So, Ray had his "second opinion" appointment with Dr. Patrick Smith who is the orthopedic surgeon for Mizzou athletes and a member of some SEC medical council. His credentials are vast. Dr. Smith's physical exam of Ray's shoulder was a bit different than Dr. Paletta's.
After all the twists, pushes, and pulls on Ray's arms that we had now seen a few times, Dr. Smith had Ray lay on the table with his shoulder at the edge or slightly off. He gently pushed down on Ray's shoulder , and it "bumped" out of position, and then gently back in. The doctor looked at me and said, "Did you see that, mom?" I certainly did see, and I also saw the look on Ray's face which said - not cool, man. 😝 The doctor sat Ray up, looked at us both and said, "That needs to be repaired". <sigh>
We then went into a room with a computer screen and a physical model of the shoulder. He reviewed the MRI results, pointing to where the tear was visible on the scan - and correlating it to the shoulder model. He talked about suture placement to repair the labrum - how where the sutures are placed are important to sustained stability through pitching- and how he would do the repair making sure the shoulder stayed loose. I knew in regard to pitching that that's where the rub lies (no pun intended) - overtight post labrum repair means velocity doesn't come back. So, this all made sense to me. But the thing that really tripped me up was when I asked about debridement. Dr. Smith's exact statement was "I'm not a fan of removing chunks of the labrum". 😳
I left that appointment rather confused about Dr. Paletta's treatment plan, despite his reputation. I called Dr. Paletta's nurse and asked how debridement would address the stability issue. Ray could feel his shoulder slipping - and while he was still able to throw fastballs (granted, not nearly as fast), the arm movement required for a curveball was not possible. Dr. Paletta's nurse assured me that Dr. Paletta would do what was necessary "when he got in there" and address any issues he didn't see on the MRI. Ugh - I'm a planner, I want a plan - then deviate if necessary, but "winging it" isn't my nature. But, the guy is a legend - literally working on Wainwright, Carpenter (Chris, multiple times), Edmonds, the list goes on and on. How can I logically feel uncomfortable? Well, it didn't matter how I felt, the decision was not mine and Ray was set on going to Dr. Paletta. The surgery was scheduled for June 3.
And then... 17-year-old minds went to work and decided to take a once in a lifetime road trip the week of June 3, the only week this once in a lifetime trip could take place (seriously, that was fairly accurate given this stage of life). Letting go as a parent is not easy - but the time is here, and I called both Dr. Paletta's office and Dr. Smith's office for options. Dr. Paletta came back with June 8, but the road trip would go to the 9th - Dr. Smith came back with June 10. And in the end, that's how the decision made! 😂 I'm literally afraid to say it, I don't know why I am - I got my way.
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