Injury Report

To all my friends .. 

for those that don’t know already, i wanted you to inform you about my recent problem, and to answer all questions in one swoop instead of one by one (i certainly dont want to talk much about it in the future after i’m healed up!).  i had arthroscopic surgery on my shoulder on Tuesday.  it is similar to what Drew Brees had done 3 years ago..  sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2278077

what happened?  i had a bad mtn bike wreck on trails out near Frankfort,KY 2 months ago. i hit a jump that i shouldn’t have .. and flew over the handlebars after almost landing it. thought i was going to be landing in some tall grass.. but as i flew into the grass at a high rate of speed, i realized there was a fallen tree in there that there was no way to avoid hitting. i basically football tackled it w/ my right shoulder and also crushed in the right back part of the helmet. i was almost knocked unconscious and it took several minutes to even realize my shoulder was blasted.

i suffered grade 3 shoulder separation (AC joint) and MRI showed a large tear in labrum cartilage that lines the socket where the upper arm fits into it.

there is not much that can be done about the separation (which is much different and worse than a dislocation). basically scar tissue will replace the destroyed ligaments that hold the collarbone (the “C” in AC) down in place.

 the labrum can be fixed though. 3 anchors were placed in the upper rim of the socket and 6 sutures (yes, little ropes) now hold down the cartilage back down to the bone area where it was torn from. it should heal in 6-8 weeks. the cuts were done arthroscopically, and doctor Ireland also worked on some relatively minor rotator cuff damage while she was in there.

of course they used general anesthesia for the procedure and also “nerve blocked” my upper right side into total numbness (via a shot thru the neck!). that has unfortunately now worn off and as it heals and scars up i’m in some pain for a while (which my pain meds are not currently masking very well). a scattered 90 minutes of sleep was all i could catch last night. i’m glad its suddenly become very slow in the stock market.. but i am still able to work — even if it is typing with one hand for the time being !

if i did not have that labrum fixed i could do no athletics anymore. nothing. for the last few months i could not shoot a basketball or do a single pushup w/o pain and instability.   in the end,  i’m accepting that i’m old enough to get hurt easier, but way too young to give up my sports !

 i wont send any updates by email but will be doing so on Facebook.  look me up there if you’re interested.

http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/profile.php?id=685354777

 if you are curious, here is my radiology report.  the only part of interest are the doc’s “impressions” at the end..  not good !

www.buckv.com/shoulder_radiology_report.pdf

also, if you have a strong stomach and are into such things, here are arthroscopic photos from inside my shoulder, obviously magnified..

www.buckv.com/shoulder_arthroscopic_photos.pdf

 

and on that note … take care & Happy Holidays!

 Buck

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 at 9:26 am and is filed under Serious. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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