Shoulder surgery

Hey all,

Just wondering if anyone’s had a similar surgery to what I’m about to have in a few days’ time.

I posted a couple of years ago when I partially dislocated my shoulder while paddling on a wave (popped out then straight back in). I got physiotherapy rehab and it seemed to come good, we’ll maybe about 80% good. I could still paddle 4-5 days a week without too much problem just some dull aching after.

During the past 8 months the aching has gotten worse as I started to incorporate swimming and more gym into my training. It reached a stage about 6 months ago when I could barely sleep through the night due to the aching. When not lying down the pain wasn’t too bad, some days it didn’t even hurt until I went to bed and lay flat.

I saw a specialist 3mths ago after getting the MRI scan and he gave me a steroid injection and told me to rest the shoulder and to do no upper body exercise for 2-3mths. Went back last week after getting no pain relief and have now been booked in for Surgery on Tuesday.

The specialist (I won’t give his name but rated as one of the best around in QLD/AU) told me I have loose ligaments genetically and one of the tendons is rubbing on bone and ligament when I raise my hand about 45-90 degrees and above. I also have a slightly torn Labrum. He’s going to shave the overlaying bone and ligament to create more space and in turn reduce the inflammation there. He’s also going to repair the Labrum and any other inflammation he can see. Its keyhole and open surgery.

Since there is no torn ligament, tendons or muscles he thinks I’ll be about 80-90% better after 3 months and back on the ski, but 12-18 months before I’m 100% or as good as I’ll get. That’s assuming all goes to plan.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Martin

My surgeon told me nearly every active person over 50 has a torn labruim and surgery is rarely necessary just for that. It sounds like you are going to have an acromioplasty which may be necessary. Have you very religiously done the four rotator cuff exercises which are all described on Youtube?
The defining question as to whether surgery is necessary, or not, does seem to be the sleep issue.
At age 70 I've had my fair share of shoulder problems but time and the rotator cuff exercises have kept the surgeon at bay so far.
Many of my friends have had shoulder surgery and most have experienced a successful outcome but rehab is lengthy, depressing and frustrating.If you can't sleep you probably have no choice.
Good luck.

Yeah it acromioplasty but hes going to do it as open surgery because he said that allows him to test the joint properly before closing up, otherwise he has to guess that he's shaved enough off. If it wasn't for the sleeping issue then I wouldn't be getting the surgery as I can deal with it during the day. In saying that, I do get referred pain in the hand to some degree every day. Some days the pain in the hand hurts to even pick up a cup of coffee and right now while typing theirs a little bit of pins and needles in the fingers.

I did do the rotator exercises my physio gave me for about 6mths and they did help straight after the partial dislocation. I was fine for about a year then things started to decline quite fast.

I guess I've put my trust in the specialist when he tells me Its the only way to fix the problem because in his words "Its a mechanical problem" what do I know.

I've been resting the past 2.5mths which has been depressing so another 3mths hopefully won't be too bad. I figure I have nothing to loss this week so I've been paddling every day before work to get my "fix" before stopping for rehab. Also least its happening through winter.

There really is no way o know how your rehab will go post surgery, there are way to many factors and every surgery is individual, the open surg will def be slower recovery than just arthroscopic the more damage the surg does the slower recovery.
I had one come in today who had surg 5 weeks ago and is already swimming and another who can't lift arm past 90 deg 6 weeks post.

So just make sure ou get good post surgical advice.

Hey Physio

I’m hoping I’m the guy who’s swimming by 5 weeks, but like you said everyone’s different. I’m confident in my surgeon and hopefully I’ll get a good Physio to help with the rehab. I’m not sure on the rehab procedure yet but I think he said when the sling comes off in around 2 weeks. But I could be wrong. Is the physio quiet frequent at the start?

Do you think’s it’s due to a stiff shoulder that he can’t get past 90 degrees? My surgeon spoke briefly about stiff shoulders. He said that most people who get a stiff shoulder have it before surgery or have calcium in the tendon or diabetes. So hopefully it’ll all go well.

Some surgeons are quite prescriptive about what they want us to do and what limitations on range at certain time frames.

Assuming no bad luck, statistically there are two factors that effect the recovery range of motion etc.
1. The amount of damage in the injury
2. The amount of damage done by the surgeon

The physios goals should be to get full range before any strengthening. without compromising the surgery by overloading any structures.

There is not much that we can achieve in the first week, but it's often good to have a chat it's good to get someone to go over your day o day movement etc. after you have fully recovered from anaesthetic.

This is all of course my opinion, I'm not even in the same country as you , procedures etc are different in dif places.

Of the two I mentioned the guy swimming is a woman and she had 90% range prior and used the surgeon I chose to operate on my knee. The other guy have a motorbike crash so needed more intervention.

I have found a lot of good info on Youtube. It's only my opinion that it's good info but it has helped me rehab my shoulder issues. I have not had surgery because I have no sleep issues related to my shoulders.

I had/have a torn labrum. I am 55. I had to stop paddling because of shoulder pain, tendonitius, etc. Could not sleep. I had a prolo therapy platelet injection into the site of the tear. Was told no stress on shoulder for 8 weeks but "try to move it around". After the 8 weeks my shoulder was partially "frozen". The doctor sent me to 8 weeks of physical therapy. The physical therapy did wonders for the tendonitius, which had not improved in over a year. Didn't do much for range of motion however. I suspect scar tissue at the labrum tear is the culprit but the doctor won't admit to that. The PT told me to give up on paddling or any sport that involves lifting my arm above shoulder height. He told me that any attempt to forcefully break the scar tissue will probably put me into needing surgery to repair some new tears. I stretch and do rotator cuff exercises. All of this is very frustrating. Long story short is I am selling my boats and moving on...

- if you had a subluxation/ partial dislocation you almost certainly have a labral /SLAP tear - can be repaired arthroscopically and you should be paddling by 3 months. Rotator cuff rehab ESSENTIAL post op!
Beware having an acromioplasty (esp open!)as subtle instability due to the labral tear may mimic impingement -chances are you don't need an acromioplasty....
An mri should reveal labral/SLAP/rotator cuff tears so my advice is to have one before you consider surgery...

jhstevens---arthroscopic capsular release is performed these days and you no longer require any 'tearing'....
surfski paddler (and orthopaedic surgeon)

As a 58 year old ex-tennis and baseball player, and a 10 year ocean, river and surf ski paddler )with bad genes, apparently) I am a veteran of 5 shoulder surgeries. I had a complete rotator cuff reconstruction at 40, by arthroscope, I was the third person to have that by scope. 6 month rehab, it was ugly. Two of my surgeries were ac joint repairs, full incision, very painful but short recovery. You may have already had your surgery by now, and far be it from me to second guess your surgeon, but arthroscopic labrum repair with acromioplasty has been done by scope for decades. Two and a half years ago, I had a scoped labrum repair, acromioplasty, with a full incision ac joint fix at the same time, and I was back on the creek in 6 weeks. Didnt even have a sling. If he doesn't know how much bone to shave without a full incision, that would concern me. The scopes do have cameras you know. The incision is what is going to set you back on recovery. Never mind the folks who are always opposed to any surgeries. Prior to my first reconstruction, my ultra conservative ex doctor had me trying to fix it with rubber bands for 2 years. Lost two years of using my am thanks to him. Good luck!

Excellent WingSuit, for me 62yo and very similar series of ops from rugby, drunken wrestling, bicycle and motorcycle accidents over the years. One surgeon after acromioplasty op said I'd always be significantly short of power and range of movement in that shoulder and despite similar ops to WingSuit plus ruptured supraspinatus and infraspinatus, have rehab-ed and trained/raced self to within maybe 10 percent of other shoulder.

With three shoulder ops for above reasons plus fractured clavicle and scapula from other mischief recently, I'm still out there firing away. Keep up the glucosamine with chrondroitin, listen to your body, train / race smart. Do rehab and specific strengthening exercises from time to time (as you lift the stubbie to your lips tuck in that shoulder blade, smooth up and smooth down).

Sure I'm weaker on my left side but distance swimming (20k Rottnest swim) and longer slower paddling (Avon descent 75k second day) though occasionally giving me grief is doable. If anything gives me grief it is high intensity stuff, especially when technique starts to fall away.

I guess that's the rub. Really work hard at doing what you are capable of doing biometrically well. Once poor technique takes over, injury isn't far away.

Never a dull moment with you Watto!

I am three weeks post Bankart Lesion arthroscopic repair after a traumatic dislocation on my dirt bike.

Even though they have cameras the pictures are still hard to interpret! Mine are in colour and very high def but hard for a layman to make sense of there is at least three stitches in there, doesn't help leaving the country before post-op visit...

In a conundrum now as I want to order a new kayak being boat less here in the UK, but would like to test one first but the lead time is up to 18 weeks so I don't want to delay ordering too long.

Going to wait till 5 weeks post op and see how it feels then maybe test a boat for stability without giving the shoulder too much of a work out.

Wow looks like few replies while I was under the knife.

Got back from hospital yesterday and feeling a little worse for wear. Doesn’t help when you have a bad reaction to the pain killer endone aka “'hillbilly heroin” so I’m on slightly weaker pain killers now.

I’ll report back after I have my follow up next week. Weather I made the right choice is not the point anymore since its now been done. But my understanding for the open part of the surgery was to test the joint fully before closing up. The Labrum was fixed via keyhole along with checking the rest of the joint.

now I hope for a fast recovery.......

candela wrote: Got back from hospital yesterday and feeling a little worse for wear. Doesn’t help when you have a bad reaction to the pain killer endone aka “'hillbilly heroin” so I’m on slightly weaker pain killers now.

I left hospital with one of these - www.ambitpump.com/ambulatory-infusion-pumps.

It was great, I had read that the post surgery pain could be quite bad but I had very little if any pain, even after taking this out a few days post-op. The worst part was the sticking plasters holding the line into my neck....

I had something similar for the first 2 days in hospital but they took it away when I got discharged after 2 nights. Plus i had a nerve blocker (think thats what it was) I got the shakes quite bad after that, which also could have been due to the excessive amount on endone the nurses where giving me. 2x what the doc recommended! Not real happy about!

Anyway time for another round of shoulder movement exercises.

Haha morning of shoulder post-op and I thought Id see how long I could go without pain relief (whilst under good pain relief at the time). When nurse called in I said I was fine and would call her (against advice). Anyway that was mid-morning and I remember the pain becoming uncomfortable but bearable toward midday and then, holy shit, in the space of a very short time it was as though someone had smashed up my shoulder with a hammer. Haha I'm laughing thinking about it, I really suffered for awhile there until the nurse and drugs took over.

Though Endone and Panadine Forte become your friends for awhile especially early hours of morn, it's good to wean yourself off and squirrel a few away for a rainy day. I still have a couple in my bike tool kit, in the car and medicine cabinet just in case bad stuff happens. While you're on them go the fibre and pills that make you move though!!

I still recall my surgeons exact words as he handed me prescription for oxycodone the morning of my surgery. He said, take 4 of these every four hours, dont wait for them to wear off, it will be too late. Boy was that ever true. You have to stay ahead of the pain.