Dave’s* shoulder hasn’t been ‘right’ for a while. He’s pretty fit for someone in their fifties but he wouldn’t call himself old – especially since he still gives a bunch of younger people a decent challenge at the weekly ParkRun. But as a tradie, it’s the little things that have started to get to him. Lifting his arms over his head, reaching into awkward positions - it’s the little things that have been challenging his ability to keep on soldiering on. It’s in the odd moments though, when he doesn’t even know what he’s does to make it sore, that really get to him. Sometimes he causes himself such grief that it’s hard to sleep at night, he tosses and turns trying to get comfortable.
It was his wife who first told him that he should do something about it. Tired of having him cranky all the time, worried that he might be ignoring something that could cost him dearly later on, she urged him to seek some help. She booked him an appointment with one particular health professional and he reluctantly went along with it. The consult went fine, the massage was pretty painful but it seemed to feel better afterwards. Within a day, though, it was back to the same old tricks. The next time he went, he got some exercises. Some of them were ok, but he didn’t really understand how they were going to help. Others just plain hurt. So just as quickly as he had begun, he had lost faith that his shoulder was actually going to get better.
Not too much time had elapsed from that point when Dave had an accident at work. Being self-employed only made the stress of the situation worse. He saw his GP who sent him for scans, only to reveal what he was dreading – a rotator cuff tear. He had a few mates who had been through surgery for that kind of injury and it didn’t go well. Reluctantly, on the encouragement of his wife and his GP, he booked an appointment with the surgeon. He and his wife asked around thoroughly to make sure that the surgeon they saw was one they could be confident in and they cautiously booked in for the soonest time available.
Predicting the worst, they were particularly surprised by the result of the consult. The surgeon, who impressed them with his manner and his reputation, had encouraged them that surgery was not the preferred option. The surgeon, in fact, had said that given his history it would be hard to know if the tear had occurred recently or sometime previously and that, given his shoulder function had been diminished for some time, it was most important that he try to get help getting it moving better first. The surgeon said that, given the right kind of approach, it could get strong enough to not need surgery and that would be far less risky than to just go ahead and operate. So instead of a hospital date with the knife, they left with a referral to someone the surgeon said they could trust.
The experience Dave had with the health professional that the surgeon referred him to shocked him. From the moment he stepped into the clinic he was surprised to see that it was full of activity, and the other patients that were there getting treatment all seemed to be so happy and energetic. He couldn’t help but feel a little optimistic. The health professional asked him odd questions that he hadn’t been asked before, like ‘what things does your shoulder pain stop you from doing?’ It seemed like they wanted to know as much about how his shoulder injury made him feel as they did about his actual shoulder and how it moved and what kind of injury it was. It made Dave feel really comfortable to get all of this sort of stuff off his chest. What was better still was that they gave him some really good explanations. It made him feel like they had seen these sorts of injuries before, that they knew what it was going to take to help it get better, and that he was actually going to get better.
Dave had a follow up appointment with the surgeon 8 weeks after he saw him the first time. Trying to hide the grin on his face, he showed the surgeon how far he could reach overhead, how he could finally scratch his back again with his affected arm, and that he’d even had a sneaky little attempt at fishing which hadn’t bothered his shoulder one bit. He even had the photos on his phone to prove he bagged out. His surgeon asked him what had happened. Dave said that he saw ‘that bloke’ he was referred to, that he did the few exercises diligently and that each week he felt like he was getting that little bit stronger, especially since the exercise changed frequently and kept him interested. Dave couldn’t believe he was saying it, but he was surprised that the exercises actually felt good to do. They happily talked about how good it was that his shoulder was healthy again and that, whilst he wasn’t totally out of the woods, that Dave’s future was looking very hopeful. And with that, the surgeon reached out to shake Dave’s hand and they both agreed that as good a surgeon as he was, they were both relieved they wouldn’t likely need to see one another again.