It’s official. I’ll be going under the knife for my shoulder, which dislocated Feb. 3 at a Western Plains High School boys’ basketball practice.
To me, the MRI I had following the injury revealed a lot, so I was guessing surgery was on my horizon.
Then on March 3, when I traveled to Great Bend to see Dr. L.T. Fleske, M.D., of the Central Kansas Orthapedic Group to have him look at my shoulder, Dr. Fleske confirmed my suspicions. Here’s what I wrote about his diagnosis in a previous post:
He said my ligaments and my labrum were torn loose and balled up in the joint. He said he’d need to reattach those to the ball of the shoulder joint and make sure there wasn’t anything else in need of repair.
In order to do this, he said he would probably need to make an incision, and he said I would be in a sling for six weeks and be out of any real commission for six months.
Since then, it has been a waiting game. I’ve been waiting for Dr. Fleske’s office to call me back and let me know of a possible surgery date. Once they had done that, they had to make sure it worked with Dr. Fleske’s schedule (I know, that doesn’t make much sense to me either . . . if the person I talked to was in charge of scheduling, wouldn’t she know if the date she suggested would work? It is truly a puzzler, no?).
Well, the date that was being touted as my time on the operating table worked for all parties involved.
My shoulder surgery is scheduled for March 24.
I don’t know times yet because I was told I won’t be able to find out those tiny details until the week of my surgery. That makes sense . . .
In any event, I do know that the surgery will be taking place at Great Bend Regional Hospital. It will be an outpatient surgery that will last approximately two hours and should involve an incision in my shoulder.
Blood and lab work that needs to be completed prior to the surgery will be conducted at Grisell Memorial Hospital here in Ransom so I don’t have to make another trip to Great Bend.
I’m not looking forward to this surgery. I’m not really worried about the surgery or fearful of anything bad happening. Sure, it is in the back of my mind, but I’m not letting it get too far to the front of my thoughts.
Instead, my thoughts are filled with those of frustration. I don’t have time for this crap. Dr. Fleske said I would be out of commission for at least six months, and I’ve got summer football weights and work to think about. I can’t afford to be out for that long, but alas, I need the shoulder fixed. There is no other way around it. I just hope the third time will be the charm, not my final strike.
