Why Am I Doing This Blog / Received The Bad News Last Night

First a little reasoning as to why I am doing this blog.  When getting ready for SLAP Tear surgery I tried to find a first person account of the days leading up to the surgery and the long painful road to recovery after the surgery.  Much to my surprise I could not find anything that detailed.  I found some blogs here and there that mentioned this and that about the surgery but nothing as comprehensive as a beginning to end 1^st person account.  So I decided to document the process the best that I could and if someone out there finds if helpful then I have accomplished my job.

(Added 1/24/11) – Looking back at this blog so far, I notice that in the beginning I didn’t go in to a lot of detail about the pre-surgery days and the surgery itself.  Most of that can be found anywhere on the internet and from my experience it was pretty spot on.  I get in to the details following the surgery because everyone’s experience can differ greatly.  I am not writing this blog to say “hey…this is how everything is going to go” because no one will have the same recovery as me.  My intent is to give people a look in to the recovery process and help future patients asks questions of their own doctor before they have surgery.  There is a lot of stuff that I didn’t ask of my doctor before surgery just because it never entered my mind.  Hopefully you enjoy this blog and it helps you come to an informed decision on your SLAP Tear surgery.

A little background on how this all happened.  About 1 ½ months ago as I was going to bed I laid down on my left should and had a sharp shooting pain so intense I almost cried.  I was unable to sleep at all that night and when morning came I was still in pain.  I am not one to go to the doctor’s office but after researching my symptoms on the internet and coming to the conclusion that I had either a rotator cuff injury or a torn labrum I decided to get it checked out. 

I went to Athletico in Tinley Park for a free diagnosis and met with Brian over there who did a complete check up and gave me some exercises to do at home for a week to see if the symptoms improved.  If they did not he recommended I make an appointment with Dr. Lee with Oak Orthopedics in Frankfort. 

Needless to say after a week there was no improvement so I made an appointment with Dr. Lee.  After doing some tests on me he feared that I may have a labrum tear but suggested trying physical therapy first to see if there was any improvement.  If there was no improvement after 3 weeks we would get a MRI done.  Dr. Lee told me I had my choice of places for PT.  I could go back to Athletico where I went in the first place or I could go to ATI which was connected to the OAK Orthopedic office in Frankfort and 2 minutes from home so I chose ATI and I am glad I did.  The staff  there (Beth, Kevin and Emily (Beth’s student) has been great even if Butch (another shoulder injury vicitim) “jokes” about Beth and her “Devil Horns” coming out when she works his shoulder.

Started PT on November 18^th and met with Beth who did a complete checkup and created a workout for me to start strengthening my shoulder.   After the first week I was sore but feeling a little better.  I suffered a setback the second week when I started getting really sore in my bicep and bicep tendon area.  Beth started to do ultrasounds on the area after I started to get the pain but was concerned that I was not getting better by Thursday so had me move my check up with Dr. Lee by a week at which time he ordered an MRI for me and that was done this past Friday.  That brings us to where we are now.

I met with Dr. Lee last night and he informed that I have a SLAP tear of the labrum and my bicep tendon is frayed along with bursitis and tendisosis of the shoulder muscles.  Not what I was hoping for but it was what I expected.  So I set up a meeting with the surgeon Dr. Forsyth for 11/10/2010 to discuss surgical options vs. physical therapy options.


I went to physical therapy right after my appointment with Dr. Lee and informed the folks at ATI of the bad news.  Beth, Emily, Butch and Darlene (my PT workout buddies) seemed genuinely upset with the news which made me feel a little bit better about the entire situation.  But Beth seemed a little too happy that I had the frayed bicep tendon. (Actually she wasn't....she was just happy she diagnosed it and the doctor never did).