The 2021 Season Ends Early

We did not know at the time that our last cruise to East Harbor would be the last cruise of the season. Although I have not mentioned it in the blog to date, I had been dealing with shoulder pain and reduced shoulder functionality. In fact, the pain and reduced mobility stopped us from cruising on Annie and caused us to take Annie out of the water before the end of September. 

After many doctor visits, medical tests and physical therapy, it was determined that I had rotator cuff problems in both shoulders. The right shoulder rotator cuff was completely torn in half, and the left shoulder one was partially torn and the shoulder in need of a surgical "clean out". And while I did not know it at the time,  my health situation was going to get worse.

I had to wait 5 weeks to get my right shoulder surgery. It was a 3 hour surgery and was hard to schedule. While waiting for surgery I started to lose the use of my right hand. My fingers swelled to the size of little sausages. I figured the hand problem was related to the shoulder. I was wrong. A nerve conduction test showed I had severe carpel tunnel in my right wrist and moderate carpel tunnel in my left wrist. Surgery was needed on both.

So, I faced the reality of needing four surgeries to get better. I had a surgery a month for four months. The right shoulder was repaired in October, the right wrist in November, the left wrist in December and the left shoulder in January. Months of physical therapy followed. Not to be left out, Kerry had carpel tunnel surgery on her right wrist in January. 

We were finally able to get to Florida at the very end of January. We both did 3 month of physical therapy at Greene Rehab. Kerry's also included treatment for lower back and knee pain. 

I'm writing this post in early April 2022. We hope and plan to be physically ship shape in time to launch Annie in mid May. Hopefully Canada will be open and we will be able to cruise again to the North Channel. We will have a new hatch and are looking forward to dry pillows in future storms.