Getting older with all its aches and pains is still better than the alternative.
 Clint- hope it works out for the best.

Wayne I go to the chiro once a month and that is to say alot being in the Physical therapy field where generally those in my profession do not "believe"  in them.   This has been only going on for a week and a day so I will try to ride it out a bit.  I will do my exercises, get in my home traction unit and hope for the best.  I almost have to ride it out until the spring unless it gets super bad due to snow removal and of course of fishing.  Would get it done in the early summer and the Doc  says really only 2 weeks of being extremely limited and then 4 after of just taking it easy and nothing easier than jigging on Oneida.   We are limited to 5 days off in the summer so this is a way to get kind of stick it to the management where I work. 
Will probably try a shot first too, but in reality I see myself needing this surgery at some point so time will tell.

If it gets too bad , Clint, if you hook a steel you can just hand the rod to me. I'll make the sacrifice.   Actually, I threw a prayer in with Lucky's.

Young at heart that's what keeps me pumping .
Charlie, I actually had a full cast on my left ( reel ) hand / arm one Nov. I caught a bunch of chrome on sacs in the tail of the black and handed the rod to my dad to fight em' . great memory of a proud son. He let me catch them. Criteria 1983..
Another SR injury related that kept me on the water was tendentious from splitting 20 cord per year. Bought a Spey just so I could cast , got better , Spey went away ;)

PS
I got some sort of plate in my left shoulder a few years ago because it was supposed to make things better.
First surgery beside appendix when I was 10..
If this is better I often wonder what the non surgery might have been.
Now it is almost impossible for me to carry a gear pack up a mountain .

HT, I can help with gear choice to lighten your pack by many pounds, I've got mega extra high tech gear to lend, too.  At worst I'll go in with you this spring, I can still mule, and got the huge external frame I hauled mine and buddies' climbing rope and racks on.  Ever fish Fifteenth Lake? I carried  Nanc's load and mine  up 2500' the first day on the trail in the Sierra. She had altitude sickness and couldn't do it the first day. I remember you fighting salmon with that plate just about popping out of your shoulder.