No getting around it

No wanderlust last weekend. My wife was taking Kira back to college and I needed to be around for the boys.

I visited with my orthopedic surgeon today. The physical therapy has loosened up my shoulder considerably, but it’s also irritated the shoulder a bit, and I still can’t raise my hand much above my shoulder. Which isn’t actually surprising, as it turns out.

It seems I have a full-thickness tear of the full width of the supraspinatus tendon, with 15mm of retraction. Basically, the tendon has popped completely off the bone with a gap of over half an inch.

So I’m scheduled for surgery on May 27th whether I like it or not. (Note: not.)

In addition to attempting to repair the tear, the surgeon will also be permanently severing my biceps tendon. This sound alarming, even though he assures me that this tendon is surprisingly unimportant, and that at least one Superbowl quarterback has won the game without one.

If my tissues prove too fragile for a good repair, then donor tissue becomes involved and the reconstruction gets messier. I’m hoping it doesn’t go there, naturally.

Meanwhile, I’ll try to sneak in a wanderlust or two. Saturday I will be joining the Los Alamos Geological Society field trip to the Ojo Caliente mining district. With luck, I’ll come back with some tourmaline, garnet, and impressive books of muscovite from the pegmatite mines.