Part 1: The Injury

I will start off by saying that I have had many shoulder injuries throughout my life. I played hockey for 15 years and lets just say I never won the most sportsmanlike trophy. Anyway I have separated both of my shoulders many times and dislocated my right shoulder once. Throughout all of that I never even considered surgery and just let time heal them back to 100%.

Then came that fateful game on December 21, 2009. I was in a hockey fight when I was taken down to the ice to end the fight through grappling. At first I though nothing of it, i got up and started to skate away. As i was skating though i started i feel a pulsing pain coming from my left pectoral muscle. I knew absolutely nothing at the time about this type of injury, and i remember thinking " I think i tore my chest muscle", not really knowing the consequences of such a thing. Like any of my other injuries, i went home, took a Tylenol, and went to bed.
I woke up to my arm being completely bruised. Here is a picture:

I immediately went to see a physiotherapist. He told me that i had strained by pectoral tendon and that it would heal on its own, however i was not to play hockey until it was healed and i could do normal things again such as bench press. I went three times a week to therapy receiving things like ultrasound and ice, however after 3 weeks of doing so i did not feel that i was getting anywhere. I was frustrated, so i tried someone different. I tried a chiropractor/sports injury therapist that worked here in Windsor. Apparently he was the official chiropractor of our local major junior sports team the Windsor Spitfires and he was pretty good. I met him, told him what had happened, and he told me that he would use ART (Active Release Techniques) to get rid of the scar tissue and heal my injury. I would also receive acupuncture in my shoulder to help speed the healing. This all seemed great and for a whole 4 MONTHS i went to this guy weekly receiving these treatments. Here is another picture of my injury about 1 month after it happened. Notice i still had some bruising in the actual pectoral muscle even 1 month after the injury:

As you can see, there is clearly a dent in my pec and something is wrong. I was naive enough to think that this would heal on its own. I continued to see my chiropractor thinking that he was actually helping me like i said for 4 months. During this time i started playing hockey again but not without pain. I was not able to do a push up or go to the gym at all. Every time i put stress on the pec i would get a hard cord that formed in my armpit which i though was really weird. Again i was living like this for 4 months and by April of 2010 i had lost 15lbs of muscle mass and was finally fed up. I went to see an actual doctor. I know, it would seem logical that when you hurt yourself you see a doctor right away and don't just skip to the physiotherapist, but i thought i was superman at the time and that nothing could break me. It turns out a pec tear could. Anyway i saw the doctor, who referred me to an orthopaedic surgeon here in Windsor. He also had me get an MRI done. I saw the surgeon on May 19, 2010 and this is a little how our conversation went:

Him "Hi Patrick, i tried to get you in here as quickly as possible. I hear that you tore your pectoral major tendon while bench pressing 6 weeks ago?"
Me "Umm no i did it in a hockey fight 6 months ago..."
Him "Oh my, that's not good we usually like to get these operations done within 6 weeks of injury, that is definitely going to complicate things. I looked at your MRI and there is definitely a tear between the muscle and tendon. I can operate on it but even within the acute period type 2 tears are difficult. The easiest is a type 1 tear between tendon and bone. Take your shirt off let me have a look at it."

(I take my shirt off, he has me do a few things, i put my shirt back on)

Him "Ok well it doesn't look to bad, what do you want to do"
Me "What are the chances you can fix this"
Him "50 percent"
Me "Well the way i see it i cant work out at all right now without it bothering me, life's a gamble, lets do it."
Him "Ok surgery it is. I am going to cut in (points to where along my armpit and pec) and see what i can do. It should take around an hour. You will be in a sling for 6 weeks and then head to physio. Surgery will be tomorrow."
Me "TOMORROW?!"
Him "Yeah if you are able, otherwise i can push it back..."
Me "No I'm just surprised usually people have to wait months for surgery. Ill call my work and tell them i need a few weeks off, see you tomorrow."

NOTE TO ANYONE READING THIS: At the time, i was not aware of the painful recovery of surgery. I am happy i got it, but had i known the pain i was going go endure for the next 6 months i don't know if i would  have. I do not recommend to anyone to take chances like this with surgery, its a big deal and once again i thought i was superman.