Tommy John Diaries: Physical Therapy
Tommy John Diaries: Physical Therapy
By Scott Bolohan
On June 30, 2021, I did something I hadn’t been able to do for over half of my life. I threw a baseball without pain.
But that just didn’t happen out of nowhere. So often you read about pitchers talking about the tediousness of the recovery when progress is slow and difficult. This is the time spending hours in physical therapy lifting light weights, stretching bands, and wondering if it was all worth it and if it will ever get better.
In April, I was cleared to stop wearing my brace and I could move my arm freely (and more importantly, I could sleep with some semblance of normalcy). I moved my arm as much as I could, working on the flexion and extension, which was tight and painful.
And then one day I woke us and most of my elbow stiffness was gone.
This is when physical therapy really picked up. I spend around two hours twice a week at Team Rehabilitation in Bloomfield Hills, MI. It’s become a second home to me. Gradually, my physical therapist would increase the weight and add exercises. I got bands to take home and every night while watching a game, I would move around the living room in stations doing my exercises while avoiding a dog who really doesn’t like when I have bands on my legs.
There were a couple of hiccups, as with anything. A stitch wouldn’t dissolve in my wrist, making it particularly painful to push myself up using my right arm. I constantly stretched my wrist and rubbed the scars in my forearm, breaking up scar tissue.
But a crazy thing happened. It stopped being the center of my life. My photo roll was no longer daily images of my scar. Soon I barely thought about it.
When I was cleared to do towel throws four months after surgery, it was a huge step. I hadn’t tried to do anything resembling a throwing motion until that point—and hadn’t wanted to. As with pitching, the mental aspect was the most challenging, as doubt creeps in. But sure enough, I was able to painlessly do them.
One of the interesting parts of the rehab process was the overall body aspect, the emphasis on building leg strength, working on cardio, and lots and lots of shoulder strengthening. I have a routine I work through—stationary bike, free weights (up to seven pounds now), bands (legs and arms), Bodyblade, arm bike, exercise ball, towel throws, ice. When I was able to do pushups and my elbow held up with no pain, I felt like Superman.
That takes me back to the front yard of the house I grew up in. I measured out 20 feet and 40 feet and used pink sidewalk chalk to mark the distances. And 131 days after my surgery, I played catch with my dad.
My first throw was a little stiff, the hesitancy of throwing after the surgery was palpable. My elbow was a little low, and the whole thing was a bit mechanical. But after my twenty warmup tosses at twenty feet, I gained more confidence at forty feet, letting my arm move more freely. I was just tossing the ball, waiting for the familiar stabbing pain in my elbow that never came.
I expected to have pain, whether it was in the elbow or the shoulder, but after throwing I felt great. I genuinely didn’t think it was possible to throw a baseball without pain, and there I was. It felt like a miracle.
I’m throwing every other day now, in a program that has months and months left in it. My shoulder feels stronger than ever. But I’m in no rush. Turns out, playing catch is one of the best things you can do. And now I can.
My overall experience with the surgery and recovery has been positive and with surprisingly low levels of pain. I’d begun to accept the inevitability of the surgery for pitchers. Similar to what Reds pitcher Brandon Bailey told me, if you want to throw at a high level, it just kind of comes with the territory.
But in June, George Mason pitcher Sang Ho Baek died following complications from Tommy John surgery. He was 20.
It’s a devastating reminder of the seriousness of surgery. I’m grateful things worked out so well for me, but it also made me reassess baseball. There’s a lot of great things about the sport, as so many of the pieces we run on this site can attest to. But sending your kids off to almost inevitably blow out their elbows for a game isn’t right. If this is what is required to pitch, it’s not okay. Baseball is broken, and there’s no quick fix.
Scott Bolohan is the founder of The Twin Bill. He would love to play catch with you.