Fake Knees, Fake Ears, Fake Teeth, Fake Eyes ... Providential

Really, this is getting to be both very, very strange and very, very funny. 

Mid-eighth decade.  And I continue to push hard in cycling.  Actually improving, in fact.

While climbing up Yarnell Grade, from Congress, Arizona, a few weeks ago I rolled over a clump of slippery hay that had fallen off a hay wagon.  As I put force to the pedal the rear tire slipped on the hay and I fell over (left side).  My first concern when something like that happens is the rear derailleur.  But since I fell on the left side ... no problem there.  

Remounting the bike (Bacchetta Pelso-Brevet) I noticed a sharp twinge in my left shoulder.  This wasn't a `new' thing.  Over the past several years I'd notice a little pain there at times, but it went away very quickly and didn't constitute an impediment.  But this time it persisted.  Now, two weeks and several nights of `iffy' sleep I know I'm on a familiar trajectory. 

A few months of cortisone shots to get me through the bicycling season and then in late November or December ... a `Fake Shoulder' surgery.  Some healing, therapy and ... back to normal. 

UPDATE: Xray and MRI show no bone damage or arthritis.  A small tear on rotator cuff.  No surgery.  Time, careful physical therapy and it should be fine.

Frankly, what we now consider `normal' is nothing less than miraculous.  

Fifty years ago my parents and others of their generation didn't have these miracles available.  My mother died of heart failure after years of painful arthritis and simple family vulnerability to blocked arteries.  I lived in an immigrant neighborhood where older Italian ladies would gather on their front stoops shelling lima beans ... while virtually blind with clouded over eyes - cataracts.  My grandfather just folded over one day at age 76 from blocked arteries.  Both my sisters would joke that when they had dental problems they'd just put their false teeth in a box and mail them off to the dentist to get fixed.  "WHAAAAAAT?!!!" was the common expression from folks in their middle age, suffering from hearing loss.  

Me?  Two total knee replacements.  Hearing aids.  Dental implants.  Cataract surgery.  Drugs to virtually eliminate a family history of blood pressure problems and atherosclerosis.  Resting heart rate in the 40's and perfect blood pressure.  

With a careful diet and exercise my only worry is that meteorite with my name on it.  

But I'm also aware of my good fortune.  Luck.  Accident of birth.  Elderly white guy in a developed nation (even with all the faults).