@Francis7 posted:Just sharing what Doctor 1 said in case it's helpful to anyone seeing this in the future.
Options:
If you're done with sports and just going to be a normal person, no need for surgery, do some anti-inflammatories and PT to try and get the pain down and hope that works. If it doesn't, then consider surgery. But, keep in mind that most people over 50 have a SLAP tear, just naturally, and do nothing about it and deal with it.
If you want to keep playing baseball, have the surgery.
You can do it now, say April, miss the rest of your season but you should be ready to go by the start of next fall semester, if you want to keep playing baseball and have a place to play.
Or, you can do some medication and PT now, to try and get back on the field in about 4 weeks, and play with the pain this season "because it can't get any worse" and then have the surgery after the season, say in June. BUT, then, you wouldn't be "back" until just about the start of the 2026 season (if you wanted to play and had a place to play), around January, and you would have gone pretty much without no prep work (in terms of "normal baseball offseason stuff") to get ready for that spring season.
What are we doing? Going to see Doctor 2.
After that, there's a lot of variables to factor in for making a decision.
Doctor 2 pretty much said the same thing but not 100% aligned with Doctor 1.
Doctor 1 said you pretty much can't make it worse if you try and play with it now. Doctor 2 said you can definitely make it worse if you push it and try something stupid.
Doctor 2 did agree that surgery is probably the way to go now if you want to return to your normal position and normal level of effectiveness at that position. BUT, he said that few insurance companies will approve the surgery without trying 6 weeks of PT first anyway. So, you might as well try it and see if it helps or not.