I had a lot of fun playing disc golf, but the fall of 2015 came quickly and I started to prepare for an attempt at swinging the sticks again.  I went to the range in the middle part of September and tried some very light swinging.  I was not hitting the ball far at all, but it seemed to go pretty well.  I was just taking half swings with some wedges and a 7 iron.  I was happy with the results and so the next week that I went out I decided to try and use a couple long irons.  As soon as I started trying to swing the longer clubs, even with the half swings, I immediately started having problems with the ECU tendon snapping out of place again.  In my mind I knew I was probably not going to get better without the surgery.  It was time to schedule the surgery at this point. 

The only remaining issue with the decision was really a financial one.  My health insurance is a Health Savings Account (HSA).  Usually there is a reduced premium with this but it comes with a sizable out of pocket deductible.  It was $4500 in my case for the family.  We had not really used much of our deductible up for that year.  I decided to wait until January 2016 to have the MRI done for the surgery so we could have it all taken care of at the beginning of the year.  That way any additional medical bills for my family and all my additional physical therapy would be taken care of for that year.  It delayed things a few more months, but I was good with the decision based on the financial practicality of it. 

I never had an MRI done before and have to say that was quite the awkward experience.  I did not really think I would have a problem with it, but there were a couple moments I had to find a “happy place” in my mind, so to speak.  The MRI technician was also getting a bit frustrated trying to get me to lay still for 5-7 minutes at a time.  I had to re-do a couple of the scans.   We managed to get it done though and my follow up with the doctor to tell me the results was a couple weeks later. 

The meeting with the doctor was quick.  He basically told me the MRI results showed I had two problems.  There was a problem with the ECU as we already knew.  There was also a tear in the TFCC in the wrist as well.  I was not really sure what this was, but it was in the same area as the ECU and also possibly why the injured area was not healing naturally.  I was glad to have the MRI results and we scheduled the surgery for February 2^nd.  I was very much looking forward to getting this over with.