So June of 2025 I had shoulder replacement surgery on my left shoulder. I play left handed and while your playing shoulder is probably the most important, the opposite shoulder plays a part too.
This is especially true if you get down on the table fully to shoot as it's your opposite shoulder that supports you (other than your back).
Well, unfortunately for me, everything that's necessary to play pool is broken, lol. I've started to fix a lot of it and it's making a difference. I have degenerative disc disease in my back and chronic back pain, the left shoulder, the right shoulder, diabetes, left knee. I'm just a broken old (relatively, lol) man.
Some of you know that I am a disabled vet. I was security forces in the Marine Corps and Naval Intelligence. I was originally discharged medically from the Marines for glenohumeral instability. (fancy terms for the shoulder won't stay in the socket). It took 4 doctors, 8 x-rays, 2 MRI's and an orthoscopic surgery to find out what was wrong. That didn't fix it but they said that I had the arthritis of a 60 year old and scraped what the could of it off while they were in there. I was only 25 at the time. It did help for a long time.
I don't know how else to put this other than to say, I have an extremely high threshold for pain, to the extent that I have to explain to the doctors that I'm not outwardly showing the level of pain that I'm in all the time.
I had two procedures on my back this year and the shoulder replacement surgery June last year. At my one year follow up, I had initially told the surgeon about the problems with my right shoulder also, I mentioned that while my left shoulder was much better since the surgery, my right shoulder had gotten worse and I was having trouble getting to sleep again.
He said well let's take a look at it while you're here. They did xrays and he said yeah, it's BAD (not his exact words but that's the jist). He did say that if I didn't get it replaced soon, it might not be repairable. That was in June of this year. Unfortunately. (I have a lot of unfortunatelies here, lol) I couldn't get the surgery done because my A1C (diabetes level) was too high to get approved for it. Also, since I was starting to do somwhat better and was able to practice longer again, I had signed up for the AZ and Phoenix opens and didn't want the surgery to interfere in those.
So fast forward to now and I got a second type of insulin and gotten my A1C down and have the surgery scheduled for Oct 9th, so needless to say, I'm not going to be playing pool for a while.
I was just playing on the table now (this is the first day I haven't been on pain meds for everything really, but officially for my back, since I have to be off those meds a week before the surgery) and I can see how much my right shoulder is still affecting my game.
I have shown (and have posted videos here that shows it a bit) that I CAN still play at a relatively high level and I'm confident that after recovering from the surgery next week and getting back to practicing 6-10 hours a day again, I'll be able to compete again and I have every intention of doing so.
So for those who are believers, keep me in your prayers and for every one else, wish me luck in my recovery and I hope to be updating you all with good news as I recover and get back into the game.
Sorry for the book, but anyone else who has come back after down time from a surgery feel free to comment and tell us about YOUR journey.
