shoulder surgery

thats too bad. ive dislocated my left shoulder twice. had surgery. repaired labrum rotator cuff tendons and humeral head. sublexed my right shoulder twice which means it dislocated but popped in on its own. then tore my rotator cuff. had surgery. exyensive repair on labrum and rotator cuff then some repair on ligaments and humeral head. they told me after the first surgery i would never do pull ups and anything extensive like that with one shoulder repaired. ive got two repaired and can do more pulls than before both surgeries haha so good luck with the recovery

 

that hurts just reading that. luckily i wasnt that bad. thats awesome you came back from it stronger.

 

So I'm almost at 3 weeks post surgery. I have a lot more movement and the pain isnt as bad. 1.5 more weeks and im out of the sling permantly. I still wear it about 70% of the time. The rehab is pretty boring and basic. It should ramp up in a week or so. It still sucks though being so limited, still getting use to it.

 

I had an almost completely torn labrum when I got surgery, with my shoulder popping out often more than once a day. 6 months was about the time for recovery, but I had soreness for about 1.5 year. I still cant throw a ball very well at all. Good luck, stay with the PT!

 

i see youre a firefighter. how does your shoulder hold up to the work? cus im trying to be a firefighter and my fear is that itll hold me back

 

Had the same surgery. Got mine done at the Hosp.Of Special Surgery NYC by Dr. Allen- Great guy, he is the orthopedist for the NY Knicks. Use the Ice/compression machine for post surgery for a couple of weeks. Start PT buy bending over and letting your arm hang freely doing very small circles clockwise then counter clockwise. Over time increase diameter of circles. At some point start to do the "climb the wall" with your fingers against the wall at arms length start crawling your hand up the wall as high as you can go.

 

Im almost 8 weeks post surgery. The rehab is going well. The therapist said im about 2 weeks ahead of where I should be. So about 1/2 way to a total recovery. I still have 0 strength, ive lost a lot of muscle weight, range of motion is increasing though which is good.

 

I have had my right hip replaced and pins in my feet and on 3-22 I am going to get a new left thumb joint and be off for 3 months. Always do as the doc says and give rehab all ya got till ya got no more.

 

Your right on schedule. Don't worry about the strength, it will come in gobs in time. Keep stretching and doing your excersises. To be honest, it was a good year until I had 90% strength back. 1.5 yearss till my arm and surrounding parts felt 100%. I had the injury for like 4 years before I got fixed. That left me pretty weak on my right side of my upper body. I compensated too long for the bum shoulder and did a number on myself.

 

To all that have had arthroscopic labral repair surgery, how many incisions have you had 2 or 3? Just curious thanks!

 

I agree with the others...you are right on schedule and are obviously doing things the right way. Because of a torn labrum and torn rotator cuff I had the Bankart and Slap procedures done on my right shoulder back in Sept 2010. I ended up with 3 labral anchors between 10 and 2 o'clock, and a rotator cuff repair (swivel lock anchor or some such) for good measure. It has been 6 months as of this past weekend. You have made good progress and are almost out of the woods as far as re-injury goes, but don't get too frustrated or aggressive. The range of motion and strength will increase greatly over the next couple of weeks. Hopefully your plateaus won't last too long. Stretch frequently, and when the PT begins the isometrics (may have happened already) do those regularly. They are crucial to building strength in the small muscles in the inner joint. And, for what it's worth, I felt much better when the PT started doing massage...mostly trap, back strap area, and shoulder blade. It is amazing how much those muscles are over-compensating right now, and you probably don't even realize it.

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

My prodecure was done arthroscopic...3 scars, 2 for working instruments and 1 for scope insertion.

 

on my left i had 3. 2 for work. 1 for scope. on my right i had 4 because i also tore my rotator cuff pretty bad

 

I have 2. Small one in front and a dime size one in the back. 2 anchors for the labrum myself. Keep the faith brother! Don't get down on the fact that the arm is gimp. As I said, your strength will come in gobs at the end. Can you straighten your arm completely out yet?

 

I have 3 scars. 2 are almost invisible, there is one big one on the front of my shoulder. Kinda looks cool though.

Fortunately for me, my rotator cuff and bicep tendon are fine. They did not need repaired. Those can complicate the recovery.

2 on the massage. The trap and muscles on my back are so tight. I need a massage for liek 3 hrs on those. I go to the PT twice a week, and do stretches on my own everyday. I would say I am at about 70% ROM now. So I dont need my GF to put my deoderent any more. The therapist had someone last yr with my surgery that was cleared in 3 months. She said Im doing as well as him, so that's my goal. The DR said about 4 months. We will see!

 

It sounds like you are progressing along on schedule. I have had both shoulders worked on. Torn rotator cuffs and bone spurs. Right shoulder had 1/3 tear and bone spurs. It took about three months to get back to lifting moderate weights. Left shoulder was just bone spurs and needed to be cleaned up. Only 5-6 wks. recovery. Its been a few years and now both are 100%.
I think the most difficult thing was trying to get dressed and getting ready for work in the mornings. Hope you continue on a speedy recovery.

 

Tore my rotator cuff end of January and after 6 weeks of PT (workmans comp, happened on the job) the doctor decided I need surgery. Talked to the surgeon and was told I would be out of work for 6 months. First 4 weeks I will be in a sling except for dressing and shower. Otherwise he said I need to wear it 24/7. After being out of work for 6 months, I might not want to go back! What really sucks is not being able to drive while the arm is in the sling, I have a 5 sp manual and the surgeon said no driving! After reading the previous posts, I am sure I will be okay with surgery. I have heard pros and cons for the surgery was on the fence about it. Have to wait till June for surgery.

 

I would say if you're relatively young go for the surgery. I tried to PT my way out of it, but there was nothing to be done. It got to the point where I could barely do 20 pushups. Before I injured myself I could do about 100. The PT would make it better for a bit then it would just go back to hurting.

I think the rotator cuff is a longer recovery then a SLAP tear. There's a guy in my PT office that just had his done for the 2nd time because he wasn't careful during the recovery and he reinjured it.

Good Luck! It's a long slow recovery, im at week 8 post surgery and Im half way to a recovery. It just takes time.

 

Thanks for the advise Sammy. What do you consider relatively young? I'll be 63 when I have the surgery but I am in good physical condition. Tear in rotator has put a damper in my activities. My surgeon has a great rep and a good recovery percentage, but there is always that one that doesn't go well. I won't be having it done until June 1. I'll see how it works out then. Thanks.

 

Well you're older than I am, I'm 29. Everything I've heard is that the younger, and better shape you're in the easier the recovery. My therapists office had a guy with a really bad shoulder injury, he was late 40's, but he was some hard core adventure athlete and he was healed in 3 months. I'm 8 weeks today and I would say the first 4 weeks really sucked, and by now they get better everyday. Im sure you'll be fine. Good Luck!