Great, so I MAY have a labrum tear

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Just to let you guys know. The contrast part of the MRI with contrast blows. It doesn't necessarily hurt that much, but it's the most discomfort I've felt in a while. I felt fine, but apparently my heart rate spiked and they put me on some oxygen. Before they put the dye in my shoulder, they made me lay in there for like 15 minutes in a ridiculously uncomfortable position while the doctor finished up a phone call. Jackass. The anxiety of waiting was worse than anything, which is probably why everything spiked.

Ouch, better then my only MRI experience though. I was in a car wreck that I never saw coming and woke up in an MRI!

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Has anybody else had this arthroscopic surgery? I go in for the MRI to see how bad it is this Friday. I'm looking for people that have had this surgery or know people that have had this surgery. Any suggestions or advice? I'm pretty pissed that I have to have surgery, but that's the only thing that can be done. Thanks in advance.

I had a labrum tear and arthroscopic surgery for it. In fact, I didn't find out I had a labrum tear until after the surgery when I woke up from the anesthesia. They didn't know what was wrong, but I didn't respond to PT or cortisone shots so they suggested going in arthroscopically and exploring, presumably looking for rotator cuff damage and repairing it and cleaning up and repairing any damage they found. I had an excellent surgeon, very experienced. He does all the shoulder stuff for the local 30,000+ university's sports teams.

The doctor provided me with a video tape of the procedure after it was over. I can hear him describing what's going on. They actually introduced a miniature camera into the shoulder to capture what was happening and his voice is heard as the procedure continued. My rotator cuff was perfect, no problem but he found a labrum tear (the xrays and MRI didn't reveal it at all), and repaired it. I had what they call a "SLAP lesion, Type 4". It's a certain type of labrum tear, there being several types.

They'd told me I could expect to wear a sling for 3 days, but by virtue of what they had to do during the procedure it was a month before I was out of the sling and the recovery took months. Physical therapy is instrumental in your recovery. You will want a good therapist and you will make steady recovery and regain your range of motion.

My bicep tendon wasn't well attached and they had to pin it to the socket, which they did in two places. They also did some microfracture to areas of the socket that were slightly damaged. This was to induce healing, but I think it caused pain in the interim. My doctor told me after the surgery that he thought I'd have a 100% OK shoulder in a year. That was ~5 years ago, and I wouldn't say it's 100%. I don't know why. But it is way better than it was. It really made life difficult at times. It hurts (stings) sometimes, but mostly it's pretty OK, and I have good strength, really as good as my other shoulder. I'm right handed and it's my left shoulder, so that's lucky. I tore it up swimming. I was a radically intense swimmer, swimming two miles a day, 7 days a week, and very aggressively.

 

[thespeakerbox]

injuries are cause by stupid mistakes.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: thespeakerbox
injuries are cause by stupid mistakes.

Can't argue with that. It's verifiably true. But some injuries are barely foreseeable. I was told that swimming was great because it isn't prone to injury. Surprise... my shoulder started to hurt so bad I had to stop swimming cold turkey and I was swimming 14 miles a week. I worked on my form. I was nowhere's near world class but I tried my best and pushed myself as far as my body would take me. There was no stupid mistake you could point to unless it was trying too hard.

My physical problems can all be attributed to athletic endeavors. But without those endeavors (which I still engage in, but in most cases not the same ones) I wouldn't be the person I am, wouldn't have good cardio-vascular fitness, wouldn't be strong, probably wouldn't have healthy blood pressure. I could be a couch potato and have a heart attack, whoopie.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Thanks for the reply, Muse. That's helpful. However, a new update: they didn't find the labrum tear on the MRI image so he thinks it might just be inflexibility in the pectoralis minor. He assigned me PT for 6 weeks and told me to come back if it's not better.

Originally posted by: thespeakerbox
injuries are cause by stupid mistakes.

You are a genius. :roll: Don't be such a jackass. Sometimes they are. Sometimes they aren't. Mine was either caused by something that wasn't my fault or is something that I couldn't really help (muscle inflexibility).

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Thanks for the reply, Muse. That's helpful. However, a new update: they didn't find the labrum tear on the MRI image so he thinks it might just be inflexibility in the pectoralis minor. He assigned me PT for 6 weeks and told me to come back if it's not better.

Sounds familiar. I tried a few different courses of PT (on the orthopedist's recommendation, and a different doctor in his office) with some very excellent pros but it didn't help my shoulder at all. Of course, I was willing to try whatever they suggested. They're the experts. I only went for surgery when the doctor suggested it might help. You could be on that path. The fact that they don't see a labrum tear doesn't mean it's not there. There could be lots of stuff going on in your shoulder they don't see, and will only see if they go in there and scope it. It's the most complex joint in the body. I watched that video they took with the scope probably 20 times. It's kind of fascinating.

If and when he does suggest an arthroscopy, I suggest you get a 2nd opinion. I did that, and was referred to the guy who does the shoulders of the Oakland Athletics (who were all in his office because of stupid mistakes, of course). He told me he had the utmost confidence in my doctor and that he concurred with having the procedure, and by him.

Originally posted by: thespeakerbox
injuries are cause by stupid mistakes.

You are a genius. :roll: Don't be such a jackass. Sometimes they are. Sometimes they aren't. Mine was either caused by something that wasn't my fault or is something that I couldn't really help (muscle inflexibility).

Yeah, that was precious. See the post I made (just before yours) responding to that.

 

[gramboh]

Originally posted by: thespeakerbox
injuries are cause by stupid mistakes.

Yep, better to play it safe and not take any risks in terms of physical activity for your entire life.

 

[KoolDrew]

What's your rowing strength in comparison to benching?

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew
What's your rowing strength in comparison to benching?

When I was bulking, I was doing 3x5x165 (sets x reps x weight) for rows and 3x5x185 for bench. I haven't lifted since, but they have recently said that it may be a pectoralis minor problem so I'm going to PT for that for 4 weeks. I'll update after the first week on the progress.

 

[KoolDrew]

Any idea what may have caused the problem in the first place? Poor posture is often a cause of shoulder problems. Prolonged sitting with poor posture will cause the pecs to become shorter and tighter while making other muscles longer and weaker. Another common problem is too much pushing and not enough pulling in peoples routines. For every set of bench press, you should be doing a set of rows.

You probably already know that stuff, but just throwing it out there anyway...

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew
Any idea what may have caused the problem in the first place? Poor posture is often a cause of shoulder problems. Prolonged sitting with poor posture will cause the pecs to become shorter and tighter while making other muscles longer and weaker. Another common problem is too much pushing and not enough pulling in peoples routines. For every set of bench press, you should be doing a set of rows.

You probably already know that stuff, but just throwing it out there anyway...

I would venture to say it's a natural lack of inflexibility along with a lot of sitting (sometimes in a hunched posture). When I was working out, I was rowing as much, if not more, than benching. Hopefully we can get this all fixed up through PT though. Thanks for bringing some extra suggestions into this so I can try to fix everything.

 

[1%er]

When I was bulking, I was doing 3x5x165 (sets x reps x weight) for rows and 3x5x185 for bench. I haven't lifted since, but they have recently said that it may be a pectoralis minor problem so I'm going to PT for that for 4 weeks. I'll update after the first week on the progress.

A torn labrum is a big deal. You're about 3 years out of surgery, I wonder are you at 100% functionality or are there some residual side effects that linger? Also, when you got out of surgery, how many weeks did you go without the use of your arm? Cause I know once you get out of surgery you're in a sling and you're not supposed to use the injured arm at all. I have a torn labrum. Physical therapy did not help one bit. While injured I lost approximately 20lbs of bulk that I had put on. Losing it was a bit of a big deal but not anymore, now I'm okay with the loss. Thanks in advance.

 

[Exodist]

Well, I don't know exactly when it happened since I've had this clicking/popping for probably half of my life. I do remember one instance when I realized it started to hurt after my friend ran into me during a faux-tackle. My weightlifting aggravated it. Well, after surgery, the arm stays in a sling for 3-4 weeks, then usually 3-4 months until it's back to 100%. I'll be glad to get the process started though since I'm sick of having a bum shoulder.

Dang bro, hate to hear that about the shoulder. I do wish you a healthy and quick recovery though. Never had any joint surgerys. I have had my tonsils and adnoids took out, my appendix as well and a indirect inguinal hernia repaired. Only advice I can give is listen to the doct and drink plenty of protein to keep from loosing muscle mass during recovery. Other then that best wishes my friend.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

A torn labrum is a big deal. You're about 3 years out of surgery, I wonder are you at 100% functionality or are there some residual side effects that linger? Also, when you got out of surgery, how many weeks did you go without the use of your arm? Cause I know once you get out of surgery you're in a sling and you're not supposed to use the injured arm at all. I have a torn labrum. Physical therapy did not help one bit. While injured I lost approximately 20lbs of bulk that I had put on. Losing it was a bit of a big deal but not anymore, now I'm okay with the loss. Thanks in advance.

Holy thread resurrection, batman. This was almost 3 years ago. I exhibited some symptoms of a labral tear, which are also common with shoulder impingement. Didn't actually have a labral tear, but shoulder impingement along with biceps tendonitis.

I'm actually now in physical therapy school so I can still answer your questions. Expect to not be using your arm much for at least 4-6 weeks. You'll need to keep it in the sling as long as the doctor says - none of this getting out early crap. It takes a fair amount of time to heal just enough to use again, let alone return to full function.

Physical therapy is a conservative treatment and can't always fix the problem. This is relatively common with labral tears because PT can't magically heal your tissue. If it were a small tear, then healing can be elicited via joint mobilizations, strengthening, stretching, postural re-training, etc. If it's anything different than that, then the results can be mixed.

PT isn't/wasn't a waste because you'll have a head start on some things you still have to work on post therapy.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Dang bro, hate to hear that about the shoulder. I do wish you a healthy and quick recovery though. Never had any joint surgerys. I have had my tonsils and adnoids took out, my appendix as well and a indirect inguinal hernia repaired. Only advice I can give is listen to the doct and drink plenty of protein to keep from loosing muscle mass during recovery. Other then that best wishes my friend.

Check the date of the original post. Never had the tear or the surgery. Shoulder is still a bit wonky, but that's because I had neglected mobility work for a while. It's back on the right track though.

 

[Exodist]

Check the date of the original post. Never had the tear or the surgery. Shoulder is still a bit wonky, but that's because I had neglected mobility work for a while. It's back on the right track though.

Regardless thats wonderful news.. hehe.. Glad your OK..

Necro threads get me all the time. I am worse at never looking at post dates. Ask the guys on Ubuntu forums.. lol