Not a pretty picture.

“That’s a significant tear you have in your rotator cuff,” said the surgeon. “I suspect you have had a tear for years and falling over your rototiller shoulder first on your driveway a few weeks ago, exasperated it.”

The MRI report read, in part: “Massive full-thickness rotator cuff tear……Tear measures 5-6 cm front to back….Long head of the biceps tendon is torn and retracted.”

It is a significant tear and cannot be repaired as the bicep tendons to do so are also torn. The surgeon referred to this as chronic pain and not acute pain. He didn’t recommend replacement. Rather, more physical therapy. And check back in early December. He did give me a cortisone shot. A step taken in December might be Plasma Therapy, which involves injecting a concentrated solution of platelets from the patient’s own blood into injured or aging tissues to promote healing and regeneration. 

Maybe the tear all started when I played high school football.

Or maybe when I fell hiking up Mount Washington.

Or maybe when I fell on the driveway clearing it of snow.

My physical therapist suggested maybe I hurt it from the many years of holding a camera up to my eye and taking hundreds of thousands of photos. Oh, and I once fell down on church steps when I was photographing a bride! Ouch. And talk about embarrassment!

And maybe, just maybe, it all started when using the rototiller in our garden (and not tripping over it)!!!

And yes, life is good. I believe with physical therapy and spiritual guidance I am getting better; every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.

Read more here.