Time Out

Friday morning my shoulder started hurting. By Friday night I couldn't even reach for a glass without fairly significant pain. Getting undressed for bed was a real bitch - ever tried to unhook a bra with one arm? At the time, the idea of getting in a swim workout anytime soon was comical.

I happened to be visiting back home, and my dad and Grandma, who've both had rotator cuff tears, insisted the location and nature of the pain I was describing was exactly that. I was wigging out, but held out hope because the intensity of the pain my dad described was far beyond the pain I was feeling. This is a 59 year old farmer that doesn't bat an eye when he accidentally takes a chunk out of his leg with a chainsaw (true story). So when he said he was screaming from the shoulder pain, um... yeah. Freaked me out. But my pain was more of in the range of 'intense muscle ache with a hint of sharpness'.

My biggest concern wasn't the possibility of a painful surgery and even more painful recovery, my biggest concern were my 2 races in the next 4 weeks. I started hoping that rotator cuff surgery is a good enough reason for the medical deferrment clauses some races allow those non-refundable entry fees to be used next year.

By the time I went to bed Friday night it took an ice pack and 600 mg of Ibuprofen to get me to where I could sleep. I kept telling myself it couldn't be a tear because I haven't done anything the day before to hurt it. Weight lifting two days prior went fine. Hadn't been swimming in 5 days. Maybe I just slept on it funny.

Saturday I was very cautious with it, still hurt to get dressed or do something like reach for the radio in the van (driving home for 4 hours), but pain was noticeably improved.

Woke up this morning and it's still sore but the worst of it is gone; now that I can move it without too much pain I noticed fancy new sound effects thing happening when I move it. Definitely cancelling the open water swim I'd planned for this afternoon and calling the doctor in the morning.