I’m going to be out of the office for an extended period beginning the middle of next month. I have a planned vacation with one of my best friends to Cancun for a week, then a few days later I’m having surgery on my right shoulder. I googled the recovery time for shoulder surgery and it’s not definitive, but looks like a few weeks before I can get back to the office.

My shoulder has been bothering me for over a year now. Limited motion and pain. Pain to move it, pain if I sneeze, pain just walking down the stairs. It’s not been fun. We tried some physical therapy (PT) for two months and while I did regain some motion, we didn’t relieve the pain. The Physical Therapist said that was all she could do for me and recommended I talk to the Ortho specialist to see what options there were.

The Ortho doctor, well first the physicians assistant, said that we could keep on with the PT to see if we continued to improve. This didn’t sit well with me as I kept thinking of the definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. I told him that – so he called in the doc. The Doc and I then went over everything again and he said these things “sometimes” get better with time – I asked how much time – he said about 6 months… but I’d been experiencing this for about six months at that time. He said our other option is surgery, we went over that and talked about moving forward with that. I suggested we give it three more months, see if it changed – it didn’t.

I don’t currently have any anxiety about the surgery, doesn’t mean it won’t come later I guess. Mostly my anxiety is about work and not being there. It’s not a money thing, it’s what am I going to do if I can’t work and/or play video games… really, how boring is this recovery going to be. Also, how long will I be gone… first a week for vacation then at least another week for initial recovery.

Planning on being out is different, I have a lot of responsibilities at work. I like to think my teams depend on me for results and camaraderie. I work all kinds of hours with my team, at home I’m always stepping up to help someone with a sale or a document – doesn’t matter the time, they rely on me to be there.

Who can you trust to step in and cover for you, to take care of your team while you’re out? I have 30 some people in my department that are capable of doing so. Some of them are swamped with prospects of their own and I think my team would be an afterthought to them. Not in a bad way, but like they have established work ethic and system that makes them successful, I don’t want to throw a wrench into that. Some of my team just couldn’t meet the challenge of a large team to help out in addition to their current duties. So I called an audible and asked my manager who I should pick. My first choice he shot down as someone with too much on their plate already, but then he threw out some names I hadn’t considered and we chose someone that should be up to the task. My manager did joke, I hope, that my team would like my replacement more than me…

It’s a hard thing to let go of, my team, letting someone else step in and help them with their various needs… will they be fast enough, nice enough, efficient enough or will they disappoint me and my team. Most of my team has my direct mobile number and I don’t want to hear they haven’t been taken care of in my absence. It’s not rocket science, what I do, and I’m not asking them to sell my book of business, just to cover customers that call in to move forward after previous interactions. This is going to be ok, I keep telling myself.

I have to trust my manager’s instinct. Let my team be in capable hands of my co-worker. Relax and focus on me and my recovery. I will have work to do – PT and a lot of it from what I understand – they have scheduled me for my first PT appointment the afternoon after my surgery. That I find aggressive, but probably in my best interest.

I may invest in Dragon Naturally Speaking to see if I can get some work done. I’ve also been playing around with my left hand, seeing if I can maybe use it to get somethings done… but again, really should be focusing on my PT and doing what the doctor says.

I’ll be ok, my team will be ok and I’ll have a pain free shoulder before I know it!