Get the Shoulder Surgery, Dwyane Wade
Just found out that Dwyane Wade’s shoulder injury is indeed a dislocation. That’s not good for the Heat’s playoff chances, and it’s especially not good for the young DWade. The injury will take a minimum of 4 to 6 weeks just to heal, but it ain’t going to feel normal for a while after that. Play basketball at a professional level? That’ll probably take months for a good recovery. He could take a chance and come back early, but his shoulder will most likely pop out again before the season is done. Is that re-injury worth it? I still remember how a shoulder dislocation sidetracked the senior year of UH guard AC Carter. While he played out the year, he was never the same dominating player after the injury. And during the NBA tryouts, another dislocation sidelined AC and forced a surgery.
For Dwyane Wade, knowing he has several years in his professional career, I would undergo surgery right away and sit out the rest of the season. This season is done. The Heat have a marginal chance of making the playoffs now that Shaq is back, but they have a tough road ahead. I’m thinking a healthy DWade (and hopefully Shaq) for the next season is a better bet.
A shoulder dislocation is a big deal, and I’ve had a dislocation/subluxation seven times now. In the 90’s, I pretty much dislocated my shoulder once a year, mostly playing basketball. The road to recovery is a long one starting with weeks of wearing a sling and not being able to use your entire arm. Ordinary tasks become troublesome. Sleeping is uncomfortable and even the basics like showering and combing your hair is a challenge. Even when you can take the sling off, your arm is weak and immobile. There’s physical therapy and rehab exercises to get mobility and range of motion back. Eventually weight training is possible to strengthen the muscles around the shoulder joint. But still, the shoulder is never the same.
I think it would be about 3 months after the injury that I felt able to go out on the court again, and even then, I’d be real cautious when playing. The fear of reinjury forces a change in playing style. Go in for a rebound? Forget about it. Instead of mixing it up down low, you stay on the outside.
Surgery and rehab for a professional athlete is commonplace, and you hear about players with successful careers after surgeries, so I think Dwyane should go this route now and be done with it. Granted, I don’t have the luxury of top notch medical services, but I never opted for surgery and kept getting reinjured year after year. Finally the old medical adage of “it hurts when I do this, so don’t do that” sunk in making me reconsider the worth of playing basketball versus getting injured.
Dwyane, get the surgery done and get healthy so that you can keep playing your aggressive style next year.
Technorati Tags: basketball, NBA, Dwyane Wade