How's PT going Crackboy? Mine starts tomorrow! :eek:
How's PT going Crackboy? Mine starts tomorrow! :eek:
When you say between 90 and 105 degrees, do you mean that's how high you can hold your arm straight out in front of you?Quote:
Originally Posted by crackboy
Straight out in front I can go probably 135 degrees before I have to hunch my shoulder to get any more. Straight out to the side and up I can only get to about 110 degrees, and external rotation is still barely away from my side, maybe 10 degrees. I can get my arm behind my back finally, which is good. That's making it easier to get my pants pulled up and a belt through the loops.
I could only take 4 days off because I had no one covering my hospital service
Glad to hear your pt went well. I was posting my last message to you at almost the same time that you were posting yours. My PT went well today too. I'm exactly one week post surgery, and I'm at only about 90 degrees. Still very tight! Lots of work to do. Are you doing the climbing the wall exercise? Good luck on your continued success!
I had a breakthrough today. While lying on my back I can now reach back over my head and touch the ground. And while my muscles still feel weak, the joint itself feels much more stable than before. w00t
Great to hear mdp! Something that I will look forward to!
yea its probably 90 ish to the side and somewhat higher up in front of me. it hurt but man it felt good to stretch. i have been desperately wanting to stretch since my surgery and ohboy it felt great. i was a touch wiped out today but it was worth it.
i was doing pulley stuff and cane exercises. i don't start resistance/active stuff until next week
i also got the all clear to walk around at home for a bit out of my brace
I had my six week followup Wednesday. I did ask the doc about being wiped out and she said that at my age (53) and as traumatic to the body as my surgery was, and considering that I had the same procedure on the other shoulder less than 10 months ago, she would expect me to be easily wiped out for a long time. I'm actually feeling I turned the corner anyway and can be normally active now. I have almost full range of motion overhead and to the side. External rotation is almost there too. All this without PT, just pulleys and easy stretching. She said I am doing great. Last night I went for a 3.5 mile walk/run and had no problems except my legs are out of shape. That should come back pretty quickly as I was skiing and running right up until the day of the surgery. Shoveled 4" of snow just now while keeping my right arm straight and only using my right hand as a fulcrum. No problems. Don't tell my doc I did that.
I work from home and was back on the job the Wednesday following the Thursday surgery. I was worthless though... pretty much unable to concentrate on anything until the second week.
another week, another update. started resistance exercises tonight meaning i get to actually lift my arm using my repaired shoulder. i never would have thought lifting my arm ten 20 times would give a mild pump.
I went up 45 degrees in my forward ROM, now up to 135 with room to easily go.
my short term goal is to be able to paddle on my trip back to Cali in the begining of june but it might be cutting it close
Saw surgeon for consultation yesterday. Confirmed if I want it "fixed" surgery is the only way. He offered cortizone, but i declined as that will only mask the injury and likely allow me to make it worse IMHO.
Havent scheduled anything yet, going to finish ski season and likely go under the knife in mid to late may.
Ill update as things progress.
Great info in this thread and good luck with the rehabs guys..sounds like LOADS OF FUN!!! NOT!
Good to hear the rehab is going well crackboy. I took a step backwards this week. I had muscle spasms over the weekend, and my arm is stiffer now that it was last week. I'm going to have to really focus on getting more stretching time at home.
so i have a good problem. I am at week six of my therapy goals, but only midway through week 4. so i am stuck doing the same exercises for another week and a half
That is a good problem to have crackboy! I guess it's really important to not push it too much or you risk ripping the anchors out! I'm working like crazy to catch up right now on my rehab. My arm just shakes when I'm using the pully to stretch it over my head. :{
I initially lost so much external rotation that the pulley setup to get my arm up over my head was a serious pain in the ass. The loss of ROM in that direction made my arm chicken wing waaay out everytime I pulled it up via the pulley so it was really awkward. It is getting better though. Guess my surgeon tightened the shit out of my capsule.
It's so nice having other people to talk to who are going through the same stuff. Glad to hear yours is getting better mdp! God it hurts like hell after I've stretched it!!!! Ice isn't enough!
keep at it folks - it gets better.
I just hit my 1 year mark on the 24th of this month. I still have occasional discomfort, but I am a surfer, so really stress the shoulder. Skiing has been a non-issue for me.
Thanks for the positive vibes peterslovo!
OK an update. 6 weeks post surgery and I am officially out of the sling. he wants me to wear it if i am in huge masses of people but other than that finished. plus i started my weight training in therapy. rocking the 1 lbs oh yea
Good for you crackboy! I'm finally starting to break through my stiffness on the rotation. With my elbow at my side, I'm still really stiff, but I'm starting to make good progress. I started with the one lbs. yesterday. I could barely notice it was in my hand until I started to lift my arm up. :P. Yikes! I don't go back to the doc until 3 more weeks, but I'm taking the sling off whenever I'm home and when I sleep.
Do you have any swelling still? I do, but it's on the front where the scope went in. It's still pretty sore to touch.
Great to hear you're doing well! Keep it up!
nope no swelling at all and no real pain unless i am moving my arm in a funny angle. i do have some stiffness in the back of my shoulder and my bicep still hurts a bit but other than that i am good. my unassisted ROM going forward was 140 yesterday so its coming along. my surgeon was pretty excited with my progress and it seemed like he though my therapy could push forward more aggressively so hopefully i can push harder and make my june paddle goal
Scheduling the SLAP tear surgery for 1st week of June...wish me luck.
Glad to hear everyone is progressing. Thinking of doing a wed surgery and going back to work in a limited fashion on the following Monday. Doc says he's seen many do it before so...ill hope for best.
Good luck to all on their continued recovery.
Best wishes for a successful surgery Skidog!
My physical therapist told me about a Passive motion machine today. He said that one of his partners patient's had surgery on Feb. 9th and within a day or two was put on a passive motion machine that his insurance paid for to have at the house. He was absolutely amazed and how well this guy was doing. He said he was kinda worried, because this machine might replace him! :D. He said he's seen these machines for the knee, but never for the shoulder. I asked him to get the surgeons name for me because I wanted to see if the guy has any info. about it on his website. Have any of you guys ever heard of this machine before? Sounds like a great idea.
Yeah, I had the CPM machine for my shoulder for both surgeries. It really does provide amazing advancement in ROM immediately after surgery. I used it for 2 hours at a time twice a day for the first ten days post surgery and don't know what I would have done without it. My insurance paid.
My shoulder now feels really good ten weeks out. I wish I could ski but the bicep tenodesis means no risk of falling on the thing until after 6 months.
tele did you have the tendonitis before the surgery or was that just something they found and fixed while fixing you up?
ok day 3 of no sling. holy shit i feel like i am week 2-3 post surgery in terms of pain again. my whole upper arm has been screaming at me. did anyone else who is further along experience this? i am sure it is just the small muscles that were not being with immobilization being itght and sore for use but ugh. it sucks
Tenodesis -- it consists of cutting off the bicep tendon and then screwing the end back into the humerus. Doc had to cut the bicep tendon in order to fix the SLAP tear, which in both shoulders the labrum tear was flipped over and pinned under the tendon. I had the choice to let the tendon go and have the bicep turn into a lump down at the distal end of my humerus but decided to have it fixed right in both cases. MRI revealed the same damage in both cases last year for the left and this year for the right. If I could have gotten away without having it done, I would be skiing already. But looked around for pictures of the deformity and decided I didn't want to end up looking like that so I elected to have it done -- in advance of the procedure because we already knew the situation.Quote:
Originally Posted by crackboy
3 days post-op from my Larajet. Still on a lot of pain meds, but its gettin better. I am shooting to be back at work on Thursday.
yea. i looked it up and saw that they do it for tendonititis which is why i asked about that. Didn't thin to read the whole thing and realized after you posted that they do that for shoulder repair where the bicep tendon was messed up.Quote:
Originally Posted by telepariah
Kid. it gets better. don't know if you have exercises to do but keep at them. it helps a lot with the pain
RitalinKid,
It gets better each day! See if you can get your insurance to pay for a CPM machine. My physical therapist was amazed at how much rom a patient had after 1 month post op. If I had known about it, I would have asked for one. I'm 5 weeks out and just starting to break it loose. Good luck on the recovery!
Surgery scheduled for June 8.
Good Luck SkiDog!
So final update. approximately 5 months post surgery and am cleared for pretty much everything. Allowed to kayak again, but I have to ease back in until i hit 6 months before i can go for it again. Don't want to rip everything out again.
Doc was confused which shoulder was the one he did since my operated arm has better ROM and strength than my other one. will eventually need that one looked at but for now i will leave it alone.
Glad to hear that your recovery continues to be going well for you! I had my 4 month re-check on Friday. He's really happy with how I'm doing still, but still won't let me water ski! :frown: Guess I'll continue being the spotter for the rest of the summer! Crap
Keep up the good work crackboy! You're keeping me motivated!
HI For reliable and accurate MRI results, MRI Lucknow is a trusted option. The centre is located at 2nd Floor, 2/36, Viram Khand, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh 226010, and you can reach them at +91 9236396735.