The history of a bum shoulder

The home care PT has just released me to outpatient care...she says I'm doing great. I will be calling an outpatient physical therapy clinic to begin PT on my own. I will go to La Jolla UTC  where my Dr prefers his shoulder patients to go, for my first few physical therapy sessions. Next week I will go home to the mountains for a couple of weeks - then will  return to San Diego at the end of the month for follow up care as well as get a cortisone shot in my right knee (yes, I have a bad knee too).

I originally found my shoulder doctor via my knee orthopedic (Dr Copp). While I was seeing my knee Dr getting my quarterly knee 'shot, he said I needed to take care of my shoulder first. Knee doctor, Dr Copp, said it must suck not be able to lift my arm higher than my waist or over my head...he was right. He told me about Dr Heinz Hoeneke and set up an appointment for me to see this shoulder orthopedic surgeon. He told me Dr Hoeneke did over 100 shoulder surgeries a year and that he was instrumental in some of the new shoulder replacement developments. Yep. This was to  be my shoulder guy.


It was October of 2011 when I first started thinking seriously about shoulder replacement...but I had a whole ski season to get through first. I figured I would get through this ski year and make my surgery the day the ski season ended so I would be fully recovered for the following season. So May 1st is the chosen date for surgery. When I first injured my shoulder (30 years ago while skiing at Mammoth). I knew I some type of surgery was inevitable in my future. After I dislocated my shoulder back in the early 80's the physican at the time  told me I could have a pin put in my arm to help stabilize my shoulder, but that it would only have a 70% chance of success. No thanks. I opted out of that idea and spent the next few decades with a bum shoulder joint that would dislocate frequently as well as limit my range of motion. Several sport ing activities had we now 'not an option' in my life such as play tennis,  softball, volleyball or anything that requires a tossing or overhead motion.

I could still ski...I could still surf. Surfing had it's limitations, in that I could not extend my right arm in a full paddle - but I could do a half paddle with that 'bad arm' - good enough. With skiing, if I just kept my arm forward and low enough,  the bum right shoulder would not be affected. If I fell, both of my arms would automatically  retract toward my body and it became a natural for me to protect my shoulder and I protected it very well for many, many years.