 8 iron about 20 feet short up the hill, KILLED the putt about 8 feet by, I guess we didn't feel like leaving any more short, but I center cut it for par, that felt good.

#3 is a 468 yard par 4, into the breeze and I hit it decent, but it upshot into the wind, and I backed it up about 12" this time in the fairway. 206 in, fanned a 3 iron into the bunker and failed to get it up and down. #4 is a 416 yard par 4 (getting sick of par 4's already), decent tee shot into the middle of the fairway, got about 3" of roll, thought I hit a perfect 8 iron all over the stick, but it kept climbing. Somehow it cleared the bunker and ended up about 9' away, but alas we didn't capitalize and made 4. The 5th hole is named Dos Caminos, or as I explained, Two Caminos (yeah, I'm bilingual), 541 yard par 4, not a great tee shot up the left, 260 or so in and hit a smooth fat 3 wood to about 70 yards, joy. Hit a great held off SW exactly 70 yards, and 15 yards right, 2 putt par. 206 yard par 3 6th, downhill and double crossed a 5 iron into the front left bunker, out to about 10 feet and missed the putt. Nice bunker shot jackass, 10 feet, wow Seve would be impressed, no?

7th is a 456 yard par 4, decent tee shot that again backed up about 18", 210 yards in with a huge bunker in front, hit a cut 3 iron that started at the stick, oops. Apparently I had plenty of club as when we arrived the pin was in the back left and somehow I was pin high about 12' right of the hole, but we missed it and made a solid 4. 8th is a 190 yard par 3, back into the breeze and a bit uphill, I settled on 5 and upshot it, short right but hit a great chip to about 2 feet and made par. 9 is a 404 yard par 4 by the card, I don't remember the hole other than I hit the fairway and made 4. 10th is a very appealing hole, 288 to the row of fairway bunkers and the fairway is HUGE. I'm pretty sure I want to bust one and reach the traps as I've been hitting it all on the fly all day with no roll, so we teed it up high and nearly fagged the driver, must have gone 200' up in the air, leaving me 205 yards in on this 407 yard hole, awesome. Uphill, hit a perfect 3 iron that one hopped stopped in the fringe, 15 feet below the hole, putt just died short.

11 is a 539 yard par 5, dogleg right, downhill, just screaming "come take me". We learned our lesson on the last hole and made solid contact, smashed the tee shot, never cut but it was bombed. Get to the ball and the fucker backed up 18" again. This is really getting old. So now I've got 270 in with a wash 20 yards short of the green, we elect to lay up to 125 and hit PW to 10 feet, not bad but not stony either. Miss the putt and settle for par, a bit of a letdown after how I felt after hitting the tee shot. 12 is a 416 yard par 4, great tee shot, dead stop in the fairway (ok, maybe 2" of roll), a fatted 9 iron that I tried to stand on to get it there, pathetic pitch and missed the putt for 5. 13 is a 177 yard par 3, back into the breeze and uphill, learned my lesson last time and hit 5, pulled it right through the wind, I'm on by about a foot back left, pin dead center, just missed it and made 3 the proper way.

14, wow, 609 yard par 5, good tee shot, nearly plugged in the fairway (who me, want some roll on a 609 yard hole? Nah), perfect 3 wood (that DID plug in the fairway) and a pathetic attempt at a 9 iron that ended up short, uneventful up and down for 5, but another 5. I can't remember 15, hit the fairway, that much I know, I made a par, that's all I can remember. 16 is a 140 yard par 3 over water, which is not in play. [Rant]Let me take a moment to digress, we live in the desert, stop making big ass lakes that aren't in play just so you can say you have X number of holes with water. If it's part of a water treatment solution like say, Ocotillo golf course, then fine, but just because you need a signature hole, doesn't mean you need to use water. [/Rant] OK, so perfect 9 iron to 4 feet and FINALLY made birdie, only took 16 holes. Walking up to the 17th tee, it dawns on me that I haven't missed a fairway all day, hit every one so far. "Ok, stop thinking about that" I say to myself, then I change my mind "No man, you've hit every fairway and you're going to hit the last 2. No fear, no tentative swings, you've done it 12 times in a row, 2 more is easy". Free wheeled it and split the fairway, 441 yard par 4 17th. Unfortunately it AGAIN stopped dead in the fairway, 185 yards left, pin is middle right, over cut it just a tad and hit it a bit too hard, about 30 feet behind the hole, great putt that somehow stayed out, great putt.

18, last hole for 4-5 months. I've been dreading this all day. I want to keep playing, I want to call in sick to work all week and play every day. It's been a ton of fun all day, my friends and I just killing each other with put downs all day, literally one of the best times I've ever had on a golf course. The only thing that I would wish for is a closing birdie. Something to sit back on and that just in case something went horribly wrong and I could never play again, I'd always be able to say "I birdied the last hole of golf I ever played". And what do the Gods give me? A 447 yard par4 into the wind with desert / ob left, thanks boys, love you too. One more fairway, freewheeled it, never a doubt, split it again, 14 of 14 fairways. Oh, and I backed that one up too, I'm left with 195 yards into a slight breeze, I pull 4 iron and nutted it, big high draw that one hopped and stopped, leaving me an uphill left to right 12 footer for the closing birdie I've been dreaming of. Struck the putt perfectly and missed it by 1/4", but I hit it perfectly, enough speed, enough break, just didn't go in. Ah well. Finished with 2 perfect swings and a perfect stroke, sometimes that's all you can do.

3 over on the front, even on the back for a 74, 1 over the course rating. Hitting every fairway was special, not by a little, there was never a doubt on any of the tee shots. Our group lost a few balls, pretty much when you miss a fairway here, it's gone, 5-10' drop offs into the desert and some really gnarly brush, it's visually intimidating for sure. The highest slope rating I've heard of is 154 (there might be higher on ridiculously tricked up tracks) and let me tell you, 147 is no cakewalk. That's a really good course, but fuck me do I wish I had made birdie on the last hole.

Surgery recap and physical therapy update

Ok, so I'm typing with both hands now, what a relief. The first week was brutal as I felt pretty helpless doing everything with just my left hand. Went in for the surgery 2 weeks ago tomorrow, they actually gave me a nerve block so my right arm was basically limp for 24 hours. This really helped with the pain they said, the downside was that no matter how hard I tried I couldn't move my fingers until Saturday which was uncomfortable to say the least, and I got two pretty good 1 inch long blood blisters between my thumb and index finger from the strap in the sling as it was way too tight. I didn't notice obviously until it was too late, so I haven't used that strap since.

The day after the surgery I got the hiccups, BAD. 2 1/2 hours straight, really started to get annoying. The nurse called to check on me and said it was a side effect of the nerve block. She also said if they continued through to Sunday that they could give me a prescription for them, never heard of medicine for hiccups, but ok. So I had 2 more 2+ hour hiccup sessions Saturday, then they seemed to go away, until Tuesday when they came back and brought their older brother Francis, who everyone calls "Psycho" (Stripes reference in case you missed it). Man, 4 2+ hour sessions of the deepest most uncomfortable hiccups you've ever felt, I was miserable. But as of today they are completely gone, knock wood.

I've been to 5 physical therapy sessions so far, the first one was basically electrical stimulus and squeezing the right arm against a rolled up towel then ice. Day 2 they put me on a pulley, basically a rope and 2 handles, I pulled my right arm up with my left, just freeing up range of motion. The first pull netted me a whopping 3 inches of ROM, wow that's scary. After about 10 minutes I actually got my hand above my head. As of my last session on Wednesday I can do it pretty easily up to 90 degrees, which is the extent of the ROM that I'm allowed at this point. I can go much farther but they won't let you push at all in the first 2 weeks. This last session I also got to use basically what amounts to a bicycle for your arms. Same deal, right arm was just along for the ride and I moved very slowly, but it felt very good to extend and contract my arm like that. I ran that thing for 15 minutes and I could definitely feel the soreness this morning.

Now apart from the soreness, I really haven't experienced any pain at all. I was given Hydrocodone and told to take 1-2 pills every 4-6 hours. I started with 1 pill every 4 hours and weaned myself off after that. The last pill I took was Sunday morning at 1AM which was after back to back 12 hour differentials, and I'm completely good pain wise, so pretty excited there. I find myself reaching for doorknobs, helping when putting my shirt on, etc. when I don't have on the sling / brace contraption that keeps my right arm immobilized. Good and bad I suppose.

The PT and I set a schedule of 8 weeks from date of surgery to resume putting. Now I'd be lying if I said I hadn't tried the motion a few time sans putter, and there's really no shoulder movement during the stroke obviously, just rocking back and forth, however the act of the pre-shot routine, picking balls out of the hole (you know, cause they ALWAYS go in the hole baby) could certainly cause me pain. Again, I'm sticking to whatever we feel is acceptable schedule wise, so if it's 8 weeks, then it's 8. I'm going to push him for 6, 4, whatever but he has to agree or I won't do it. I know you'll be shocked to hear that my line of thinking is if I can accelerate the putting, then I might be able to accelerate to chipping and fuller shots that much sooner as well. Hey, you try sitting on your couch every weekend and tell me you'd stick to 8 weeks yourself. Liar.

That's it for now, going to hook up the electrodes on the bicep to keep blood flowing there as well, not moving your arm at all can wreak havoc on your muscle structure, I can literally see the difference in my right and left arm already. No clearance to start on the eliptical, running, etc. just yet, but the minute we get that it's go time again. The PT works with a bunch of professional rodeo guys, BMX kids, etc. so he understands the plan isn't to get me back to playing bingo, it's a little more aggressive than that, but being on this side it's never fast enough. If you don't have plans already, go play golf this weekend you lucky bastard. I'll be the guy sitting on my couch watching it on tv scratching off one more day on the calendar.

He's alive!

One handed typing is hard. I'm out, no complications and I see the physical therapist tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to prop up my arm and type normally after that. More to come as I can type!

Shoulder surgery tomorrow - 9/5/2008

I hit my last golf ball for the next 4-5 months today, a high towering draw 7 iron, just pured it, man that felt good. Pretty depressed when I got back to the office though. Just cleaned up my clubs and shoes and put them in the basement on the rack with my other golf stuff. Surgery is tomorrow, can't eat or drink anything after midnight and I'm expected to be at the hospital for a total of 6 hours before being able to go home. A long weekend of rest and recovery and I'll be back at work on Tuesday.

I'm not sure what the physical therapy regimen will end up being, but I'm going to stick to it like glue. Rather than risking full recovery to come back early, I'm going to push the recovery process so I can come back at 110% at the specified date. I'm going to use this as a means to implement a pretty serious exercise regimen and hopefully come back better than ever.

Wish me luck, I'll see you (one handed) after the surgery!