I had my father take me to see my general physician today. Since I needed to keep my arm ROM very limited for pain management I figured it would be best to not drive myself.
My general physician had a quick look at my bruise and swelling and then followed up with handful of questions. She also thought I had done some significant damage to my pec even though the bruising was on my arm. Due to the apparent severity of my injury she wanted me to see my orthopaedic as quickly as possible so she scheduled it for me and got me in the next morning. I knew I hurt myself pretty bad but her urgency caught me a bit off guard.
My general physician elected not to conduct the full suite of physical tests knowing it would cause me great pain and that the ortho would be conducting them tomorrow anyway.
Tuesday - 3/18/2014 (3 days after injury)
Tuesday was a long day of machines and the doctors office. It started at the ortho at 10 am with paperwork and x-rays. After another hour I the waiting room I was finally called back to see the dr. around noon. He came in with a resident, assistant, and a physicians assistant (PA) and within 5 minutes of tests and questions he concurred that I had likely torn/ruptured the pec tendon off the humerus (upper arm) bone.
He then shared the news that this would require surgical repair and that it would be at least 6 months before I would even attempt bench press again and I would spend the first six of those weeks in a sling. He tentatively scheduled surgery for Friday to get the repair done quickly before any scar tissue set in.
This was not the good news I was expecting. Ok, I wasn't expecting good news but I didnt think it would be this bad. Obviously this bummed me out and I quickly started thinking through how this was drastically going to affect my life in the near future. From work, to taking care of my two-year old, and helping my 4-month pregnant wife around the house.
The Dr. scheduled an MRI for me later that afternoon to get confirmation on his diagnosis. I had to go to Paul Brown stadium to get it done as that was the only place nearby that could get me in on the same day. My dad and I went to lunch and then headed downtown to get the MRI. For those who haven't had the pleasure of an MRI before, it is essentially 45 minutes of being told to remain incredibly still in a very small and loud enclosure. It wasn't any fun but I figured it was worth the peace of mind to have confirmation of the diagnosis before having surgery.
So my dad and I then went to pick up my son and head home. I will say that the only good things about this day was I got to spend most of it with my incredibly loving and patient father and then end it by putting my beautiful son to bed.
Thursday - 3/20/2014 (5 days after injury)
Fortunately my wife was able to cut her work trip short and come home to accompany me to my follow up appointment with the ortho. It turns out that the MRI confirmed there was a major pec tear with lots of swelling but it wasn't clear enough to see exactly where the tear was along the tendon.
The dr. explained that best case was if the tendon pulled of the bone which would be fixed by anchoring the tendon back to the bone with a couple of screws. The worst case would be if the tear was at the muscle/tendon junction because that often can't be surgically repaired. The middle case is if the tendon tore in between the bone and muscle, in which case the would sew the tendon back together.
Since he couldn't determine what exactly was going on with the MRI, he recommended we proceed with surgery and hope there is something to repair. My wife and I agreed so we then scheduled the official surgery for Monday morning since his Friday schedule had filled up.
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