I experienced a full tear of the tendon on September 22nd at the
Santa Cruz Flats Race after I tripped while running out a landing on the third
to last day.

After a continuing thread of poor decisions I’m finally setup for surgery on my shoulder for next Monday
(February 6th) or the Monday after (February 13th) depending on getting approval
from Florida Blue Cross/Blue Shield in a timely manner. The arthroscopic surgery
will include:

1) Tying the tendon back to the bone.

2) Cutting attachment points that have developed after the injury in the muscles
(unfreezing the shoulder).

3) Clearing out some arthritis that has developed over the years from injuries
forty years ago.

It will be out patient surgery and I should be back home right after the
surgery.

The surgeon
http://www.desertortho.com/doctors_pierre.htm characterized the tear as
small (even though it was full) as I tore only one tendon. He does five or six
of these surgeries every Monday. I have the most common tear.

It will take three months for the tendon to tie back to the bone. It is my
understanding that rehab work has to wait for three months, but Larry Bunner
(who got the surgery almost two months ago) seems to be doing rehabilitation.
This means that I won’t be flying in the Spring competitions, but my plan is to
go to Florida, attend the competitions and perhaps act as meet director.

I hope to be able to fly in the July competitions and the SCFR in September in
order to keep my position on the US National team in order to go to the Worlds
in January in Australia. We’ll see how that goes.