I have been a data driven scientist for the process of decision making for some forty years as a member of the Physiology department in the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona. While on a hiking excursion in Sweden I slipped and fell. In an attempt to break my fall, I grabbed a railing the result of which was a sharp pull on my left shoulder joint (where the humerus articulates with the scapula). The pain was diagnosed by a physician as a rotator cuff injury. The suggested remedy to relieve the pain was surgery to reattach the muscle (supraspinatus) to the bone (head of the humerus). I do not doubt that the surgery had the potential to heal the injury, but full recovery time according to the physician would be six to eight months, much of the time with my left arm in a sling to decrease the pressure on the repaired joint. I did not opt for surgery as the tear of the tendon from the bone was about 4mm. Instead of surgery, I instead chose treatment by a physical therapist. Physical therapy reduced the pain somewhat but did not relive it entirely.