Shoulder Surgery

So, apparently I had a bit more damage to my shoulder than we thought. About six months ago, while lifting weights, I felt a sudden pain in my left shoulder and dropped the weight. I waited for around four months to go to the doctor because I thought it would heal and stop hurting soon enough. Well, it didn't.

The x-rays showed the damage to the AC joint that I had done when I separated it while playing football in 9th grade. After several potential solutions failed, the doctor decided that I would need surgery to fix the problem. The surgery would consist of removing .5 inches of the collar bone to eliminate the friction that was caused as a result of the separation.

While in surgery, the doctor realized that I had actually torn my labrum, probably while lifting weights several months earlier. In order to fix the problem, the doctor put a pin/anchor in my shoulder in order to hold it in place while the labrum heals.

Unfortunately for me, it takes 4-6 months for the labrum to heal. So, instead of wearing a brace for one week and being 100 percent after 6-8 weeks, I will have this annoying brace on for a total of six weeks, after which I will have several months of therapy. If I would have known this, I would have had it fixed in the Fall, not the Spring. So much for the Summer of Dave...

Now, for those of you who like this kind of stuff (and I know you are out there), here is part of the surgery in which they install the anchor and tie it off (maybe you want to sit down before you watch this...)



In case you want to see more, here is part of the AC joint resection (same warning applies here):