So I went to the orthopaedic surgeon about my shoulder on Monday, as scheduled, and after examining me and taking a look at the MRI, he basically told me, and of course I'm paraphrasing here "I don't want to f**k with it, I'm referring you to a specialist." Uhm, okay?

So I was lucky enough to get an appointment scheduled with him yesterday, and I went, and here's what I found out. (If you didn't read my original post about this, I found out I have a cyst in my shoulder.)

If you're somewhat familiar with the human body, you know there's a cup in your shoulder that accepts the ball of the joint. There's a tendon that runs the rim of that cup, and on the back side it's torn. Because of that tear, fluid in the joint is leaking out and that's what's causing the cyst; hence the cyst is causing the tendonitis, pain, and weakness in the muscles in that area.

His words exactly: For as big as it is, I'm surprised you didn't have problems with it sooner than you did. So I ask him how big is it? About the size of a nickel.

Now for the fun part- what it's going to take to fix it. Luckily, it's just an orthoscopic procedure, so they won't have to actually open the shoulder up. Good news there. Bad news is that I'm going to have to miss 7-10 days of work immediately following the surgery, after which I can return to work but on restriction only as my arm will be in a sling for 6 weeks. And a total rehab time of 4-6 months.

I'm glad I'll be getting it fixed, but what sucks is that in my line of work (truck driving, forklift operation) I basically can't work if I'm on restriction. The only way I can continue to go to work is if they can find something for me to do in the office. Unfortunately I can't figure any of that out right now because the terminal manager is on vacation this week, so I'm going to have to wait until Monday to see if there's anything we can work out.

But then, as if the stress levels weren't high enough in the household, I'm getting married Aug. 2, and my wife to be was looking forward to surprising our families with a wicked sweet first dance. If I have the surgery pre-wedding, it won't happen as my shoulder will be in no condition for it. On the other hand my wife to be doesn't want me to wait any longer than necessary as she's told me in the past week, I've been waking up screaming in pain in the middle of the night. I personally have no recollection of doing this as I'm a very heavy sleeper, but I can feel it when I get up in the mornings. For the past few weeks, vicoden has been a part of my balanced breakfast. Not that I'm complaining about having to take vicoden- it's the whole wanting to rip my arm off in the mornings part.

The doc did tell me that for as young as I am, it's not going to hurt anything if I want to wait a while to have the surgery done as long I'm willing to put up with the pain. And I was talking to the office gal at work about it last night and she said now is actually a good time to get it done as July is always a slow month for us.

But I told my fiancee, I'm at least going to wait until next week to talk to the terminal manager about what we can work out as far as letting me work while I'm on restriction and go from there. I've been a blue collar worker for as long as I can remember, and I love the work that I do, so you can imagine how I feel about sitting in an office while I'm waiting to get healed up. At the same time, I think that if I just sit around the house for 6 weeks, I'll drive myself and my fiancee to the brink of insanity and beyond.

*shrugs* I'll get something figured out. Until then, I'll just have to make due.

Can you say "disability pay"?

Haha... yeah, the thought has crossed my mind. If there's nothing we can do about me working in the office until I'm healed up, filing for short term disability is inevitable. My wife to be is a freelance graphic designer, and she makes enough money to support the both of us, but we live pretty well because my income helps us to do that. Not only that but I get paid weekly, whereas she only gets paid after the company she works for gets her invoice processed, which seems to vary depending on how much she bills them for. So having a steady weekly income is a big help for us.

I'm sure it'll all work out in the end. It's just a matter of how we get to that point.

By the way, just out of curiousity, whereabouts in McKinney do you live? My fiancee's dad lives there on Pine Hollow Drive.

Wow, that kinda sucks.

You do seem to have an understanding Fiance, though. That will help big time.=o)

Just off Lake Forest, north of Eldorado in Stonebridge. That's about a mile east of Pine Hollow Dr. Let me know if you're coming out this way. There's 8 Teener's within a 10 mile radius of my house.

can you push a broom with one arm? AFFLAC!!!

I probably won't be coming out that way for a while. Last time we made it down there was for Christmas. This year maybe Thanksgiving but I don't know for sure. But I'll definitely let you know next time we're going down there.



Hahaha... technically yes I can push a broom w/ one arm. The problem is that, being on restriction, if they let me work anyway and I get hurt again, it's a huge insurance issue.

And I don't have AFFLAC- hmmm.... maybe I should get it now... then it'll be active by the time I have my surgery. Mwahaha! My evil plan is coming together nicely.