Torn labrum and surgery...anyone else?
 

I just had shoulder surgery 2 days ago to fix a front labral tear that was allowing my shoulder to partially dislocate front to back. There was also ligament damage that was repaired as well. I'm looking at 6 mos. until "full athletic recovery" (ugh). Anyone else have similar repairs (ie. anchors into the bone) and come back to full performance?

I can relate. In feb 2004 I had: torn labrum, torn bicep tendeon where it goes throught he labrum, torn supraspinatis tendon, arthrittis cleaned out, a bone spur at the end of the clavicle removed, torn rotater repair and bursa sac trashed. I originally went in for Arthrittis and labrum tear only. What was supose to be three months out of work ended up being six. Full strength was a year.
The best advice I can give is:
1. Be patient (that was the hardest part for me)
2. Activley participate in physical thereapy
Patience paid off. My shoulder ended up healing well and is now stronger than the other shoulder (which I am afraid will need repair in the future) I was back to work in six months, full strength took more time. I had to change my weight lifting, I now use dumbells instead of striaght bars to minimize stress on joints. I read in triathlete magazine that many shoulder injuries occur when bringing you arm across your body when swimming so I am working on not doing that.
Good Luck and hang in there. It is possible to get back to full strength or better.

Were these seperate injuries over time, or one catastrophic event?

Not me. Mine was due to a fall from a ladder. Would have been great had the first quack that operated not left the deltoid detached when he sewed me back up. Got a great doc the 2nd time (Johns Hopkins) but still ended up rated 35% disabled. I set off a lot of TSA metal detectors too :-)

navyfp gave you good advice.

-Roger

I had the whole smash done too. Torn Labrum, ligament tears, scar tissue, etc. Navy ffp gave great advice. BE PATIENT and do your PT. I was a good 6 months before I could raise my arm over my head, but I now have 100% range of motion. I got the same recovery times as the others, and mine was at least that long for "Full athletic recovery".

My repaired shoulder is also better than my other one, and I am thinking of having the other one done if it gets any worse. Good luck to you... I feel your pain.

Sorry it took sol ong to reply, have been out of town. All the repairs were one surgery. The Dr. said the labrum is extremely wide (a genetic abnormality). Most of the damage was done over-training in Okinawa while activated with the Marines in 2003. I weight trained Chest/ shoulders/Tris Mon, Wed, Fri. Trained back, BI's and legs Tue, Thur, Sat. Did unit P.T. in the morning two/three days a week and swam 500-100 yards every afternoon, Mon through Fri. Sun was my day of rest.

Stott,

Broke my humorous right below the ball on Oct. 12. It was immobile for 10 weeks. The bone healed but the shoulder was frozen. I am only now (Feb 13) getting somewhere like 85-90% of the movement back.

That is just from immobility (and some deep bruising from the crash). Just saying, because you should expect some of the same from your situation. I work out a bit more of the stiffness everyday, but it is painful and requires dedicated theraputic type exercise.

Good luck, and be ready to dedicate the same effort to recovery as you would to getting in race shape in the first place.

TysonB

Stott,

I should also tell you that swimming is a bit of a hassle. I cannot consistently get my right/elbow/arm/hand cleanly out of the water. Every stroke has to be made deliberatly and conciously and still about every 4th one goes spastic and slaps the water big time. I've never been a devotee of Total Immersion Swimming, but I am taking a clue from them for now and really rolling the right side out of the water. It makes my stroke somewhat uneven, but it helps smooth the right handed entry and guarantees that I don't do more harm than good.

I've been swimming dilegently for about a month now. 1100 meter crawl is my longest to date. 1000 meters in 19:35. Before the accident, I was generally 18:00 for a thousand and 27:00 and change for 1500.

FYI, I'm 59 years old, so you might regain flexibility more easily. I think you will still need to be prepared to work at it, though.

TysonB
Cushing, OK