Kurt - Shoulder Surgery

As a young man, I played football and was a weight lifter. I started experiencing my first shoulder pain at twenty-seven years old, had a minor shoulder surgery at that time. I had a second one when I was thirty-two years old. Continued lifting weights playing sports, and over that eighteen years. From age thirty-two to fifty, the pain continued to get worse, range of motion disappeared, and I got to the point where at fifty years old, I couldn’t play catch with my son. I had to throw a baseball like a dart in front of my face; I couldn’t bring my arm back. It was tough going to the gym as most exercises I couldn’t do. I have twenty-one years of law enforcement, and it got to the point where I was worried I wouldn’t be able to finish the rest of my carrier. No range of motion, loss of strength, loss of confidence because of that. 

I was referred to Dr. Pinegar and Dr. Crovetti by a friend who had knee surgery by Dr. Crovetti. I came in, and the staff was excellent. I felt comfortable here from my first visit. I had the MRI done, and my shoulder was in a little bit worse condition than I thought. I had bone-on-bone contact, no cartilage left, severe arthritis, and I needed to have a partial shoulder replacement. 

They went in in January of last year, sawed the end of my humerus off, put a titanium ball into my shoulder joint, set that into my socket, and screwed that into my shoulder. I was definitely worried about the recovery of it being such a big surgery. If I was going to be able to get back to work if I was ever going to be able to go back to the gym and enjoy some of the things and activities that I used to do.

Fast forward to this year, after a few months of physical therapy, I started getting back into the gym. The pain was surprisingly minimal, and it took a little bit for the strength to come back, but it did come back and is still coming back. I’m very happy I had the procedure done. I felt like I kind of got my life back. I’m working without any pain, I can sleep without pain, I can throw a ball with my son again, and I’m back in the gym three-four days a week. I’m just happy with the way things turned out and happy with Dr. Crovetti and Dr. Pinegar for the job that they did.