Shoulder Surgery

Sorry to skip the entire return trip, but we'll get to that later as it was uneventful and enjoyable.
After considerable delay, the surgery to repair my torn rotator cuff is complete. I've had several major and minor surgeries in the past and this is the most painful by far. The nurses told Micky that the number of nerves and vessels disturbed in the shoulder joint explains the difference. A nerve block in the neck was to prevent most of the pain for the first 12-14 hours. It did not work well and when they awakened me, it was not a pleasant time. The anesthetist did a second block that calmed the misery down to a bearable level.
I enjoyed the time before the surgery in the prep area talking with Pete Flanagan, my commanding officer when I was First Sergeant of the Augusta Marines. Pete was having both knees worked on. In both our cases, decades of physical fitness training had damaged the weight-bearing joints of our legs. Marines run. The cult of running and physical fitness is literally bone-deep in the Corps to a level found only in the elites of other services. And we pay for it in our senior years. Most of the career Marines I know have knee, hip and back problems that can be laid squarely onto the overuse of our legs through running. I am not talking about jogging or occasional distance running, but daily long-distance pounding out the miles. From this side of life, it seems wasteful to have required and encouraged such extreme behavior. But that's exactly what we did. More than any other activity, running defined your ability to lead. Intellect, zeal, competence, and ability were completely negated if you could not run three miles in 28 minutes. And that just allowed you to remain in the Corps. 24 minutes or less was required for a first-class score. Promotion to the upper ranks was dependent on a first-class score.
No one can deny that it takes real fitness to carry the combat load of a Marine. The weight of arms and armor is immense. The picture of Marines struggling along with full packs fighting insurgents in tennis shoes is ridiculous.
But enough of that!
I came through the cutting well and can begin to see that the surgery will work. This time next year, this will all just be a fading memory. It just can't happen fast enough!