Posada Plan: Rest, Rehab, & Retrun(?)
Via the Hartford Courant:
Yankees catcher Jorge Posada doesn’t need surgery on his injured right shoulder but will be out at least five weeks.
“I thought I was going to have to get surgery. We’re going to look at that option probably after the season,” Posada said Friday.
Posada was examined by Yankees physician Stuart Hershon, orthopedist James Andrews and Mets medical director David Altchek. Reds team physician Timothy Kremchek, a shoulder specialist, reviewed scans of the shoulder Friday.
Posada, 36, said he has inflammation of the rotator cuff but the condition of his labrum was unchanged from a scan taken during the offseason for an insurance policy after he signed a four-year, $52.4 million deal.
The plan is to rest for 10 days, then try throwing. If Posada has no pain, he will throw for two weeks before a rehab assignment. That lines him up for a possible June return.
When that scenario was presented to Posada, he seemed to think it was overly optimistic, saying, “I don’t know about that.”
I’m with Jorge on this one. He’s already had a cortisone shot. Would that have not killed the inflammation by now? Don’t be shocked, in ten days from now, to hear that he has not improved and the timetable for his return is being revised. The fact that he hints that surgery may be an option after the season tells you that something is up there. Maybe it makes more sense to go under the knife now, punt this season, and be 100% sound for next year?
“He’s already had a cortisone shot. Would that have not killed the inflammation by now?”
Not if the inflammation is from torn pieces of muscle. In fact, inflammation is the body’s way of healing. So the cortisone shot, while it may have relieved pain temporarily, can slow healing (as it is a steroid, btw).
Also, it means nothing if Jorge doesn’t improve in 10 days. There are specific indications for immediate surgery for rotator cuff injury and it appears that Jorge doesn’t have it. Trial of rest and rehab can extend well into 6 weeks before any decision for surgery is even contemplated.
I believe that Jorge’s hesitation is probably anxiety that every patient with this kind of injury has. Not everything in medicine is straightforward and sometimes you just have to allow enough time for the body to actually heal itself.