Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Time to Pay the Piper

I was done. The moment my shoulder came out in the apartment I knew surgery was in my future, my immediate future. I had been dancing around the fact that I needed surgery for almost 18 years and after all that dancing it was time to pay the piper. The truth is that my shoulder came out so easily this time that I knew there was no avoiding it and I finally wanted the surgery. The idea of having surgery was suddenly more appealing to me than having to worry about my arm. Also, I had convinced myself after the last dislocation that I would have surgery if it came out again anytime in the near future.

I started mentally preparing myself and thinking about how I wanted to approach the surgery. Most of my activities are Summer activities and I knew I wanted to be as well as possible for the Summer so I could swim, camp, fish, run and bike. I also knew recovery was going to take about 6 months. Obviously, I did not want to be laid up for the holidays and my sister's birthday is the third week in January so I figured the end of January was about the right time. That would give me 4 months to get at least halfway right.

My next concern was who I was going to have do the surgery. I wanted to have it done by a surgeon that was recommended and not just someone that was picked out of my insurance provider book. I checked with my friend, Andy and my cousin Mark, both of whom had the same shoulder surgery I was looking at. They both had good experiences with their surgeons but neither of their doctors took my insurance. Luckily, my cousin had not only had the surgery but was also Physical Therapist and was able to get a list of names for other surgeons he could recommend. Bingo! I got a hit and was able to move forward.

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