...other than marriage? I thought maybe we could learn something from each others' mistakes.
I sold some stock (for a nice profit) early. I sold my silver (for a nice profit) early. I waited too long to buy a house. I waited too long to buy a rental property. I should have bought an M16 a decade ago. But my biggest regret, by a huge margin, was having surgery last month. I had a torn labrum (shoulder) and was told it was basically my choice whether or not to have surgery. I had completed some physical therapy and at the time of the possible surgery discussion it was explained to me that how I felt at that time was likely the best it would feel in the future. It may get worse, it may stay the same (which my therapists said was unlikely), but it would not simply get better. With the pain level I was at, I decided I didn't want to live the rest of my life like that if there was relief available through surgery. BIGGEST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE! I don't know where I went wrong, but it's been over a month now and I'm still in far more pain now than I ever was prior to surgery. For the first month I prayed for the pain to go away. For the past week, I've prayed for a compound fracture in a lower extremity.
The depressing thing was I talked to 4 different people within 2 weeks prior to my surgery who had the same thing done. They ALL said if they had to do it again, they wouldn't. They ALL said they were worse off now. Two of them were old women. I wrote them off as being old women who don't heal well. One told me he was too stubborn to do therapy and he thought that was probably why he has problems. I bought off on that. The 4th said he had other complications in his shoulder and needed multiple surgeries. I wrote him off as being an odd case. This was supposed to be a minor surgery. Well, it's had a major, life-altering impact on me.
If anyone ever has the "option" to have shoulder surgery, think very hard about it. If you think "but I hurt and don't want to live like this," ask yourself, does it really? I'd club a baby seal (with my good arm) to get back to my pain level prior to surgery.
/rant - So what have you guys done you regret?
I sold some stock (for a nice profit) early. I sold my silver (for a nice profit) early. I waited too long to buy a house. I waited too long to buy a rental property. I should have bought an M16 a decade ago. But my biggest regret, by a huge margin, was having surgery last month. I had a torn labrum (shoulder) and was told it was basically my choice whether or not to have surgery. I had completed some physical therapy and at the time of the possible surgery discussion it was explained to me that how I felt at that time was likely the best it would feel in the future. It may get worse, it may stay the same (which my therapists said was unlikely), but it would not simply get better. With the pain level I was at, I decided I didn't want to live the rest of my life like that if there was relief available through surgery. BIGGEST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE! I don't know where I went wrong, but it's been over a month now and I'm still in far more pain now than I ever was prior to surgery. For the first month I prayed for the pain to go away. For the past week, I've prayed for a compound fracture in a lower extremity.
The depressing thing was I talked to 4 different people within 2 weeks prior to my surgery who had the same thing done. They ALL said if they had to do it again, they wouldn't. They ALL said they were worse off now. Two of them were old women. I wrote them off as being old women who don't heal well. One told me he was too stubborn to do therapy and he thought that was probably why he has problems. I bought off on that. The 4th said he had other complications in his shoulder and needed multiple surgeries. I wrote him off as being an odd case. This was supposed to be a minor surgery. Well, it's had a major, life-altering impact on me.
If anyone ever has the "option" to have shoulder surgery, think very hard about it. If you think "but I hurt and don't want to live like this," ask yourself, does it really? I'd club a baby seal (with my good arm) to get back to my pain level prior to surgery.
/rant - So what have you guys done you regret?
