Play With Pain

Speedy Enthusiast is out of here sling and feeling much better though she still has pain. I worked with her to lift her arm up to see her range of motion and she gets parallel to the floor before the pain hits. I’ll probably wait until next week before I start her on some physical therapy to help her along.

Now I’m not a doctor but I have had my share of injuries during my career as a ballplayer which includes surgery to repair a torn labrum on my right shoulder. I went through therapy the year before the surgery in hope that I wouldn’t have to get the repair job done and it did help. The problem was that all the pain return at the start of the next season so I had to start all over again with the workout routine. It helped again but after consulting with my orthopedic surgeon and having some test done it was determined that I needed to get it fixed if I wanted to play without pain. So do I quit playing the game I love or fix my bum shoulder for a few more years of adolescent like activities? Fix it.

More rehab and it feels much better. The arm numbing pain is gone when I fire the ball abut is replaced by a general weakness that bothered me for years after. It didn’t bounce back like before and I had to live with a small amount pain every time I threw the ball for the next 8 years. That is until It finally dawned on me that I need to keep exercising those muscles all year long. Then it went away.

So I played with pain for 8 years after the surgery when I could have done a little work throughout the year and played relatively pain free. During that last 3 years I’ve been able to use my arm again and now I’m to old and out of shape to play as much as I used to play.

What all this really means is that I don’t want this injury to my daughter to have any long term issues. And even though she isn’t a die hard ballplayer like her sister, she plays the game and it isn’t fun for a 10 year old girl to have to play in pain. I would never expect her to have to go through the things I went through to play. It just isn’t that important. What I can do is guide her back into well being and that is what I will do.