March-July, 2016 - I did not know exactly what to expect when starting physical therapy.  I have been lucky enough in the past not to need it due to any other injuries or procedures.  One of the first things we tried to do was to check the range of motion.  I simply held my arm on the table and tried to rotate the wrist back and forth, palm up and palm down.  I was very surprised, as I think the PT was as well, that I only had about 10 degrees of wrist rotation available to me at first. 

I continued to do the therapy over the next couple months and the wrist very slowly began to regain the mobility that it had before the surgery.  What the Physical Therapist told me is that everyone is different when it comes to getting mobility back after having something immobilized for a while post-surgery.  Unfortunately I turned out to be one of those patients who struggles to regain the full range of motion quickly again.  It further delayed my attempts at getting back out on the course.

Around July I finally felt like I would be able to try some light swings. I had been doing the PT on my own at that point and my first range session went pretty well.  I was able to make some very light swings with an eight iron and I was pretty excited to start swinging again.  The next time that I went out I decided to try a few longer irons.  Even though I was again trying some very light and easy swings, this time with the longer irons I felt some instability in the wrist and immediately stopped swinging. There was not a lot of pain, but I decided to shut it down and wait until the spring or 2017 to start swinging again. Trying to get to a point of playing in the late season was just not worth the risk re-injuring the wrist again if it was not quite ready. 

At this point in my life, I honestly was not very bothered by the situation.  In the early part of June I attended an intensive four day leadership program down in Houston Texas which was possibly the most difficult thing I have ever done, but it changed the way I look at and approach all of life’s challenges(long story).  I was having a lot of fun playing disc golf, traveling, fishing and hunting with my family at the time.  There was and is just so much to be thankful for and golf is only one of many things I enjoy to keep myself active.  I was not about to allow the setback of not being able play golf to still to affect me negatively.  Heading into the late part of summer, I was about to have an incredible rest of the year.