Glitch In Our Plans

July 2017

Epic fishing excursion plans across Minnesota for the month of August - check.

Epic fishing excursion plans across Wisconsin for the month of September - check.

Friends and family in both states notified that we may be dropping in – check.

New fishing rods, reels and tackle purchased and ready to go - check.

We were ready!

After a month in one place, we were excited to be hitting the road again!

All we had to do was complete enough physical therapy sessions for Larry’s shoulder so that he could do it on his own as we travel! He’d had an MRI early in July.

Surely if there was a problem they would notify us immediately. Right?

Wrong!!!!

The doctor didn’t even look at the images until the day of his appointment,

THREE WEEKS AFTER THE MRI WAS DONE!!!!!

He’d already started physical therapy and his range of motion was improving!

We were stunned when he went to the appointment and they told us there was major damage. He had to have surgery or the doc says he'd loose the use of his arm!

How can that be?

The physical therapist said the therapy was working!

At this point we were extremely grateful for good health insurance.

A second opinion was most definitely needed!

The soonest appointment for surgery we could make was 3 weeks away, when we were supposed to be in Minnesota… fishing. We scheduled it because it was easier to break the appointment than get one at the last minute.  We called numerous places for a second opinion. We even called Bakersfield, CA. The soonest appointment we could get was 2 weeks away in Lincoln, NE. We waited.

Cancelling the RV reservations was painful! Probably not as painful as Larry's shoulder but painful! We tried to fill our time so that we didn’t have to think about what the second doctor was going to say. Larry had to get a pre-op physical to make sure he was healthy enough for surgery... if he needed it. That doctor took a look at the MRI. His opinion, even though he said he wasn’t an orthopedic guy wasn’t great news.

We met up with Larry's dad on the way to his pre-op physical.

He had one last session with the physical therapist to learn how to keep his shoulder loose without doing more damage. The physical therapist looked at the images. She said she wished she had seen them before the started. Even she said the damage was extensive and thought he’d need surgery. A second opinion was looking more and more unnecessary but we already had the MRI and x-rays sent to their office so we went. He basically concurred with what everyone else was saying.

Surgery scheduled for August 10^th – check.

Follow up physical therapy – check.

Cancelling ALL our epic fishing plans – check. L

Our 2017 plans have changed.

But our adventures on the road WILL continue!