Tough end to my last day of vacation

So I ended my day by spending a couple of hours at the hospital in the ER. Here is the story... I have been having problems with my left shoulder for the past several months and have been working with my doctor to get it fixed. I have what is known as impingement syndrome. This is where there is not much room in the joint so things start to get squeezed and it causes pain when reaching to the side or overhead. This means that I have had pain most days but nothing that I could not put up with.

This past week, we were up in Flagstaff enjoying the snow and I slipped on a patch of ice and landed on my left elbow, which caused my shoulder to get jammed. I thought I could just deal with the pain the same as I had over the past few months... but tonight I was having some serious sharp pain that felt like someone shoving an ice pick into the center of my shoulder joint. I tried to hold out, but lost the fight and had to go and get some medicine to help me with the pain.

I have been putting off having surgery to permanently fix my shoulder so that I could finish some projects that I have been working on, but it looks like I need to get this thing fixed sooner rather than later. I'm thinking I will only be out of commission for just a couple of days followed by a couple of month of physical therapy. I had something very similar done to my right shoulder about 15 years ago and it went very well leaving my right shoulder as strong as ever. I'm hoping for the same results for the left. God willing!