Be Careful What You Wish For...

...you might just get it.

After five months of appointments for examinations, scans and x-Rays of one sort or another, I had rather given up on any meaningful intervention on the torn tendon in my shoulder. Each appointment has been interspaced with three to four weeks waiting time indicating that there doesn't appear to be any urgency to put it right. Nevertheless, I've now had a phone call telling me that an operation is required and is possible, and a date three weeks ahead has now been set.

The results of taking the canoe out for its trial run last week has shown up the weak points in my theory, (and my shoulder) which was that stretching, exercise and gently increasing loading up of the muscle is the way to overcome this problem. The joint had been almost back to normal after a protracted period of inactivity with little discomfort now in the mornings and a good range of articulation of the joint. After the two trips last week it was a setback to find myself at about the same level of discomfort as a month/six weeks ago. Even the Park Run last Saturday morning had my arm aching down to the elbow until the following day. So the shoulder problem still lurks in the background and isn't likely to go away without the surgery. The trouble is that there's no guarantee that it's going to fix the problem and bring back what passes for full fitness for me.

The op is tabled for the middle of June which gives me a couple of weeks to play with the canoe and jog around the park. Afterwards there will be another enforced period of inactivity of three to six weeks with my arm in a sling while the repair heals up.  Even driving a car is out of the question which is going to make life rather difficult. Even then the rehabilitation back to full use is expected to take at least two to three months.

With the kayaking almost non existent this year I've been using the local 5k ParkRuns as a substitute for keeping fit. It's been a bit patchy but I've kept a fairly consistent turnover of effort each week which has resulted in a series of efforts building up to a moderate time on the last race, then injury taking me out again, only to lose fitness and having to go back to build up the effort again. The last injury occurred about a month ago at a half mile into the run when I pulled a calf muscle on a downhill stretch. I was still able to finish, and quite well as it resulted in a PB for that course. I was however, barely able to walk without flinching for some days afterwards and couldn't run for the following two weeks or so. I'm still trying to rebuild the fitness to get back to that sort of effort again.

Whereas the jogging has now largely taken over from the boating, this doesn't bode well for a full return to a kayak by the end of this year or even until the new (next) year, by which time I'll probably have forgotten how to do it.