How is my progress and should I be worried?
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I had arthroscopic surgery to prevent further dislocations. My operation was classified as a labral repair, debridement, remplissage(don't know what these mean), and I think they fixed my rotator cuff using anchors. I'm 7 weeks post-op, and out of my sling a week ago. As soon as my doctor took my sling off, my arm and shoulder have been aching in pain. I've been passively trying to lift my arm as a form of exercise, before I start PT next week. As I lift my arm, my body subconsciously raises my shoulder to help, and after a certain point, I feel a pain and stiffness, like my arm is locked to prevent further elevation. I also compared my right and left sides in the mirror(my right is the damaged one), and I notice a horizontal bone slightly protruding from the backside of my right shoulder. This bone is not really visible on the backside of my left shoulder. Should I be worried, or am I on the right track?
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OF66955 michael41735
Edited
I've had two rotator cuff surgeries, and I didnt have a labral repair or remplissage. I had a full thickness tear and subsequent arthroscopy with anchors and debridement (this is where they shave a bone spur at the end of your collar bone). I'M NOT A DOCTOR, but I'm very much in control of my healing, especially since I went through this with the other arm last year, SO, my advice to you is to put the sling back on if it's excruciating. My doctor (for the first surgery) said it was okay to remove it at 6 weeks (but wear it when out and about), not even 4, like a lot of surgeons say you should, and I told him that I would wean myself off of it. It took a week of weaning myself off of it. So, an hour, then two, then three and so on until I could have it off most of the day, and only slept in it without the pillow. That took about a week to wean myself out of the sling during the day.
So, you have to take charge. He/She cannot feel your pain level and if it's too much, only you can know what's right and what's not. As far as PT, all PT for shoulder starts with PASSIVE MOTION. That's pendulums and slides across the table, using your body to move the arm NOT the arm itself, wall walks, book opens/closes. So, you should not be doing ANY active motion, especially lifting! And especially no abduction. Lifting comes much later in PT as does anything with bands, or even assisted pulleys. At PT, in the beginning, you do book open and closes and slides (where you put your hand on a towel and slide over a table back and forth as far as you can until the point of pain, but not beyond that point). At home you can do wall walks, so you have something to anchor your arm, and table slides, pendulums, squeeze your exercise ball AND THAT'S IT. To clarify: this procedure is long and the healing is slow. Rushing it will create setbacks. There is absolutely NOTHING you can do to speed up healing. And pushing PT beyond what you are ready for (that includes weaning yourself out of your sling) is only going to increase the risk of a rupture. I don't know about the protruding bone, but no, this does not sound right, and I would schedule an appointment at once, unless its just your shoulder blade that is jutting out because of the position of your arm in a sling. Just my two cents, but I tell my doctors and my PT person what I am capable of within the parameters of my healing process. For instance, I went in today and he said 'the sling can come off' (it's been 4 weeks), and I said 'no, it's not coming off for another 2 weeks. For now I bend over, take the sling off, and slowly bend my elbow a few reps (like 8 reps) to start to activate the arm, massage my forearm, wiggle my fingers, and go right back into the sling. But I do not adduct nor abduct my actual shoulder at this point. I will keep doing this over the next two weeks, and if this facilitates the feeling that I can perhaps leave the sling off for some amount of time during the day, I will. But part of the reason I wear the sling is so that I dont accidentally reach out and grab something or become tempted to lift something too heavy.
I will do pendulums and walks once a day to keep the arm moving AT 6 WEEKS, but will keep the sling on. I also, incidently, moved my forearm regularly a couple of weeks after surgery, and opened and closed my hand, and massaged my forearm and lower arm just above the elbow to avoid unwanted stiffness HOWEVER, stiffness NOW is good in the healing process, it's stiffness later that is the issue (there are a bunch of things on the net about this). I downgraded to the smaller pillow that I had with my last surgery, about 1/2 of the thickness of this current pillow, and I intend to keep this on for another two weeks, then wean myself off of the pillow and the sling for a further week, and PT at 8 weeks (mind you, I AM doing wall walks, book opens/closes, and slides and living largely without the sling before going to PT, so I am not being totally inert up to the 8 week point). I kept very specific notes from last time, because I enjoyed documenting my healing, and I intend to follow the last healing process that I had because the last surgery/healing route was successful. Already it feels better on the small pillow, but not ready to remove the pillow altogether. And PT... not even interested in that for a few more weeks. I have no intention of putting myself in the position of having to repeat that god-awful surgery because I'm impatient. At 8 weeks, I will do PT for 6 weeks, then transition to PT at home. 7 months I can do yoga. 9 months I can cautiously return to life with some SLOW strength building. After a year this will all be behind me.