On April 10th I was involved in a 8-10 person crash in a roadrace. Last recorded speed on my Garmin was 27mph. Anyway I went to the ER and they said it what it was a 5th degree sepration, needs surgery and need to see a orthopedic surgeon right away. I saw two the following week and both said to have surgery so I went with the one that seemed to have more experience with athletes. I had the surgery on April 21st and spent four weeks in a sling without moving my shoulder at all. Once out the sling I spent the next 6 weeks trying to get my range of motion back with out any PT at all. 10 weeks out of surgery I started seeing a PT just to try and regain my range of motion even farther and was supposed to start getting my strength back yesterday which would have been 12 weeks post surgery. Thats when the whole thing fell apart. My shoulder started feeling diffrent in the last week and then on Monday it had completely separated again and is back to the way it was before surgery. The only way to correct this is to have another surgery but try some other way. I have posted some pics to see what you all think. I do have an appointment with another orthopedic tomorrow but I just wanted some opionons now or even other experiences about what happend to you.
In 2007 I had a very similar injury. Grade 4 total tears of the AC and CC ligaments. I too had surgery but mine was a bit different as it looks like you got the scope where i got the fully open procedure (and have a 6" scar to prove it.
Looks like you have some metal in there, I’ve got a cadavor tendon and screws that were bioabsorbable. (also the distal end of my clavicle was trimmed and the miniscus was removed due to extensive tearing) My tendon stretched a bit after and since but it looks pretty good and I hope to toe the line at IMC in 6 wks so I’m almost as good as new.
I’m not sure where you go from there. does your arm still work?
Good luck with the road ahead, I kinda want to cry a little for you since I know what it was like the first go round.
Thanks for responding. My arm still works pretty good except overhead chores are hard to do. I can actually still ride my bike relativly pain free. As my doc has said the next option would be to put a cadaver tendon/ligamnet in and some sort of metal bridge to hold it all together. He did say that it would still fall a little after but it should work. I just don’t understand why that was not done or mentioned to me the first go around.
I had a grade 3 AC separation 12 years ago and did not have the surgery. My shoulder still looks pretty similar to yours. I am not sure how much more severe it is to go to grade 5 but I was told by my doctor that if after it healed I was pain free he recommended I not do the surgery, since it could cause more pain. The only issue I have had since, is gasps from people when they first see my shoulder. Good luck.
I got pretty lucky in the fact that the first guy I saw is pretty up on things, and the next guy I saw was in agreement. I also did a TON of research on my own before the surgery (I had a full month between the accident and the cutting to see how it would heal up -it didn’t).
The cadavor tendon had a longer recovery time, but a much better long term prognosis for function so I went with that.
Did you get the Gore Fabric with metal loops and screws? The good part of that was supposed to be much faster recovery (and it looks like yours was done through a scope which is supposed to really aid recovery but was not possible with mine), but failures were well documented. My Recovery time was 2+ years for full strength with ~75% of that in the first year. of course by now the cadavor tendon has been fully integrated with my own tissue as well as the (coral???) anchors he used to screw into the bone. i still have a bit of numbness in my shoulder where they cut in, but nothing really that bad.
I did not have any screws. What I had was a button like device on top and some other metal device on the bottom. A hole was drilled through the collar bone and through bottom part of the shoulder blade. Some type of heavy suture went through both of them and was tied on each end to the buttons. I am not sure what happend other than it seemd to fall apart. I was told the suture would hold it together for a year or so before they dissolved. Its been less than 3 months and they seem to have fallen apart.
Update: I went and saw another Orthopedic surgeon today. His idea was to have PT for 4 to 8 weeks and see how things prgress and if I am not happy at that point then decide if another surgery is a good idea. He said I may just be happy living with the bump with the results of the PT. Do any of you guys that chose not to have the surgery feel normal?
I hurt one of my ac joints like that playing rugby (this was before I got into tris), then did the other side to match (also playing rugby) whilst favouring my previously injured side. I didn’t have surgery. I also dislocated my right shoulder when I was younger…I have a bit of weakness in my middle and lower traps as a result of all of this. I quit rugby after the second (around 8-9 years ago)
I have no idea what ‘grade’ it was. But my arm was pretty useless for a while afterwards. Couldn’t lift it by itself, had to drive home with it right on top of the steering wheel hah.
I was doing quite a bit of weights at the time, and found my strength came back ok once I got back into it.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the bumps if I were you…just do the exercises. My shoulders are okish but I think it has definitely affected my swimming a little.
I had a grade 3 or 4 AC sep a couple years ago. My sports ortho said I had the choice, but he recommended no surgery, that there were a number of different methods and that none of them were guaranteed (as you found out), plus the added recovery time. He said I’d be exchanging a bump for a scar.
My bump is pretty gnarly, but i rarely think about it (recently saw it in a mirror from the back though… yikes, looks about like yours). I swim 7-12K a week and don’t even notice it. In daily life it’s not an issue. On occasion there seems to be a bit of “crunchiness” when I move it the wrong way, and don’t know if it portends future arthritis or not.
Doc said surgery could be done at any time if I wanted
The only issue I have is I am not very good at the bench press. That is really the only movement where I even notice it. As for the look, mine looks a lot like yours and the only time anyone notices is if I point it out. Once they see it they are always shocked though.