I dislocated my shoulder 2 months ago (dancing with a hot water heater.) I believe I had injured the shoulder a few times before but never totally dislocated it. It ended up taking 10 days before I could see a doc. 1-2 weeks
in a sling, 4 weeks of therapy. It seems like it is still improving though I am just now able to get in the aero
position. (not for very long). I tried a little swim today using a “mini” stroke with my left arm. Just barely getting it out of the water. Does anyone have any experience with this? Does it sound like I am progressing OK? The doc said it would take a while
to heal. He didn’t seem to give me a real thorough exam. Thanks for any input.
I had the same thing about 8 years ago, still not the same. I can’t lift weights and swim two or three days in a row without being in lots of pain. I have just gotten use to skipping a day between shoulder workouts of any kind. Not the answer you wanted I am sure. Good luck.
Aloha,
Larry
I can pretty much dislocate my left shoulder at will, and let me tell you, it sucks. The last time I did it, I was doing plyo with 5lb dumbells, and and my shoulder just dropped like a rock. ouch. Shrugged, and back in it went. I partially dislocate my shoulder 5 or 6 times a year, fully dislocate it every 2 years or so. It always pops back in (or, worst case, I can pop it back in,) and it always hurts like hell.
You want to avoid this at all costs - surgery is pretty much inevitable for me, at some point down the road, and it is my own damn fault. I didn’t take it slow coming back the first time I popped the damn thing out; far from it - I got up off the ice, popped some Ibuprofen on the bench, and finished the game ( I was so pissed off I scored about 6 goals.)
TAKE IT SLOW!!!
Rehab VERY thouroughly, and for goodness sake, don’t do anything that will damage the joint anymore than you already have (like swimming before you’re healed.)
The weight room helped me a lot - my joint is trashed, but my arm doesn’t come out all the way very often, and I think that’s because of the weight work (which I need to start doing again - thanks for reminding me :0)
MH
How old are you? The prognosis (and therefore treatment) is quite different depending on your age wrt redislocation and tendon problems around your shoulder.
It doesn’t sound like you had to have someone pull it back in for you - or did you? This also changes the prognosis a bit too, or at least makes it harder to know the type of dislocation.
Deke
Really sorry to hear about your injury. It’s one of those, like knees, that seems to affect virtually everything. I’ve had problems on and off for years, partial tear I think.
One thing that’s helped is strengthening. Your PT probably gave you some excercises. My favorite is the l-fly. If it doesn’t hurt much, lie on your side on a bench, elbow on your side, arm bent at 90 degrees, lower and lift the arm in the plane perpendicular to your body. Light weights, couple of sets of 8-12 reps.
The other thing that I must confess has helped a lot is traditional Chinese medicine(TCM). I’m as skeptical as the next guy, probably more, and I have only emprical evidence to go on. Nonetheless, a couple of treatments with needles and moxi(heat) has done wonders for me. I do the moxi on myself from time to time and the deep heating almost always has a beneficial effect. If you have a TCM practitioner in your area, I highly recommend at least one visit.
One last thing. If you’re into icing, check out the Cryo Cup, Bodytrends.com carries them. It’s a nice way to ice and massage simultaneously, and the subsequent icing is intense.
Have a speedy recovery.
I had the same thing about 8 years ago, still not the same. I can’t lift weights and swim two or three days in a row without being in lots of pain. I have just gotten use to skipping a day between shoulder workouts of any kind. Not the answer you wanted I am sure. Good luck.
Aloha,
Larry
As Deke said, no doubt age has lots to do with recovery. I was about 48 when my accident happened (hit a dog while riding my bike).
Aloha,
Larry
I am 44 yrs. old. I went to a med center where they attched weight to my wrist, jacked up the table while I was laying on my stomach and eventually we got it back in.
It was out of socket for about 90 minutes.
I’ve dislocated my right shoulder twice. After each time, it was sore and difficult to put any weight on it (i.e. weightlifting, throwing or racket sports - not a triathlete at the time of dislocation) for about 2 months. What really helped me the last time was going on anti-inflamitories for about a week, total (and I mean TOTAL rest - don’t freakin’ move your arm) for the shoulder and an entire weekend of icing every 2 hours for about 30 minutes. Then, I strengthened it very, very slowly with the help of a PT. Haven’t had a dislocation in about 8 years and my doctor said if it dislocated again he would want to do surgery (I just turned 30).
Good luck and I hope you feel better soon. Now, off to run for me.
-Jay
The issue when you are 44 with a first time dislocation like you describe is not redislocation (assuming you haven’t done it before). It is not likely to redislocate, though not impossible.
The issues are of stiffness and the state of the rotator cuff tendons, which are frequently damaged in dislocations in a “older” first time dislocator - sorry about the older thing. Most orthopods do not suggest long periods of immobilisation for this - a week or two max. If your shoulder is not improving in terms of strength or pain as time goes by - maybe a month or so - you should have an MRI to look at your tendons.
Good luck, and hope this helps,
Deke
PS I just reread your initial post. Since it’s been two months, and your swimming recovery sounds like it is weak, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to do the MRI. The recovery part of a swimming stroke is pretty big on rotator cuff. Might be just weakness from lack of use, but it wouldn’t be bad to know about the tendons.
Thanks
.
I dislocated my shoulder back in 1979 skiing at Crested Butte, jammed it earlier skiing at Copper Mtn. It became so chronic, dislocated over 20 times I finally had to have surgery. Like one of the guys said, I used to be able to put it back in with a bucket of water or hanging from something were my friends could pull it back in. Surgery has come a long way, I have only had problems back in 1998 when I started Tri’s, swimming again, I had to take 3 months off with 3 cortisone shots. since then I have been very good, I exercise, stretch, do the strenghtening exercises all the time. Changed my swim stroke, arms enter at 11 and 1 o’clock. Escpecially work on rotator muscles first then develop the larger muscles around the area, many people forget to work the small ones first.
Good luck
That’s a huge bummer! last winter, while sledding, I did a third degree separation/ dislocation to my shoulder in February, by march I was trying to swim to train for a 1/2 IM as soon as i had any motion back and ended up retearing it all up again and spent a lot of time in rehab and strengthening it all up before i started to swim again. The P.T. told me that swimming was the WORST thing that i could have done for it, instead that i should have been lifting- very very light weights to strengthen it by doing shoulder rolls with a light weight, getting in the pushup position on my knees and just pushing extending my shoulders and pushing the blades together as well as using one of those big rubber bands for resistance. Now i have an ‘angel wing’ shoulder blade that i can pop out a good 3 inches- a neat tricK!! does anyone else have this?? So i would say to work on your core (back, shoulders and abs) to get the ball rolling for a quick recovery once it is all healed up!
Full dislocation is pretty rare for me, but my right shoulder does subluxate pretty much on a whim. It sucks. Due to several unrelated incidents which resulted in shoulder damage, I have had to give up a lot of activities - however I am very glad that it isn’t worse.
Rehab is a good start. Take it slow, don’t be a meathead and think that “more is better”/“tough it out and fight through the pain”. Trust me on those. You won’t be doing yourself any favours in the long run.
I had some good experiences with Active Release Therapy, and depending on the advice of your doctor and physiotherapist, you may wish to give that a try as well.
Good luck, and a speedy recovery.
Hey jerkoff,
Command is spelled with an o.
Sorry my frind, I like to call it was it is.
I dislocated my left shoulder last December 1. I was carrying a heavy object when I turned my ankle and fell. I don’t know exactly what happened because all I remember when I went down was the pain in my ankle. The ER medical staff had a hard time getting my shoulder back in the socket and they were making plans for surgery when they got it back in about six hours after the accident. My orthopedic doctor had me keep the shoulder immobilized in a sling and sleep in a chair for four weeks.
I had the same problem getting in the aero bars. I found that the small amount of movement of the arm through the peddle stroke would give a short stretch and release of the tight shoulder and it helped get back the external rotation. I recommend staying in the aero position for as long as you can stand it, sitting up and massaging the muscle, and then back in the aero position again (on a trainer of course).
I can also relate to what you said about swimming. I kept going to the pool with fins and a kickboard and would keep trying to get the shoulder to turn the stroke over. After I finally got enough strength to do that, I found that the shoulder fatigued rapidly and coordination was poor. I would alternate swimming and kicking and it didn’t take long to see a lot of improvement in endurance, range of motion, and strength.
My biggest advice is to keep doing the exercises you learned in physical therapy even after you start feeling better. I slacked off a little when I was able to start swimming again and I shouldn’t have.
I am still improving and have recovered enough that I don’t think that the injury will seriously affect my triathlon performance. Nevertheless, I don’t think that I will ever have back all of the function of that shoulder that I had prior to the injury.
One other thing, ignore Mr. Tibbs. Unfortunately, he won’t go away. He is one of those persons that have to make fun of everything and some find him amusing enough to encourage his behavior. You would think that an injury that would prevent a triathlete from swimming would not be a topic to make fun of but obviously not.