I tore the labrum in my right shoulder about three years ago, due to extensive hand balancing training in a Chinese acrobatics / circus skills course. Specifically, I think it was the move called "levers" that did me in. I was also studying contortion and trapeze, which surely didn't help.

 I'm sure the condition developed over time, but there was a specific event where I was practicing the "lever" move and had a sharp pain in my shoulder. I immediately dropped out of the pose, and had the same pain when I tried a second time, so I quit for the evening and began icing it.

Not knowing what was going on, and having never had a similar injury, I waited several months to see if it would heal on its own. I completely quit circus school. I finally located an osteopath and had my first MRI about 10 months later, which confirmed the SLAP tear.

 At the time I was very hesitant to go ahead with surgery -- it sounded scary and I wanted to see how much my symptoms could be improved by physical therapy, so I pursued that for six months or so. Strengthening the surrounding muscles did decrease my discomfort for active muscular activities such as holding the overhead bar on the subway, but didn't help the discomfort I had while sleeping, and the cartilage didn't heal.

 Two years later (I know..), I had a second MRI which confirmed that the condition had in fact gotten worse, not improved. The person who reviewed the scans upgraded (downgraded) my condition from "mild" to "mild-moderate". I decided to proceed with surgery.

 It's scheduled for next week. I'm looking forward to having the problem fixed, but I'm pretty freaked about what recovery will be like. No driving a car, riding a bike, cooking.. today I realized that even signing my name will be difficult.

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