Another shoulder question

[brannen]

so, i finally got back to the states and got a doctor to look at my shoulder and give me a second opinion.
when i initially went to the doc in Austria he told me that my ski season was over, that i needed surgery, and that a tore some ligaments or tedons in my right (strong) shoulder. I got an MRI and apparently he showed me where my ligament came unattached, but not knowing shit about medicinal anything, i couldnt see anything on the MRI. he recommed that i get surgery right away, but i opted to wait 2 montsh until i got home
went to the shoulder specialist yesterday and he "had a look" at my shoulder. this comprised of asking me questions and looking at the MRI. he never examined the shoulder, its range of motion, or anything. he said the Labrum looked damaged in the MRI, but there was so much fluid he couldnt tell too much. that is all he said, and we talked about either trying to rehab it, or get it surgically repaired. i opted for the rehab, since the rafting season starts in 2 months, which is my main source of income. anyways, i was wondering if ligaments or tendons just repair themselves, and if the strengthening of the muscles around them, through rehab, will "fix" my shoulder?
to me, it sounded like i had torn something, which i didnt think healed on its own.
anyways, i know i will need to surgically repair the labrum eventually, but i was wondering if the rehab scribe was an accurate asessment of which direction to take in my case?
thanks,
brannen

[snowranger]

i know i will need to surgically repair the labrum eventually
brannen

I think you might have answered your own question. I think you need to figure out if the tears were complete or not. A complete tear will prevent you from raising your arm above your head, and no amount of muscle conditioning will fix that. I did the surgical route because my doc said that no amount of PT would repair it and I would likely re-dislocate in the future. The recovery time was not too bad at 3 months.

[TBS]

I recommend you get more information before you make a decision.
Don't take this surgery lightly. I'm two months into rehab after surgically repairing torn supraspinatus tendon, removing sub-acromial bone spur, and debrideing grade one SLAP tear to labrum (avatar has pre-surgery MRI) This is no fucking fun and it's gonna be way longer than three months from surgery before I'm ready to paddle, ski or ride my bike.

Good luck.

[brannen]

shit....
in settles the depression!


..and the DOC kept the MRI cd, otherwise i could post some pix

[Vinman]

if you have a symptomatic labral tear in your dominant shoulder, by symptomatic I mean pain, clicking , catching, instability, weakness then chances are that it will not heal on its own with rest and rehab.

But as one surgeon I know say you don't HAVE to do anything, if you can deal with your shoulder the way it is then you may not need surgery. But if you can not do they things you need to do at work or at play then you might benefit from getting it fixed.