Getting old is a bitch!  While I work at staying in shape by lifting weights, working out on my elliptical or riding the recumbent bike, I found out a few weeks ago that it's not possible to forestall the ravages of time completely.

What happened to teach me this lesson was I went to walk down the stairs to my basement.  At the head of the stairs there was a small nail head that had popped out of the hard wood floor.  I caught my sock on it and started to lose my balance.  As anyone would do, I raised my arm to steady myself against the wall.  That's when I heard, as well as felt a loud "POP" in my shoulder!

Long story short (the stuff that I'm leaving out involves a lot of cussing and swearing as a massively intense stabbing pain shot repeatedly through my shoulder) is that I had torn my rotator cuff.  I wish that I had a better story, maybe one about getting into a bar fight with a bunch of bikers or something, but I don't.  I simply made a sudden motion, at just the right angle to where the middle one of the three muscles that make up my rotator cuff ripped in two.

Nobody knows why it ripped.  I had never "hurt" that shoulder before though I'm sure that nine years of playing football probably contributed at least a bit towards the injury.  Over the years I had also been hard on my body by playing rugby, working on a moving truck and working the docks at United Parcel Service, but again, I don't ever remember any significant injury to my shoulder occurring.  Knees, ankles and back injuries, yeah, but nothing to my shoulder. 

So, now after 6 weeks, X-rays, two visits with the orthopedic doctor, an MRI, a visit with the orthopedic surgeon, arthroscopic surgery on the shoulder and spending the night of the surgery in emergency room when I started having difficulty breathing (more X-rays and a cat scan), I'm finally on the road to recovery!  

What have I learned from the experience?  Well, a few things.  First, while nobody can stave off the effects of time on our body, there are defiant benefits to working out on a regular basis.  While I was waiting for the surgery the fact that the other muscles in my shoulder were in good shape made it possible for me to carry on most of my every day activities.  This included being able to take my new mountain bike out for a few spins before I had to put it away for the next three months while I recuperate (what a bummer, huh?  My new bike arrived the day after I hurt my shoulder!)

Being in good shape also benefited me in that the range of motion in my shoulder is such that I only have to go to physical therapy once a week as opposed to three times a week (which is standard).  I attribute this to all the time that I spent in the gym.  Also, it was kind of cool when each of the various nurses and doctors who were attending to me would take note at my blood pressure and heart rate.  Without fail each of them commented on how good they were. 

I'm sure that if my blood pressure was higher or my heart was beating faster that they would have dealt with it, but I can't help but think that being in good shape helped me through the surgery and that it will also help me to get back on my bike sooner!  

Don't Let Your Insurance Lapse!

The second thing that I learned from this experience is that whatever you do, you don't want to get caught without health insurance!  In these difficult times that we are going through, I'm sure that many of you who are responsible for your own health insurance have at least thought about letting your insurance lapse in order to pay a phone bill or something.  DON'T DO IT!

All I was doing was going downstairs to check my email and while I don't know the final tally of it yet, I'm sure that I've blasted by the $20,000 mark so far.  One can argue that we need National Health Insurance (I'm one who makes this argument), but until they implement such a plan, it's simply too dangerous to go bare.

One Handed Typing

While my girlfriend would probably be surprised to hear that I'm having trouble with this, I've learned that it's damn difficult to type with just one hand!  To anybody who might have noticed that I haven't posted in a bit, this is how come.  Today, one week after the surgery, I was able to lift my arm up onto my desk so that I can type. 

My shoulder is barking at me a bit, but I really wanted to make that last point about keeping your insurance going through these difficult times.  Also, no matter what your politics are, please look at the issues revolving around our country getting a National Health Insurance program.  It's my understanding that right now that there are over 43,000,000 Americans who don't have health insurance coverage.  What's worse is that quite a few of these people COULDN"T get health insurance, even if they were willing to pay for it!

Health care is a public good.  No different than roads and defense.  It's something that we all need, but that the free markets aren't providing (at least in an adequate amount - as evidenced by that 43,000,000 number mentioned above).  It's ashame.  It truly is.  

R.B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

Bob Mitchell is president of ValueList Real Estate Services,  St. Louis' largest discount/full-service real estate and mortgage company.  If you would like to find out more about Bob, ValueList or our flat-fee listing program, please feel free to visit our web site at valuelistre.com