It's brutal....

You are likely going to have to go to the OR, undergo general anesthesia, and your orthopedic surgeon cranks your shoulder through a full range of motion while you are asleep and can't scream or hear all of the fibrous stuff breaking apart.

They then wake you up and you will hurt. A lot. And then have to start physical therapy up pretty much that day to try to preserve and/or improve your new range of motion.



If you don't see improvement in the next day or two from the cortisone injection, I would talk to your orthopedic surgeon about getting this done sooner rather than later so you can start regaining function.

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Jason
None of the secrets of success will work unless you do.

I can't help, but I'm sorry.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

I would be very concerned about my surgically repaired rotator cuff. I would need a cadre of doctors to sign off on this before I would have anyone crank on my shoulder.

In my opinion six weeks post op for this injury is not long enough to decide the prescribed therapy isn’t working. I think patience is key here.

It’s actually been 4 months post surgery not 6 weeks. I’m definitely going to give the Cortisone shot more than a few days to see if I get any improvement. I’m guessing I’ll need an MRI eventually to see what the hell is going on. I wish they did this when I injured myself. They only did a CT scan.

I had a complete shoulder replacement done in 2017.
My rotator cuff was relatively intact.
At four months my range of motion was limited.
At 18 months my range of motion was good, but strength took longer...
At 5 years My replacement shoulder is every bit as good as my other natural (never injured) shoulder.
I would even go so far as to say my replacement shoulder is perfect.
It took way more time and a lot more PT to recover than I expected.
Hang in there keep doing PT....

P.S. If you need a replacement shoulder go see John Itamura in LA, I could not possibly be happier with the outcome.

First of all sorry you are going through this.

Second my brother had this exact same injury through a motox accident. It took 18 months for him to regain the mobility and about 2 years for him to regain the strength.

Be patient. As frustrating as it is don’t give up on the PT. My brother was on the verge of throwing in the towel when he had a major break through. This was just one month after he was saying the PT was pointless.

Good luck.

I had a completely different shoulder repair : labrum repair, bones in the joint shaved down, and long head biceps relocation. Four months post surgery I was just starting to get my arm overhead. My toughest was reaching behind me. I could reach my waistline on my back but that was it. I couldn’t reach up my back if my life depended on it. I did PT for 6 months and it never got better though all other range of motion and strength came back almost good as new. About year after surgery I finally regained that last bit of motion.

I had pretty much given up on scratching my own back again but it slowly came back. My PT drilled into my head to keep up the stretching and really push the normal every day activities, admittedly we don’t reach behind ourself much throughout the day. Hang in there and keep your determination.

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The secret of a long life is you try not to shorten it.
-Nobody

I’m 3 months post greater tuberosity, proximal humerus fracture from a cycling crash and I, too, am struggling to regain the mobility I previously had in my left shoulder. External rotation is really limited and my arm just seems to get ‘caught’ when trying to put my arms above my head whilst lying on ground whilst doing exercises which involve lifting a broom up above my head whilst lying on the ground.

I tried to do 1 stroke of freestyle with my left arm whilst swimming in the ocean a few weeks ago, and it was really painful and arm just felt like it collapsed and couldn’t stretch it out.

Today I just had 1 cortisone shot in my shoulder.

I don’t seem to have any damage to the tendons from ultrasounds.

Did the OP ever end up getting his mobility back and has anyone else struggled with this?

At the moment I can’t swim because of it, am not riding on road for risk of another accident, so am just trying to get back into running. I’m currently about 13 kgs above what I usually race at, so is going to be a bit of a struggle getting back to fitness.

I had 3 separate shoulder surgeries on my left side over the course of 5 years, first a Bankart, then a Latarjet, then revision of the failed Latarjet and now have screws, a bone block, humoral plugs and the addition of a tendon to help hold everything together.
My shoulder was screwed, literally.
I developed frozen shoulder after my last surgery. My Ortho addressed it at follow up and said my PT should be able to get it to release. It took months in PT but one day he was working it quite intensely and it broke loose. The cracking sound it created made nearly everyone in the clinic jump (including me) as it sounded like he ripped my arm off. It was completely unexpected, I didn’t feel it coming. For me though there was no pain just newly regained range of motion in the joint.
It’s taken me years of hot yoga, functional movement & strength training and myofascial release to regain function. There will always be deficits with it but I can triathlon train, surf, toss my kids around, etc. it’s honestly better than I ever thought it would be. The first few years of recovery were tough, but I did improve my running quite a bit.

Give your PT time to work, don’t rush it and don’t think you’ve reached peak recovery at the end of PT.
Also, my N of 1 recommendation is, once released from your Doc find some type of yoga practice you enjoy.

I had the same surgery nine weeks ago and progress is slow but steady and I don’t think I will be back in the pool until at least the six month mark. The should is a tricky joint with mostly tendons holding it together and very little bone structure. Tendons take longer to heal and stretch back into shape. My surgeon says max I can lift with that effected arm is one pound until the 12 week mark. Then I can start strength training. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of lifting a gas pump the other day and tore my repaired bicep off the bone. No further surgery required but will have a Popeyes arm the rest of my life.

Stick with it….it is a long journey.

My PT told me that some people heal faster than others which can cause frozen shoulder. Try the cortisone and if doesn’t work the surgeon can do a manipulation to get it unstuck. My brother and my daughters mother in law had to have this done.

I had a severed supraspinatus, torn labrum, and the part of my humeral head where my tendons attached splintered off. Surgery, 4 screws, and ~6 months of aggressive PT. PT was 2-3 days a week (starting 2 weeks PO) and at about the 2 month mark I also got dry needling done within the shoulder capsule to help with mobility. I was starting to develop frozen shoulder - we figured out it was because I was overdoing the at home PT (~3 hours per day). Once I chilled out, things got better. Was given full release (even skiing) at 6 months PO. Probably took another 12-18 to be pain free (aero was terrible) and regain all of my strength. I have full ROM but I do have a few weird mobility things that I just can't do. I've been told that my fracture made the bone "fluffy" and took up half of my capsule space, so the restriction is my humeral head hitting other bones. The solution is to "just let it wear down over time" or another surgery to shave it down. It doesn't seem to affect function so I'm just thinking of it as a new "feature".