Just saw the doc for a nagging shoulder pain and clicking I’ve been having for several weeks now and it is a small tear in the labrum. I was given some strengthening exercises, rest, ice, ibuprofin treatment but was wondering if anyone has had a similar injury and what your recovery time was like. I’m still doing light training as long as I’m not aggravating the injury but would like to know how long can I expect until I’m fully recovered and can return to full profile training.
Welcome to the club. It ended my swimming career because I opted not for surgery. However, big diffrence from swimming 10,000yards a day and the typical tri training. I’d suggest the lightest load possible (yardage).
Mine’s bothering me again and after IMFL I am going in to have it and the knee surgically repaired. Fun stuff.
You can read about my experience with my shoulder here: http://www.sponsorhouse.com/Members/CourtCrutcher/Apps/Blog.aspx?month=6&year=2007 scroll down to the june 6th entry titled “Day the Music Died”
Also, if you look for my Heritage Park race recap (posted in may) you’ll see how it’s affecting me now.
Hope you things work out the best for ya.
During my college baseball career, I had the privledge of tearing both my rotator cuff (once) and labrum (twice). Rehab time for the labrum (post-op) varied depending on the type of procedure. It took me atleast 3 months to recover and be able to throw off the mound again. Throwing a baseball may be considered more violent in comparison to swimming however; both motions are similar in terms of range of motion. Good luck.
J.C
If you are looking for good news, it will be hard to come by. I tore my labrum and partial rotator cuff in college playing soccer (goalie). I had surgery and it was a solid 3-4 months before I could play soccer again. At the time, I was not a swimmer and the doc did say, I hope you do not plan on swimming in the future. Needless to say, he was wrong. Best advice, take your time and be very judicious with hard swimming for a good while. Do those band exercises religiously. Good luck with a tough injury.
All the bad news I wasn’t hoping to hear (but was expecting). During the exam I was passing all the muscular tests with flying colors and then he asked if it hurts when I turn the steering wheel. When I said that’s when I feel it the most he had a somber expression and said that it wasn’t good.
Definitely going to do the rehab exercises as much as I can. I’d love to get through this without surgery. About three years ago I was suffering from terrible runner’s knees and thought that I’d have to quit running and that would effect my career but after several months of rest I have been running better than ever so I’m going to stay hopeful. The power of positive thinking on this one.
BTW, nice little page. I’d never seen that before. Enjoyed some of your rants, er blogs.
I’ll give you one positive story to offset the others…
I’ve had clicking in both of mine for years. Last year, I apparently aggravated the right shoulder in the weight room, and for several days, I couldn’t drive, lift my arm past about mid torso level, etc. It was very painful and so I went to the doctor. The MRI diagnosis was a labral tear. However, within a few weeks I was fairly pain free and had enough functional strength in every plane of motion for the doc to advise against surgery. I was swimming and doing rehab work in the gym within a couple of weeks. To top it off, I crashed on the bike and had an AC separation in the left shoulder early this year. That too has healed (slowly) without any permanent impairment.
Despite all this, I’ve had no surgery and I’m doing pretty much anything I want to. I’ve avoided impact loads as this seems to aggravate them the most. I’ve been doing various rotator cuff exercises and strength work in the gym as I feel this helps guard against further injury (barring me doing something stupid like the clean and jerk workout that screwed me up last year).
I know every injury is different, but at least you can know that not everyone ends up under the knife.
GI wrote: All the bad news I wasn’t hoping to hear (but was expecting). During the exam I was passing all the muscular tests with flying colors and then he asked if it hurts when I turn the steering wheel. When I said that’s when I feel it the most he had a somber expression and said that it wasn’t good.
AAAaaaaahhhhh Crap! Not what I wanted to see or hear! I’ve been having shoulder issues…waking up at night with soreness…have been seeing an ortho surgeon…had me get an MRI last week after three cortisone shots didn’t have lasting affect…I’ve been studying the images and found examples of a laberal tear and they matched a couple of my MRI images. Also what looks like damage to tendons due to bone spurs. But most pain can be re-created when I “turn the steering wheel”…Ooooooh FUDGE!
I have an appointment on 1/4/2008. If doc confirms, the decision will be whether to bite the bullet and have it fixed along with the other issues (2 bone spurs, what looks like a partial tear of the tendon between the Acromion and the Calvical, potentially damaged bursa, and impingement) or live through it until after completing IMAZ 11/2008.
Curious…what would you do?
Eight months ago, I had surgery on my left shoulder for partial thickness tears of my supraspinatus and subscapularis, a frayed labrum, and a bone spur. Prior to the surgery, I worked with a really good physical therapist, but even he knew that rehab wasn’t going to do it. The surgery was all able to be done arthroscopically, which was a definite plus. The recovery was probably longer than I wanted (one week would have been longer than I wanted), but I’m back to swimming speeds that are in line with where I was before the surgery. In fact, I think that pre-surgery my swimming was slowed down by my wrecked shoulder, because I’ve come back up to speed much quicker than I would have thought. If you opt for surgery, the first few months are hard. You won’t be able to get your arm over your head, much less swim. But if you can be patient, it’s not all that horrible and you’ll be better off in the long run–assuming, of course, that it doesn’t get better without surgery.
If surgery is the only answer, be sure to get a good surgeon. I was out of the surgery center before noon, and home and on the computer responding to emails within a few hours of that. The pain did get a little worse as the pain killers wore off, but I still only missed two or three days of work. I was doing spin classes within a week (with my arm in a sling; does that make me look OCD or what?), and outside on the bike within a couple of weeks. Road riding didn’t aggravate it, but mountain biking definitely did for a month or so. The worst thing was sleeping–nothing was comfortable other than the recliner.
Eight months ago, I had surgery on my left shoulder for partial thickness tears of my supraspinatus and subscapularis, a frayed labrum, and a bone spur. Prior to the surgery, I worked with a really good physical therapist, but even he knew that rehab wasn’t going to do it. The surgery was all able to be done arthroscopically, which was a definite plus. The recovery was probably longer than I wanted (one week would have been longer than I wanted), but I’m back to swimming speeds that are in line with where I was before the surgery. In fact, I think that pre-surgery my swimming was slowed down by my wrecked shoulder, because I’ve come back up to speed much quicker than I would have thought. If you opt for surgery, the first few months are hard. You won’t be able to get your arm over your head, much less swim. But if you can be patient, it’s not all that horrible and you’ll be better off in the long run–assuming, of course, that it doesn’t get better without surgery.
If surgery is the only answer, be sure to get a good surgeon. I was out of the surgery center before noon, and home and on the computer responding to emails within a few hours of that. The pain did get a little worse as the pain killers wore off, but I still only missed two or three days of work. I was doing spin classes within a week (with my arm in a sling; does that make me look OCD or what?), and outside on the bike within a couple of weeks. Road riding didn’t aggravate it, but mountain biking definitely did for a month or so. The worst thing was sleeping–nothing was comfortable other than the recliner.
Thanks, HeidiC!
How long before you started racing again?
Interested in hearing others’ experiences. THANKS!
First let me say this type of injury stinks. The good news is I had surgery on my labrum a year and a half ago and am pretty much pain free and able to do everything I did before including swimming without limitation. I do however work as an athletic trainer and took advantage of the fact that I had unlimited access to a therapist, myself, every day.
Whether or not you need surgery will depend on the type of labrum tear it is. There are many different types depending on wear it is located and what structures are involved. I had a tear of the labrum where the biceps tendon inserts into it so there was no way I could continue competing without surgery. A lot of people diagnosed with labrum tears have only a fraying of the labrum not an actual tear. My experience has been that most of the time with rest and therapy to address underlying problems i.e. instability, muscle weakness, poor technique these athletes are able to avoid surgery. You really need to make sure you have a contrast MRI where they inject a dye into the joint, this lifts the labrum up so to speak and gives a better image of it. Even then most of the time it is hard to tell until the surgeon goes in with the arthroscope whether it is a tear or a fraying of the labrum. If it is just fraying they may shave off the worn tissue and your good to go without many restrictions. In my case I had 4 disposable sutures inserted to hold the labrum down while it healed back to the bone. This required me to be in a sling with the arm internally rotated for four weeks and then about a 4 month rehab. However I went really slow and took a full year off of to give it plenty of time to heal and strengthen. I am however very careful in the weight room to make sure I don’t stress the joint and still do a lot of rehab type exercises. I can bench press just as much as I did before and am swimming just as fast as well.
Interested in hearing others’ experiences. THANKS!
Partially torn labrum here. I’m not sure exactly what caused the injury as I was already on a swimming hiatus. However, when I returned to the pool I was plagued by impingement. I had a few false starts over a period of two months (Sept-Oct 07) in my planned return to the pool before finally consulting some orthopedic experts and ordering an MRI. The pictures revealed a partially torn labrum and some cysts in the region. The medical consensus was that only surgery would solve the problem, but that it would require a prolonged recovery. One doc advised that I could possibly avoid surgery by working on exercises to improve posture and scapular positioning. I worked on the exercises about 6 days a week for 6 weeks and gave the pool another shot. Since then I have successfully made it back in the pool and am swimming 3-4 days per week of masters with few limitations beyond using extra care on fly sets and moving down to the smallest size of TYR mentor paddles for pull sets. Also, I ice about 3x per day.
Labral tears don't usually do much on their own. It may be possible to go W/O surgery if it's small enough, but if you swim a lot it eventually will get worse. The labrum does not get a whole lot of blood supply/ nourishment therefore healing is slow to none honestly.
If you google SLAP lesion rehab. protocol you will most likely get a few protocols to look at. These will all be post surgical PT protocols if you decide to get it repaired. It is honestly a slow go rehab especially at first. You start some light active movements at week 4 or 5 and progress from there. The first 3-4 weeks are all about protecting the surgical site and involved structures. Week 10-12 you maybe can start some easy breast stroke etc.., with a gradual progression to free, back fly etc...
If rest is not cutting it then consider surgery for the long term what's best for your shoulder strategy. It's an annoying road block but a year later you will forget about it all.
I rehab labral tears a lot and they usually have pretty good outcomes in comparison to something like a large rotator cuff tear. You must be conservative in the beginning though to allow the repair to heal properly. Think long term, that's my advice.
I have a shoulder/neck/arm injury that has kept me out of the pool now for over 3 weeks. It started when I was put in a really low/stretched aero position and I kept riding in it despite the pain in my shoulder/neck/arm. At first it was killing me every night when I slept. The pain was shooting up and down my right arm and up a little into my neck. I would have to lay on a soup can between my spine and shoulder blade to stop the pain and fall back asleep. In the pool it kills after breathing to the affected side and doing the recovery part of my stroke…so my head is returning to straight and my arm is recovering. It is getting better now that I am not swimming and I have gone to riding road position for a while…But I wonder if these are similar symptoms? It also was hurting to have to “reach” for the steering wheel, not so much the turning, but just being stretched out.
If your getting referred pain down the arm the source is probably the neck, not the shoulder. It would be damn near impossible to have a significant structural related shoulder injury from riding aero. Most likely you have some nerve root compression going on from somewhere. It’s obviously hard to figure things out on a computer though.
It would not be a bad idea to get it checked out. Sometimes those things are relatively easy fixes if there is such a thing with a few exercises, and or mobilizations. You said you have a PT friend I recall from a previous post. If they are good with mechanical neck pain have em look at it.
Zach- your having a tough go at it lately. Weren’t you just asking about shin issues recently?
I too just had the same problem. I got back a Cortizone shot and a week off. I have a slight tear in the rotator cuff. Swimming is good for it but in moderation. I have to limit myself for the next month to less than 30K for recovery. Rest and ice for the next week. It will get better, just let the body heal!
i had progressively worse shoulder pain for over a year that got to the point that every stroke in the pool was painful (not excruciating but bad enough that i couldn’t swim hard). i tried taking time off, ART and swimming through it and finally realized that i probably had a labral tear. i went in to see a surgeon at hss and told him that i was pretty sure it was a labral tear. the problem labral tears is that they are deep and there isn’t a test in the office that a doctor can do to diagnose it. we went to the mri and, sure enough, it was a labral tear.
i pushed off the surgery until this september (it was diagnosed in june) because i wanted to be able to bike and run all summer. the surgery was a scope and when i woke up the surgeon told me that the real problem was that the liagments in my shoulder had been stretched out (a “loose” shoulder) so most of the surgery was tightening them. the labral tear was tiny and he didn’t think that that was causing my problems. he said that once they knocked me out, my shoulder was relaxed and they knew right away that it was too loose.
the first month was in a sling letting the stiches heal. i was able to ride the stationary bike after a week and, against the therapist’s orders but following the surgeon’s orders, got outside on the bike after a little over a month (the big risk is falling and undoing the surgery). running uses the shoulder a lot more than biking so it was 8 weeks until i started running slowly. i will be getting into the pool for the first time this week (i’m about 14 weeks in) but it won’t be much. i still don’t have a full range of motion and, as someone else noted, you cannot get your arm over your head very well. the rehab is boring, mostly stretching, which i hate to do and takes a long time to work. the surgeon has said that this is a 6 month process.
i never was in any real pain except for the first night when i got home and the hospital painkillers wore off. it felt like someone was using a blowtorch on the front of my shoulder until the vicadin kicked in. sleeping definitely was a pain and i could not get in a comfortable position for weeks – either it hurt the shoulder but was comfortable to sleep in or did not hurt the shoulder but was so uncomfortable i couldn’t sleep. i had the surgery on a friday and was back at work on the following tuesday. if you are going to have the surgery, i would STRONGLY recommend getting it done at hss. it is the best orthopedic hospital in the world.
My tear was small, I was going to go for surgery at the end of the season a couple of years ago, but it wasn’t hurting then. It was hurting again the next season off and on, and then I got some good PT. I haven’t had trouble since then, but I think I took the long route.
I had a pretty bad tear (tore it from 12 to 5pm) as well as tore both tendions in a fall. My suggestion is to get the surgery now! I had the surgery in February of this year and was in a sling for 7 weeks and then physical therapy for almost 6 months. My race season was shot, but in the long run it was worth it. I was able to actually ride the stationary bike with the sling on - you should’ve seen the looks I was getting at the gym! I also was able to start running on the treatmill right after I got the sling off, but had to tuck the arm against the body and couldn’t swing it much. I couldn’t get into the aero position until April-May and was cleared to get into the pool in June. My shoulder is better then before and I saved potential further injury with the surgery. Physical Therapy after the surgery is the MOST IMPORTANT thing you can do. YOu’ll feel better after 4-5 months, but trust me, stay in PT as long as you can. I’ve know gusy who quit PT after 3-4 month thinking they could do it themselves and now they do not have full range of their shoulder due to the scar tissue.
I’d do some research and find a doctor that specializes in shoulders - check and see who your local pro teams use as well as your major universities. You want somebody who is well versed in shouldesr, not just your general ortho surgeon. Where do you live?
good luck
Don
Yea I have a PT friend, but they are back in Indiana, I am in New Mexico. I have an ART/Chiropractor friend here who worked on me. He was having trouble figuring it out…like I said it is getting a bit better, and I can sleep now. But I didnt know if he had checked for this or just for nerve, spinal, muscular stuff. Yea its been a rough go of it lately…I am currently just piling on road bike miles too keep myself sane!!
I dont know how old you are…but keep in mind MOST people over the age of 40 or so…if you do an MRI will have “partial tears” of both the rotator cuff and labrum. Labral tears are MASSIVELY overdiagnosed in older athletes and usually do not cause symptoms. Also clicking in a shoulder is very common and does not necessarily mean you need surgery. rehab rehab rehab…then if after a few months no improvement consider surgery. The exception is if you have a full thickness rotator cuff tear…then early surgery is reasonable.