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"No Miracle Bounce-Backs"...

Friday, 20 May 2016 00:10

By Ben Ewers (benewers.blogspot.com)

I cancelled Kona. There, I finally acknowledged that this time my recovery from injury is going to follow a normal slow process. No miracle bounce backs. No finishing the Arizona Ironman 2 weeks following cracking some ribs and lacerating a hand in a fall in the desert. No finishing Kona second in my age group 9 months following Achilles tendon repair. No, this time its different. Finally, 12 weeks following "the accident", 4 weeks following rotator cuff shoulder reconstruction and only 5 months to Kona, I had to admit to the practical. My healing prowess was average at best and not sufficient to make Kona an option. I had held out hopes, holding on to the thought of at least participating in Kona, until it was no longer possible to ignore the obvious....

I finally had my shoulder surgery April 13, nearly 8 weeks following "the accident". The delay was necessary to allow repair of my many other injuries not the least of which was the punctured lung and fractured hip, scapula, and ribs. During that delay I also had a plastic surgeon remove the soup bowl sized hematoma from my left thigh that had formed its own bursa. The shoulder surgeon found a "mess" in the rotator cuff of my left shoulder including complete tears of the Supraspinatus and Subscapularis muscle tendons, and a partial tear of the Long bicep muscle tendon. In less than 2 1/2 hours I had the rotator cuff area cleaned out and anchors implanted in the humerus and the tendons sutured. Surgery was performed under a general with a nerve blocker and Oxycontin prescribed for after surgery pain relief. I weaned off the opiate as soon as possible.