When you do something best in life, you don’t really want to give that up.
―Roger Federer
Nothing slows JoAnne Tressler down. So, when she fell and traumatically injured her shoulder when rushing to get back on her cruise ship, she hurried to find the right doctor.
The Senior Olympian’s arm was no working properly after her fall. She used her camera strap as a sling and continued some of her vacation but was in a lot of pain. She couldn’t rest peacefully or even dress herself.
Once back home in Toledo, the MRI showed the devastation. She had partially torn her biceps and labrum along with a humeral displacement. Her local surgeon recommended a reverse shoulder replacement surgery.
Before the fall in 2013, she had spent ten years playing in national tournaments for table tennis, racquetball and pickle ball including the National Masters Racquetball Tournament, the Huntsman World Senior Games, and the National Senior Games. She knew a reverse shoulder replacement would come with limitations. She didn’t want to pursue it. After researching top shoulder surgeons in the country, she found Dr. Gobezie in Cleveland.
“He was wonderful, but the diagnosis was not great. The tendons were torn off.” says JoAnne. “He gave me a 70% chance of fixing it arthroscopically but told me I would have to have the reverse shoulder surgery if that didn’t work. He also told me that I couldn’t play competitive sports for 1.5 years. He was completely open and honest with me,” says Tressler.
Dr. Gobezie also told her that even after a successful surgery, 70-year-old tendon tissue can fray and weaken with age. “As a nurse, I was incredibly impressed with his kindness and how much time he took to listen and explain everything,” says Tressler.
The arthroscopic surgery worked, and JoAnne was the model physical therapy patient. She worked for a year and a half in physical therapy and closely followed her recovery protocol.
After a year of slow-going pulley exercises and trying to get each pulley up inch by inch, she had full range of motion. “Dr. Gobezie encouraged me; I cried. I kept going,” she says.
To no one’s surprise, JoAnne started playing table tennis again a year and a half post-surgery. A few months later, she began playing in the Senior Olympic Games for both table tennis and pickle ball.
Nine years later she is still playing. In 2018 and 2019, she competed in the USPA National Championship in Indian Wells, CA, and earned a bronze medal in 2018.
Most recently (October 2021), she earned three gold medals in table tennis in the Huntsman World Senior Games and a bronze in women’s doubles pickle ball.
JoAnne recently traveled back to Cleveland for a follow-up with Dr. Gobezie. She brought a box full of medals with her.
“Half of these medals are yours,” she said.
Since her surgery, JoAnne has only needed to take pain medicine if she plays three days in a row. Her story is a perfect example of what a talented surgeon/dedicated physician and model patient can do together.
The 79-year-old will continue to play until she simply can’t anymore. “There are less and less competitors in my age bracket, so I have to play the younger players in their 60s,” she says.
When asked why she loves to play, Tressler states that she is “relieving her youth.” The only girls’ sport they offered when she was in high school was softball.
“I am thrilled JoAnne has been able to continue to play nearly a decade after her surgery. She deserves a medal for that alone,” says Dr. Gobezie.
The Gobezie Shoulder Institute treats patients with all types of shoulder and elbow disorders resulting from traumatic injuries, arthritis, instabilities, rotator cuff and sports-related injuries. Led by nationally recognized Orthopedic Surgeon Reuben Gobezie, MD, the institute provides both surgical and non-operative treatments.
Dr. Gobezie is one of the country’s top specialists in advanced arthroscopic and open surgical techniques to restore damaged joints, ligaments and bones. He is also one of the most experienced and highest volume shoulder surgeons in the country. A number of studies have shown that surgical volume, the number of surgeries a surgeon performs each year, is a strong predictor of patient outcome. The more surgeries that a doctor and his surgical team performs, the better the results for patients.
Dr. Gobezie is Founding Director of both Gobezie Shoulder Institute and Regen Orthopedics and is Co-Founder of PT Genie.