WaukeshaTG

Good to hear! How long were you out? The first doctor I met with indicated 6-8 weeks on crutches and 8-10 months to return to competitive hockey. I play B level hockey, so a decent pace of play. I've been given some names of doctors here in Milwaukee, so if the shot doesn't work I'm going to meet with a few other doctors within my health insurance network to get more opinions.

Hip pain for about 2 years now. Only when laying on my back, putting my knees up and letting my leg fall to the side. Finally asked the doc about it he he suggested PT. 4 weeks of PT made it feel terrible, not just laying down, but all the time. X-ray confirmed pretty bad hip impingements on both hips, pincer and cam on both sides. Difference was, my left hip labrum stretches, my right one didn't. Severely torn labrum, significant lack of cartilage. Trying a shot first, otherwise surgery to file down femoral head and attempt to repair labrum. Only option on the labrum would be to use cadaver parts, as mine basically has no chance of holding stitches/sutures by itself. I turn 35 on Sunday, so not that old! My kids just moved up to Mites this year, so plenty of skating ahead of me as well. I hope the shot works get me back to how I was prior to PT - I can live with that!

Steve, one question regarding operation. My wheel seems to spin 'slow' for the first 1/4 inch or so. It's not up to speed when it hits the blade. Is this normal operation? It's been doing it from the very beginning. Does it on all skate sizes. It only does it starting out, when coming back left to right, no problems. I only ask as it seems the wheel 'bounces' a bit when it first makes contact with the blade. No ill effects on the sharpening, as far as I can tell.

I've gone through two sharpenings for myself on my Sparx, and one each for my two kids. I'm using a 1/2in ring, much sharper than what I was getting from the pro shop, which I'm told was a 3/8 but suspect was a 5/8. I just upgraded to from 280 JetSpeeds to pro stock JetSpeeds and, after baking, had the shop do a first sharpening. One step on the ice and I knew they needed to get on the Sparx . . I had edges on turns, but when I was simply standing or near vertical on my blades I was slipping and sliding all over the ice. Two passes on the Sparx machine took care of it. The machine is expensive, that is for sure. I'm fortunate enough that I can handle the upfront cost and will hopefully have a decent payback on it with myself and two 2nd year minis skating. The convenience factor and quality of sharpenings have both lived up to expectations. One item for guys/gals with kids. I was able to get a size 10 youth skate to sharpen. I had to finagle a little bit to get the steel from the runner to get 'sensed' by the slot cover (angling up the skate a bit). The sharpening was fine - not sharp as far on one end as I would need, but for a mini-mite it was A-OK.