November Update (from my email list)

(monthly email update)
Happy November, everyone!

Hard to believe, but another year has almost passed us by! There isn't much music news right now, but that is all for good reason. Instead, I've got a general health update, as a follow up to my last several updates which have mentioned various states of injury, which can have rather serious implications with guitar. The saga of the shoulder continues...

As many of you know, my body has had a rough year... Back in January, some kid cut me off snowboarding and instead of destroying him, I bailed and incurred a shoulder injury. Then, in February, I broke my thumb and, for the first time ever, had to cancel a gig. Then last month I broke my foot. All on my right side, too. So PT for my shoulder started with me being in a cast for my thumb, which the PT had never had to work around before, and then I went straight to a boot for my foot, because crutches on a bum shoulder don't work.

All of this has healed pretty well, except for the shoulder. It's been a mystery. Months upon month of PT, cortisone shots, x-rays, MRIs, and doctors visit upon doctors visit upon doctors visit. I've exhausted conservative options and have now resigned to the fact that I will need shoulder surgery.

I met with surgeon 1 in the beginning of October. He wanted to open up my shoulder completely, shorten the tendons, and tie them back together; all on speculation that my tendons are overstretched. That's a very traumatic procedure, riddled with long-term implications, not to mention 6 weeks in a fixed splint, then 6 weeks, minimum, of intensive PT. Everyone I spoke to after that cautioned me that that was a bad idea.

So I met with surgeon 2 a few days ago. He reviewed the MRIs, took my history, and very confidently diagnosed me with a SLAP tear (superior labrum, anterior to posterior). Basically, there's a cartiledge gasket that the ball of the joint sits into; that's got some damage that is causing pain in just about all day-to-day activities. My sister and a few others had suggested this early on, but I didn't want to pursue surgery until exhausting non-surgical options. The few medically-inclined people I have spoken with regarding this diagnosis and proposed surgical procedure have affirmed that this is the next step.

The procedure for the SLAP repair is to go in laparoscopically, clean up the damaged edge of the labrum, and then sew it back down to the bone. Recovery is 2-4 weeks in a split, followed by 6+ weeks of PT; full recovery in about 3 months.  I'm still trying to gauge where guitar can fit back into the picture (presumably, I should be able to gradually start playing shortly after the splint is off as long as I'm using an electric, so the body doesn't impact the angle of my shoulder). It's going to suck, but it is necessary.

The other catch is that the ideal time to do this has already passed. Ideally, I would have surgery in the fall, to be healed by the winter for snowboarding season... I understand that snowboarding is part of what caused this, but now snowboarding is only an option if it is physically not possible. So I'll be looking at after the season is over (or almost over), sometime in late April or early May, to ensure that I can get back to LAUNCH Music Conference again this year.

In the meantime, I get to live with it.

Unfortunately, since I have had no idea what the outcome of the surgeon appointments would be, I have not booked any gigs the rest of the year (well, I have a private gig tonight, but many of you are not invited; sorry!)... If you've got anything, let me know! And if you don't have any connections to venues, but want to see me, contact me about hosting a house concert; they're really easy and a whole lot of fun!

-Alex

ps - A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to do a quick photo shoot with Matt Kark. Check it out http://www.mattkark.com/blog/2016/10/31/alex. And Check out his facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mattkarkphotography/!