SgtTuff13’s Blog

Well here we go, I remembered to bring my camera to work and download some pics. They are not the greatest but you get the point. You can also see I am not the greatest looking, pain pills and the stuff from the surgery, I feel like a tweaker. So without further ado, my photos……

There you go, not the prettiest I’ve ever been but surely not the worst. This starts the new journey for me. After all is done and I am cleared, I will have no excuses to hide behind. I plan on breaking out and surpassing where I had been. This will take time and with the support of my family, friends and all you here, I will succeed.

I want to thank everyone for your prayers, thoughts and advice since this happened, it truly means alot to me. This is part of the reason why I am glad I signed up on bodyspace. So once again thank you for everything, you all are world class.

So For now thats it, I will keep you informed, be safe and have a great weekend…Steve

Well it’s been two weeks since I had surgery to repair my shoulder and things are finally starting to settle down. The surgery was labeled a success so far, although time will tell if it took and if I will be pain free. As of right now I am far from pain-free, given the fact that in order for me to return to work and push papers I have to be medication free….let me tell ya it sucks for sure, but what can ya do, got bills to pay. Now on the home front things are not as good as they could be, can’t sleep, can’t really eat, and I am on edge alot of the times. Luckily for me though my wife has been a pure angel through it all, or at least she puts on a good facade, either way I could not have done this without her.

So here is my time line to recovery, six weeks in an imobilizer, another two weeks in a sling, then its rubber band training for strength and flexibility. Should be able to resume normal activities in 4 to 6 months.

The surgery so you know was to repair what is called a SLAP tear. A specific type of labral tear is called a SLAP tear; this stands for Superior Labrum from Anterior to Posterior. The SLAP tear occurs at the point where the tendon of the biceps muscle inserts on the labrum. Common reasons for a SLAP tear include:

• Fall onto an outstretched hand
• Repetitive overhead actions (throwing)
• Lifting a heavy object

My labrum was torn in thre seperate locations and was repaired in the following way…A SLAP repair is performed arthroscopically using sutures to reattach the torn labrum back to the bone. The steps of a SLAP repair are:

• 1. The SLAP tear is identified and excess tissue is removed. 
• 2. A small hole is drilled into the bone where the labrum has torn off (the SLAP tear). 
• 3. An anchor is placed into this hole; attached to the anchor is a strong suture. 
• 4. The suture is used to tie the torn labrum snuggly against the bone.

So as you can see its not too much fun, but will be well worth it in the end. I will post some pics and what not tomorrow if I remember them. So until then we will see ya later…

For the past three and half years I have been plagued by a less than perfect right shoulder. You see it all started back in 2000 when I had the first surgery to repair a torn labrum and had a Thermal Capsulorrhaphy, (arthroscopic technique that uses heat to "shrink" and tighten the tissues to treat several types of shoulder instabilities). As it turns out this surgery was a complete waist of time since it did not work at all. I still had the same pain and discomfort from before the surgery.

So time went on and more and more money was paid out to rehab and strengthen my shoulder. This also did not help out, my shoulder got stronger but the underlying issue was still there nagging at me. That resulted in numerous cortizone shots and not much else.

Then as fait would have it I decided that enough was enough, I wwent back to the original surgeon and all but demanded that my shoulder be fixed. That is when he referred me to another specialist and I was given a date for my next surgery. As it would turn out, Karma had different plans for me. I informed my command of the situation and was told thaty I would have to put my surgery on hold due to the fact that we had warfare training within a month. So against my better judgement I cancelled my surgery and stayed….Now this is where Karma comes in. Karma somehow took me off the list for training and I sat my ass at home for nothing. No surgery, no training, just a sore bum shoulder.

Three years later, I along with the assistance of my wife , put my shoulder back in the hands of the proffessionals. Yesterday, I was in Indianapolis and saw "THE" shoulder guy for our region. Without even talking to me he looked at my x-rays and MRI and stated "your into weightlifting arem’t you". With amazement and curiosity I replied "yes, how did you know." With a amused look he just said"I can tell". So throught he course of my appointment we deceded to give the surgery a go and I now have I set for next Thursday. Aint nobody gonna taslk me out of this one, let me tell ya.

So we drove home and I got ready for my last game of the year. I told my team the news and they all were very supportive in their own ways. Last night marked a new begging for me and an outlook of whats to come. I had the game of my life, went 6-7, including thre doubles and a monster home run over the centerfield fence. Fielding was just as good and my partner to my left assisted me in throws. All in all it was a great night. 

So this is it, the weightbelt is put away, my lucky hat is now in the wash ( I dont wash it until the end of the year), and my ball gear is stored away until next spring. Its almost sad, but its neccesary. The field of dreams is now on hold and that all good with me. I can’t wait to see what its like to play or even relax with no pain. Hell I can’t even remember the last time I was "pain free". What I do know is that this journey I am embarking on willl be long and tiresome, even painful at times I’m sure, but in the end it will be worth it.

So for now I am gonna close and get back to work. Thanks for the support while I was gone and I guarentee I will be back bigger and better han before. Stay TUFF and keep pushing….Steve aka Sgt TUFF