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Shoulder surgery

I bought my bike for Christmas two years ago. Two days later, I slipped on the ice and tore all the muscels from my right arm. A complete seperation. The muscels popped up inside my neck like rubber bands. Needless to say, my right are was completly gone. Surgery and rehab was a good 8 months, and I drooled over the bike I couldn't ride the entire time. I can use the arm now but it will never be the same. I would consider it about 80% and I will just have to learn to live without the rest. I am constantly excersing it and just deal with the pain. Insurance would only pay for about 2 months rehab so I used that time to learn what I must do myself. For me, rehab will be the rest of my life, just working the shoulder to keep it loose and the muscels streatched. I am back riding, and life goes on.
 
On 12/17/08 I had my tendon reattached to my right shoulder and they also sewed up a 1 inch long by 5/8th inch wide tear in that same tendon, Attached it with a titanium anchor.

Then they ground out a bone spur, took out some arthritis in my clavicle. I was in a sling for 6 weeks, went though physical therapy for 5 months.

It takes 6 months for a tendon to fully heal and have no restrictions.

Now I am one that does what im suppose to when it comes to physical therapy and I found that everytime I got a tight feeling I would do the stretches they told me so to be honest I was doing them at least every 90 min any time I was awake, and if I woke up in the middle of the night due to discomfort I did them again.

I felt so much better after doing them that I just kept it up. Well long story short its 1 yr later now. I have 100 percent full range of motion, im back lifting weights and at 51 yrs old and 6 months past my full release im benching 250 lbs again and still getting stronger.

So just take it easy, do everything they tell you to do, be persistant, disciplined and stay with it and in your own time you will recover.

Most of the people I know and there are plenty that had shoulder surgery all have limited range of motion and when they talk with me they are amazed at my recovery, but what I found from all of them is they didn't have time for therapy and didn't do what they should of been doing per the docs orders.

The should has a lot going on inside and it takes up to a yr for some to recover. So hang in there you can do it :)
 
I had rotator cuff surgery back in 2005. I thought I'd never be able to lift my arm up over my head again! -- Be patient, the doctor and therapists are right. It'll take 6 months until you really get your motion back and a full year after surgery before the strength is back (and you stop thinking about it!)

Hang in there.
 
I had shoulder surgery 11 month ago. Still recovering. Dr. said it would be a yeard. Just finished therapy last month. It is getting better but still have some pain, but range of motion is almost complete (at least to a point I can live with it). Just hang in there and do what they say.
 
I had a badly dislocated shoulder, it took almost a year for me to get at least 85% range of motion back. It's been 3 years and I'm at 95% or so. It was about 6 months or so before I could really use it, but it's gotten better. Take it easy and let is heal properly. The 'witch of pain' as I called her, worked me pretty good, so they do know what they are talking about! Ride Safe!
 
Never had this problem but in 92 dr mis diagnosed herniated discs in my back The Mayo Clinic in Jax. Fl found the problems last year now I have l4 l5 s1 T 11 and 12 degeneration, I cant stress how important every little pain we get as we get older needs prompt attention, Good luck all take care Hobbit
 
Hobbit said:
i have just had another bout of xrays on my left shoudler following injury 3yrs ago - it has never healled properly but of late was keeping me awake if i rolled over, i may even have to a MRI done on it to check the muscle conductivity :(

They did a test called an Arthrogram/MRI...they push about a 5in needle into your shoulder joint... then fill the joint with Iodine solution to expand the shoulder joint out...then into the MRI machine for about 30min...Now that was a good time!...Do not wait to long...mine bothered me for years...I was just to stubborn to go to a DR... then it finally got to the point I could not use it at all...Big mistake...Good Luck!
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Do yourself a favor and get it repaired as soon as you can. Therapy will be a killer but you will be better off in the long run. Be patient as it is slow progress. Good luck!
 
lots of good info! i had my right shoulder done in oct 2008 and thought i could do my own physical therapy myself. wrong move and i ended up tearing it up a lot worse and having it operated on again 8 months ago. I started riding about 3 months after the last surgery but prolly shoulda waited another couple of months- noone coulda stopped me lol. I will tell ya what though- i have had 3 back operations as well and i dont think the roveries from those were as painful as the shoulder/rotator cuffs. I think my shoulder now is prolly around 65/70%, and i am lifting weights again. (im 53 in april). Now found out yesterday i need to have about a foot of my colon removed in a couple of weeks, the fun never ends i tell ya. Good luck to ya!

dabreeze
 
I had surgery on my left shoulder in June 05 and it took almost 18 months before I was fully recovered. My operation was 8 hours long and I had to keep my arm in a sling for 12 weeks before I was even allowed to see rehab. I was in rehab for almost a year, started out doing rehab 5 days a week and by the end I was down to seeing the dr twice a week. Take your time with rehab it is and can be a painful process. Remember you will never be 100% again. Good luck and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
 
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