Okay, so I fell over a watermelon June 29th, landed on my elbows, & jammed my right shoulder violently upward (see blog entry "Watermelons and Yellow Jackets.").
It's been hurting ever since--and the right is my dominant hand. For a cartoonist, pretty devastating.
It hurts REALLY bad if I try to use my right hand for any length of time, as in, say, playing "Angry Birds" or drawing cartoons.
After shots in the joint and weeks of physical therapy, I still can't draw with my right hand (or play "Angry Birds) without significant pain.
My young whippersnapper of an orthopedic surgeon (who LOVES his job) says I have a tear in my rotator cuff, which is apparently a muscle you need to draw or play Angry Birds.
He's gonna have to go in there, drag the muscle back into place, and suture it. He says it's "easy."
I'll have surgery September 23, and won't even have to spend the night in the hospital. But my arm will have to be immobilized for several weeks--after which--yep--MORE weeks of physical therapy.
The last cartoons I did for my blog with my right hand were Grover Norquist and Rick Perry as J.C. Calhoun.
They both nearabout kilt me.
And drawing with my left hand takes DAYS.
So any new cartoons may have to wait for a month or two.
Meanwhile, maybe you'll enjoy the cartoon I did for Dr. John Heller and the surgical team at the Emory Spine Hospital after they spent nine and a half hours one day last January, fusing many of my lumbar vertebrae together.
They left so much hardware in my back that I'll never be able to board a plane again without the full body scan.
But they fixed my back so well that by the time of the watermelon incident, 6 months later, my spine scoffed at the jolt. No pain there!
But I'll be back!
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