My name is Sean Murphy and I am 68 years old. I have been very physically active my whole life. From playing sports in high school to competing in marathons, triathlons, and biathlons over the years. I have always worked out regularly and belonged to gyms and did the latest classes including boot camps and spin classes for over 45 years. I try to watch what I eat even though I like my goodie’s.
About 9 years ago I injured my right shoulder. I’m not one to go to the doctor whenever I feel pain. So I tried to work around it. Then I finally went to an orthopedic surgeon in my local medical group and he gave me the option of surgery or trying physical therapy. I opted to do physical therapy. It seemed to help but never was ever 100%. I found as I got older I had to start modifying my workouts because of my shoulder pain.
About 9 months ago I was playing golf and got up on the tee box to drive the ball and all of a sudden I felt like I tore something badly in my right shoulder. I tried to swing the club again and the pain was pretty bad. So I attempted to go to physical therapy again. It felt better over time but it was still hurting me and it got to the point when I couldn’t sleep at night. So I went back to the surgeon I had originally gone to and he said he didn’t know if he could repair my shoulder since it was a full tear and had been almost 9 years since I first tore it. He said he might not be able to pull it all the way back and connect it.
At about the same time I ran into a friend at the gym and he told me of his experience with his torn rotator cuffs in both arms. He went to Dr. Ahmad to have both his shoulders repaired and told me of his positive experience with Dr. Ahmad. So I contacted Dr. Ahmad’s office and made an appointment to see him. The thing I liked was that he has 3 locations and the Westchester office was convenient for me. At my first appointment with Dr. Ahmad I felt very comfortable with him. He has a very calming personality and makes you feel comfortable. He felt he could repair my rotator cuff successfully. The holidays were coming up and I typically spend January through April going back and forth from Westchester to South Carolina so I was worried that I couldn’t get it done soon. But Dr. Ahmad knowing my situation, quickly fit me into his schedule and I had it done before the holidays.
One of the reasons I hesitated to have the surgery over the years is because I saw so many people at the gym that had the surgery done and they said it took a long time for rehab and recovery, and I dreaded that part of it. Well the surgery was easy and even though I had the sling with the block between my hip and arm on, it wasn’t long before I started my physical therapy. I did everything the physical therapist said to do and they kept telling me I was way ahead of schedule on my recovery. To which I fully credit Dr. Ahmad for the successfully executed surgery.
When I first went to physical therapy and gave them the prescription from Dr. Ahmad, the physical therapist read it and said he could tell it was from a well experienced sports surgeon simply from the way it was written. From the second week after surgery I started to use my arm to do small things. Now it has been 3-1/2 months since my surgery and I have most of my movement and a good portion of my strength back, which I credit to Dr. Ahmad’s methods. He didn’t just repair my rotator cuff, but because of my age I have arthritis as well…. so he shaved down a portion of the bone to keep it from rubbing on the tendon and also reconnected my bicep tendon so it didn’t interfere with my rotator cuff. I would highly recommend Dr. Ahmad to any of my family or friends, or anyone out there that is in need of rotator cuff surgery!