Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1179544
legs at six and my other arm at noon. After dropping off the kids, I work an eight-hour day at Loyola Marymount University, go to physical therapy twice a week, and exercise twice daily at home. I quite frankly don't know how long I can keep it up. According to one surgeon, the recovery goal with rotator cuff surgery is to get ten percent better every month. Even when surgery and rehabilitation are successful, the repair is prone to re-injury up to twelve months following the procedure. My physical therapy (PT) begins less than a week after surgery. This is where the hard work begins. It seems that once I feel comfortable and capable of properly doing any of the exercises, I'm given something new, harder, and more painful to do. The worst part of PT though is the manipulation by the therapist. My surgeon and my physical therapist both refer to the repair as "tight." Knowing how I use my shoulders, my surgeon took extra care to make sure everything was very firmly held in place. This is apparently better for the long-term prognosis but it makes regaining mobility that much more difficult. Every time I'm about to have a post-op exam with my sur- geon, my therapist worries that we're not making enough progress and really goes to town on my shoulder. She is constantly pushing the limits of my range of motion in all directions and trying to get the joint to move a little further with every appointment. I feel like a roasted chicken having a wing torn off. There are many days where I leave PT in greater pain then when I came in and I wonder if the surgical repair has somehow been damaged. On top of the appointments, it now takes four hours to get through the exercises I do at home twice a day. So, I split them doing half in the morning and half at night. The gains are often incremental and the pain so great that it is hard to stay positive. Finally, six weeks after surgery and quite suddenly, the pain lets up enough so that I'm sleeping four hours a night and I want to keep my arm. Although it may not seem like it, this is a huge step forward. I can burn the sling and start thinking about things other than how badly I hurt. Act 3: A montage spanning the next four and a half months. I continue to do PT, exercise at home, lots of low fives with the PT staff, pain decreases, strength, and range of motion increase to the point where I sprint up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art with a Bill Conti theme blar- ing. Okay, it is not that dramatic but, on July 29, less than Bryan Cahill EksoVest Demo five months after surgery, my surgeon removes all limita- tions and tells me I can start booming again. My first opportunity comes on August 5; five months and four days after surgery. I take the Airframe loaned to me by Levitate Technologies to day play on the BET series Twenties, with Von Varga mixing and Yervant Hagopian on utility duties. Although there aren't any particularly hard setups on this day, the Airframe gives me a little more confidence in returning to boom work. It provides lift assist and doesn't restrict my motion in any way. Comfortable, light and slim, I use it all day with ease. Epilogue: On Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019, I bring the loaner Airframe out to Chris Walmer on the set of Schooled at Sony Studios, along with some prototype "cassettes" that offer even more lift. He tells me he used it for some ten-minute take the following day and that it "worked great." I believe it is possible that exoskeletons like this might not only help prevent injury but also get people like me back to work sooner after an injury or even save the careers of experienced boom operators who previously might have gone on permanent disability. Every day, I am still icing, stretching, and exercising. Getting to where I am now has been an arduous journey but it feels great to be back on set! Photo: Yervant Hagopian