Thanks to Surgery, Dad can Shoulder Responsibilities

Dr. Stephen Franzino puts Matt Moraida’s shoulder through the paces.

As a strength and conditioning coach in his spare time, Matt Moraida, 30, of Vacaville was in such good shape that when he injured himself during a workout in February 2011, it only slowed him down for a week. “I heard a pop in my shoulder, and realized I’d hurt myself, but I didn’t know the extent of it,” he recalls.

Dr. Franzino has helped a lot of athletes and people involved
in sports who needed shoulder repairs to get back into action.

He iced his shoulder every day and took time off weight training. Matt was back at the gym a week later, not realizing that he had torn the part of his rotator cuff that holds his biceps tendon in place.

Matt’s job as a process operator at Shell Oil Products in Martinez is very physical and often sends him climbing up towers and tanks and moving large equipment.

“I could still do most everything I did before, but my wife says I complained a lot more,” Matt chuckles.

Then Matt began losing sleep because of the pain and, as his condition worsened he eventually couldn’t even pull his shirt off or put his arm over his head. Simple, everyday tasks became painful.

Finally, his wife, Jenny, convinced him to see Shanaz Khambatta, D.O., his physician at the Center for Primary Care in Vacaville, who immediately determined he’d done sizeable damage. “By the time I actually went for help—almost a year after the injury—I’d developed arthritis and bursitis in my shoulder as well,” says Matt.

He was referred to Stephen Franzino, M.D., in NorthBay Healthcare’s Sports Medicine Clinic, a new addition to the orthopaedics program. Matt researched Dr. Franzino and found that he’d helped a lot of athletes and people involved in sports who needed shoulder repairs get back into action.

Dr. Franzino, one of the orthopedists for the San Jose Sharks and San Jose Sabercats, has performed thousands of arthroscopic shoulder procedures. In addition, he has treated all types of athletes from current and past professional athletes to the weekend warriors. “That made me very comfortable,” recalls Matt. “I try to be as athletic and involved as I can be. It was comforting to know that he works with people who are interested in being physically fit.”

After an MRI in January 2012 confirmed his injuries, Dr. Franzino performed surgery Feb. 7 at the Surgery Center in Vacaville, arthro-scopically repairing Matt’s rotator cuff by reattaching his tendon back to the bone and shaving off part of his clavicle to address his arthritis.

Now Matt’s on the mend. “The doctor has been real impressed with my flexibility after the surgery,” says Matt. “I’m an athlete—not trained to look good in front of a mirror so much as to be in good physical condition. It helped me stay flexible and mobile. Even now my doctor and my physical therapist say my range of motion is really good.”

And it all came together just in time for the birth of Matt and Jenny’s new daughter, Sofia Grace. Thanks to Matt’s newly repaired shoulder there is nothing to stand in the way of diaper duty for dad.