whaaa happened?

i have been toying with a new mental approach when it comes to this shoulder injury i've got going on. 10 weeks of physical therapy didn't help things, so next in line were the drugs. after an injection of cortisone on June 15 that did nothing except make my weekend painful (and made me miss at least 2 hockey games), the good doctor (Dr. W.) decided it was time for an mri. had that last wednesday and it was much noisier than i had remembered. noise aside, i nearly fell asleep more than once.

but i had been good. the power of positive thinking, right? well, i went with it. what the heck. i figured at the very worst, i'd need it scoped and i'd be back on the ice in 2 months.

saw Dr. W. yesterday to get the mri results. he looked at them quietly, pulled out my initial xrays from earlier this year, then said i had to go get a new xray. 15 minutes later, new xray in hand, Dr. W. stared at it for a bit, then had me hop on the table for another physical exam. yup, still hurts. the scans came back up and he told me that i've got all the symptoms of impingement. duh, i knew this. thing is, he's never seen it occur in anyone my age. (he called me young!) he performed a diagnostic test by injecting novocaine into my shoulder. it was amazing - within 2 minutes, my shoulder felt 75% better. too bad it was temporary. and, too bad it told him that i do in fact have impingement. not only that, but the mri shows him that i have fraying of the supraspinatus (a rotator cuff tendon). the xrays show him that my acromion seems thicker than normal.

quick version: i need arthroscopic surgery. he hopes that this will be a simple fix, but if, after inspection of the joint, he sees that there's a partial tear of the tendon or worse, he'll have to go to open surgery. that means a 6 month recovery. lovely. better yet, i won't know if it's a quick fix or if i'm in for the long haul until i wake up. and, either i'll go home that day or stay at the surgery center overnight. again, lovely.

needless to say, i'm not feeling great right now. what 20-year old has a degenerative disc that requires fusion of lumbar vertebrae? now i get to add another "shouldn't happen" to the list - premature fraying and general wear and tear of my shoulder. look out, i could fall tomorrow and break my hip. >:-(

on a good note: Dr. W. is now out of town until August 7, so surgery won't be until at least then. that means i'm going to skate with my red team this sunday and will Burninate at the end of the month. you might say i probably shouldn't skate either slot because i could make things worse, but screw it. i'm already getting cut open, i'm going to have fun before it happens.

rawr.