Down time due to surgery

g0ds gReeN said:
Hillbilly heroin is no joke. It's crazy to think how it gets prescribed nonchalantly. Wrecks a lot of people.

You ever win any bets by dislocating your shoulder like Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon?
Click to expand...
No, way too painful to do anything like that. I once slept on it wrong and couldn't feel or move it for several hours.
 
I have ankylosing spondylitis that has messed up my neck and back pretty badly. It started to work over my shoulders, to the point I could not raise my right arm above my head. I was able to get on enbrel and it stopped the shoulder issues almost immediately. It could not help reverse any of the neck and back issues but it stopped them from progressing.

It ate up my hips and I went to get the right one replaced last September. At my very first appointment he said you do not have long to go before your left hip needs replaced too. I had the right hip replaced and they made me come off enbrel for a month....which really messed my neck up pretty badly. I had a rougher time with that than the hip recovery.

Shooting pool with a permanent tilt to the right of the neck, along with limited side to side and up and down movement is one of the more frustrating things I have done. I quit playing for a long time because of the frustration. I cuss a lot.

The left hip is about done now, just made it one year after the docs prediction. I went to the State Fair a couple of weeks ago and thought I was going to have to steal a hoveround from someone to get back to the truck. I live out on acreage and am now trying to plan the next replacement so it doesn't interfere with mowing season or having to go out and break ice for the horses in the winter.

I am dreading the down time from my pool table. Even with all that is wrong physically and my horrible play, I still manage to make some shots or have a decent game or two that give me a lot of enjoyment most every time I play, which is daily.
 
First and foremost, good luck with the surgery. My fingers are crossed for you as you navigate this difficult moment in life.

Perhaps Jeanette Lee's story might inspire you. She struggled with scoliosis since childhood and had dozens of surgeries over the years to help her deal with it. On a few occasions, she was told she'd probably have to give up pool, but she wouldn't hear of it and defiantly crafted a BCA Hall of Fame career.

We're all in your camp here at AZB. You're family.
 
good luck man.

g0ds gReeN said:
Hillbilly heroin is no joke. It's crazy to think how it gets prescribed nonchalantly. Wrecks a lot of people.

You ever win any bets by dislocating your shoulder like Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon?
Click to expand...

for a while i took oxy or tramadol just to be able to compete (lower back is wrecked with degen. discs, hernias, etc). but i couldn't really fade the side effects so i never got hooked. i have realized that bending over for 6-7 hours straight simply isn't optimal for a broken back..
 
Jaden said:
Oh yeah, I forgot to add that yesterday I had my preop and the doctor had them take new xrays and there was like a free floating piece of bone in my arm not attached to anything. The doctor says "Yeah you got some bone in there, we'll get in there and clean that trashy shoulder up" His exact words, lol.
Click to expand...


Sound like the Doctor Blew it, but they got paid weather you had good, or bad outcome. Think Doctor should be like Auto Shop, if they screw up a repair, they got to redo it for free.

Buddy had Total Hip, it need redo, they did that same day, he is living with Never Damage & Drop Foot a year later. Doctor who did surgery said in so many words, S-Happens.

Also there is no one size fit all healing time, we Arte all different.

JMHO
 
Jaden said:
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.
Click to expand...
🙏

Coming from someone who has RF Ablations on their back every one to two years, just so they can remain functional while they consider having a fusion on their L5-S1, I completely understand.
I wish you the best!

👍
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top