| Author | Message | ||
     Bsdfool |
Had surgery for rotator cuff and impingement repairs. Initial assessment was around 6 weeks to recover. Latest assessment - 6 months. Tendon tear was considerably worse than originally thought. I'm pretty bummed about it. Looks like I'll miss the bulk of the riding season  | ||
| Rotzaruck |
Wow, that's a huge difference. Hope they are being a little pessimistic. But, at least you will eventually be back. Rotzaruck! | ||
| Ratbuell |
Work hard at it. Do your PT...then do some more. Sore, like being-at-the-gym-too-long sore, is OK. Sharp pain? Stop IMMEDIATELY. You can suffer through PT and return to a normal life in a few months...or you can grouse in PT and suffer forever. One of the things I had to do, which worked, was: stand an arms length from a wall, or a door, with a tennis ball in your hand. "walk" the tennis ball up and down the wall with your hand - the one attached to your bad shoulder - for reps of 10 or 20. Waist high to over your head, and back again. Also, stand in a doorway, shoulder to the doorframe, facing like you're walking through the door. Take your bad hand, put it on one side of the wall/doorframe, and push. Isometric. 5 or 10 seconds, relax, reps of 10. Then, put your hand on the other side of the wall, and push the opposite direction. My wreck in '08 was July 16. Rotator cuff torn so bad they thought they'd have to do surgery; I couldn't move my hand four inches from my hip without getting tears in my eyes. They kept having to x-ray and MRI to verify that stuff wasn't actually broken or torn in half. The PTs constantly thought it was a misdiagnosis; that something was more severely damaged than it was, and it has been overlooked because the docs were so focused on rebuilding my lower half. I rode for Thanksgiving (and my recovery included a laundry list of other items, including nearly 2# of titanium implanted in my legs). It can be done, I promise  Ibuprofen is GOLD. And if you know some Canadians...get some 222. Trust me. | ||
| Gofast |
I had the same deal on Oct 16 2010. Dr told me the tendon takes 3 months to fully recover and that I could still tear if I lift to much or work it to soon. Actual recovery ( being able to move your arm above shoulder ) was about 6 weeks. Full recovery, being able to lift normal weight again, is closer to 4 months for me. Best advice I can give you is take it slow and don't try to over exert the shoulder. Your muscles will let you know if you are pushing it. I was riding at the 4 week mark with Dr permission. You gotta be careful though. Getting near 50 now, so recovery takes a little longer. The most painful deal I have ever been through too. Good Luck | ||
| Jerry_haughton |
I had right rotator cuff surgery a while back. The operation was scheduled to go two hours, but the sawbones was in there for six hours trying to fix a half-century of abuse. Rehab took four months, and was difficult. The physical therapists have to push you hard, and it hurts a bunch, but I ended up almost 100% when it was all over with, and best of all I can still ride. Good luck, and be sure to take your laxatives - opioid-induced constipation is a bitch. FB | ||
| Sifo |
Been there, done that. DO THE PT! Get your motion back first. Strength is easy to get back later. The last thing you want to do is hurt it again trying to get your strength back fast. Make sure to do your PT homework too! It really sucks, but will pay off in the long run. Shoulders are pretty funky too. Mine would snap and pop during my PT. It sounded like it should have really hurt, but really was just unnerving. It all cleared up with time though. | ||
| 1125rcya |
You'll get use to sleeping on your arss I gave up on trying to sleep in bed and found that a slightly thinner chair than my shoulders that leaned back helped me sleep. ...PT>PT:PT* O and ice 3-8 times a day for faster recovery time! Oh the pain that comes with fixing pain Wishing you a full recovery. (Message edited by 1125rcya on February 16, 2011) | ||
| Cataract2 |
Dude, I know what you're going through. On my PCS back in Aug/Sept my wife ended up in the hosipital for emergency back surgery when her L5/S1 disk decided it didn't like it's place. (This was during the move mind you, we weren't even out of the country yet.) She's been in PT since we got here and it's slow going. She's a trooper though and has begun losing weight and working to get herself back into shape. She's looking at joining the Army Med Corp once she gets the all clear from the PT folks. My tough girl.  Just keep your head up and keep up with the PT and some of the suggestions others have posted. Your recovery time will go by faster than you think. | ||
| Bsdfool |
Thanks for the encouraging words, guys. I've been putting this off for several years but it finally progressed to the point of interfering with work. It was just a shock to learn that recovery would not be what the doctor had said at my last visit. I've been through worse. Ruptured a disk in my neck Halloween of 2004 and couldn't get surgery until mid December... good times for sure. Out of work for 12 weeks fighting with insurance. That makes this time a comparative cake-walk. I'm sitting here in a velcro sling with straps for immobilization and still have the nerve block in (comes out tomorrow). I also have a really cool gadget wrapped around my shoulder - an ice pack attached to a small ice box with a circulating pump. Ice water from the box is circulated through to keep things cool. I'm also closing the gap on 50, but as a former martial arts instructor I know the value of never surrender. I have a couple of tricks up my sleeve to accellerate healing so I won't be down too long. | ||
| Trojan |
Join the Rossi/Hodgson/melendri/Crutchlow club  Shoulder injuries are notorious for slow heeling so keep your chin up and look forward to the day when it is better Worse thing you can do is to aggravate it by over training so you just have to be patient unfortunately! I have been told that swimming is apparently the best exercise you can do for tendon injuries. I had a PLIF operation on my lower back (posterior lumbar inter something fusion) 15 months ago, where they basically remove a disc and insert rods and screws to strengthen the area. It is now 100% worse than it was pre-op and I am still having to go back every few months to see if they can make it any better I wish I had some kind of timescale estimate for recovery thats for sure and would be more than happy if it was better in 6 months. | ||
| Jerry_haughton |
...and still have the nerve block in (comes out tomorrow). Coming out of the nerve block after my RC surgery was difficult. They hadn't warned me ahead of time, and the pain hit fast and hard. Then it took what seemed like forever for the floor nurse to decide what kind of pain meds it was safe to put me on. I wish they'd been ready ahead of time. The morphine drip they finally started had zero effect, and I ended up on a three-narcotic cocktail that killed the pain but sent me on an interstellar journey of epic proportions. What should have been an overnight hospital stay turned into three days as they fought to keep the pain under control and while I roamed galaxies far, far away. Please make sure they have a plan in place for when the nerve block goes off. Good luck and take care, FB | ||
| Ulywife |
Hang in there Michael. Follow doctor/PT orders and don't over do it! | ||
| Reepicheep |
When my ACL was rebuilt, I hated the meds. Made me feel paranoid and depressed and out of it. I preferred the good honest pain. The best thing for me was the little ice cooler with pump. Wrap that sucker around my knee, start it circulating, and I was good for hours (provided I didn't have to go anywhere). +1 on the PT. I worked the program hard, and got great results. | ||
| Svh |
That ice water circulating machine was the best. I had to have surgery around March of last year. Tore my bicep tendon and when they went in they found my labrum was torn also. I feel so much better now it is great. I was pretty miserable last summer not being able to ride for most of it. Walking around Homecoming in a sling sucked as well. Like stated above do the PT and stick with it. I have gained almost all my strength back. Good luck. Probably the hardest part of the whole thing, especially for me, was not doing anything stupid like trying to lift items over your limit weight. |
