Amazing, The Power of A Second Look

A cascade of once-in-a-lifetime events and circumstances surrounded a Tuesday afternoon.  I cannot go into too much detail about the 'who' and 'where', but be satisfied that this Dr. and his staff are more than highly qualified.

I will get right into it (sorry no novelistic story on these):  The second opinion stated that the "tear" was not really a "tear". But rather, an edge of the labrum was "frayed", and that this, in and of itself, should not necessitate surgery.  In addition to this, however, The Second Opinion discovered that there was "fraying" of the supraspinadus muscle of the rotator cuff - and that this is the likely source of the majority of my pain.

Prognosis: 6 - 8 weeks continued Physical Therapy, coupled with restricted upper extremity exercise; Therapeutic Anti-inflammatory regimen.  If, after these 6-8 weeks, my condition does not improve - or worsens - another MRI/Arthrogram and potential surgery would come into play.

So what does all of this mean? I am grounded. Literally. No water-born activities. Training, for the foreseeable/near future, will consist of punishing the lower body on land.  Cycling. Running. Cycling and running. Punishment in the gym on the lower body. Followed by more punishment on the lower body. And maybe run a little bit more. FUN!

Another good thing to come out of the new prognosis, is the potential to rejoin the US National team on its trip to South Africa for the ISRC at the end of March - not as a water specialist, but as a beach event specialist.

We'll see how it goes.