Post Shoulder Surgery

[Steezus Christ]

So I know a couple of mags on this board recently underwent shoulder surgery around the same time as I did back in May. I am wondering how you all are doing as far as range of motion, pain levels, and how rehab is going.

I had a capsular shift and a torn labrum repaired during my surgery on May 3rd. Right now I can move my right arm over my head just raising my arm towards the front of my body, it doesn't hurt till it gets near vertical. But raising laterally (to the side) is very painfull at about 110 degrees. The military has me doing physical therapy at least twice a week, and they usually stretch the hell out of it to the point where I want to start killing their kittens and puppies, if they have any. But I walk out feeling better than when I walked in before. I also have not been allowed to do any strengthening yet.

I don't dare ride my mountain bike offroad but I swim (breast stroke) quite often and we have a diving board which I stupidly practice my spatial awareness feats of strength on, so I am getting quite close to exploding my shoulder all over again. But other than that I don't do any other arm intensive exercises. I predict it will be another 3 months before I can start hitting the gym hard, which is my goal.

So how are you other mags doing after your shoulder surgeries?

[biggins]

Hey der,

Mine was a Bankart repair and capsular shift. I'm near 7 weeks post-op and was given the ok to start PT last friday (I start Monday, had to wait a week to get the MAN in Boston- same guy who rehabed Basom's knee and, more importantly, got Trot Nixon back to the Sox). I've been doing my two sets a day of pendulums, genies (yapple-dapple), and Hitler salutes. Aphearantly my shoulder is healing well, and the muscles have stayed tight- no instability. I'm chomping at the bit to get into PT, as I just picked up a 6 inch travel bike and I'm not clear to ride "uneven" terrain unitl the very end of September.

The best day so far was four weeks post-op when I got to lose the sling. Oh glorious day that was; and night- I can sleep on my left side now (not comfortably, but better than sitting up or having a limb strapped to my belly).

One cool note- I finally saw the imaging from the surgery and had the "Bio-Knotless suture anchor system" explained to me. It was used to reattatch the Bankart to the bone, as if with tacks that sutured themselves to the inside of the bone (cartilage?). Pretty tech.

Keep posting or PM me your PT experiences SC as I'm really curious to know what I'm in for. Good to hear you're progressing, I'll keep ya posted.

[spanky]

I guess it's my turn now...

I had rotator cuff and labrum repair on 5/4/05, so I'm 10 weeks post-op as of today. I saw the doc yesterday and he said something along the lines of, "I remember this one, you did a number on yourself." He proceeded to test my strength and range of motion and said I'm ahead of schedule. That was very encouraging because I feel like I'm progressing very slowly.

As for PT, I started therapy 8 days after surgery. For the first 6 weeks, I was going 3 days a week but it was mostly passive motion. I'm now down to 2 days per week of therapy and have started more active motion and strengthening exercises. My typical therapy session involves:

Hand bike for 8 minutes - 4 minutes forward, 4 minutes backward
Passive table stretches - arm straight in front of me, arm bent at 90 deg. angle)
Arm pulley - pulley system overhead, rope with two handles. I sit underneath it, hold handles in both arms and alternate pulling my arm straight overhead. This was torture at first
Cane Stretch - Lay on my back, hold a "cane" in both hands and raise my arms overhead to stretch.
Theraband exercises - Internal & external shoulder rotations. Rows.
Lying External Rotation - Lay on my left side, do right shoulder external rotation exercise with 2 lb weights.
Lateral Raises - Lift arms till they're parallel to the ground. I'm up to 2 lb weights!
Lateral Raises with no weights lifting my arms all the way overhead
Touchdowns - Just as it sounds, move my arms up in a touchdown motion
Prone T's - Lay face down on a table, let arm hang down, raise arm up and out to the side.
Passive stretching and ROM measurements with therapist
Electrical Stimulation and Ice

I've also been given "Homework" as well. I need to do my stretching and non-weight exercises 2 times per day.

Sleep is getting better as well. Still not making through the entire night, but now it's just down to minor aches that wake me up.

I'm also going to post this in my shoulder thread so there's a complete history of what I've been through.

[skyrocket101]

It's good to hear that you guys are healing!! I'm probably will have mine done at the end of this month.