Tim's Shoulder Surgery
After dislocating my shoulder I need surgery to enable me to continue my sporting career and achieve my goals.
Wellington
While competing in the World Orienteering Championships in Scotland I fell and dislocated my shoulder for the third time since January.
My surgery can not be covered by ACC and my travel insurance company will not cover anything except my flight home to New Zealand.
Orienteering has been my career since leaving school in 2013 and this injury prevents me from competing in the forest as I risk further serious damage.
My plan for 2016 is to return to Europe, after recovering from surgery, to train and compete in the 2016 season. Having surgery as soon as possible is essential to make sure I am fit and fast enough to be selected for the New Zealand team to race in the World Champs in Sweden.
Originally I was told surgery would cost between $10000 to $15000 so hearing that the cost will be double this amount was devastating. Not having surgery will mean an end to my elite career and goal of being a future World Sprint Champion. My family have been sponsoring me to date, but the cost of this surgery is too high for us to manage without asking for help.
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Quick Update! 30 November 2015
Thank you for all the amazing support I have received so far – I have been overwhelmed by your encouraging messages and generous help. As well as the incredible amount donated on this page I have also received $1500 from others who couldn’t use the site so I would like to mention them too.
An update on my shoulder surgery – First some good news, some friends saw my ‘Give a little’ page and recommended getting the surgery done in Auckland, which has reduced the surgery costs to closer to the original estimate (approx. $15000) So even though I had to fly to Auckland I was able to have surgery done just 3 days after I had originally planned, which gives me plenty of time to rehabilitate before the 2016 World Champs.
I had keyhole surgery done on Monday 16th. The surgeon repaired a reasonable sized tear and also had to work on fixing a large ‘dent’ in the back of my shoulder. I now have 5 ‘screws’ stabilising the shoulder. The surgeon was pleased with how the operation went. I left hospital with an anaesthetic block into a nerve in my neck, which reduced the pain and helped with the initial recovery…but it caused a few ‘raised eyebrows’ when I flew back to Lower Hutt 2 days later!
I have to have my shoulder supported in a sling for 6 weeks. Once this period of time is over I will be able to begin physiotherapy and the first small steps toward my training for the year ahead. It will be a slow process and I will have to be patient and thing about the longer term goals. If I keep on track I am looking at a full recovery by World Champs next year.
I want to say again how grateful and fortunate I am to have had so many people who have supported me and allowed me to be able to get the surgery done. I hope I will see most people to thank personally, but for those who I won’t see or who made their donations/names private, thank you so much.
I hope that in the near future you will see my GPS dot ‘racing’ on a screen in and you know that you have been a part of the amazing support team that has got me to the start line again ?
Thank you!
Tim Robertson
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