Bad News Thursday: MRI Says No

I got up early for this?! To be rolled into an uncomfortable torpedo shape and jammed into a noisy doughnut for 20 minutes? The syringe full of ink they stuck in my shoulder first, that was fine. Even the gowns now have a new ass-covering feature I was quite glad of. But seriously now...

It was kinda like this, only I went head-first, with my left elbow pointing above my head, and the goal was to get me as good and wedged in there as possible... and leave me there. How the hell did Dan do this?! He tells me he's had an MRI and it was pretty uncomfortable. Considering his yoke is easily half a foot broader than mine, pretty impossible sounds more like it.

Getting past this claustrophobic episode, the MRI results fortunately took not long at all to produce. I was given the screens from the procedure, which are of no use to me or anyone really, I also got a disc which couldn't be helpful to anyone who didn't have the right kind of machine for reading them, or the right kind of software for understanding them. What I didn't get and couldn't have was the report; the piece of paper from the specialist which explains what the images on the screens and the data on the disc shows. That was sent to the Orthopaedic surgeon, and it took some loud discussion with the staff of the radiology clinic before someone with the necessary (basic) skill scanned a copy and emailed it to my Physiotherapist. Once that was done, I had my dilemma handed to me.

The report was as follows:
"1. Extensive superior labral tearing involving the entire superior labrum, the labrum mildly displaced with perilabral oedema.
2. Supraspinatus tendinopathy. Subacromial/subdeltoid bursal thickening and a bursal effusion."

This means I can't compete in ASM without risking further damage. It means I need surgery immediately, and it means I won't be able to train properly for several months, by which time I'll have lost a whole lot of upper body strength. My right arm will be in a sling for a while.

This means I'll be a spectator in Lismore, this year. I'll be there to assist, and see Dan and the rest of our team dominate their divisions. And I will be back, stronger than ever, in 2013.