Shoulder ligament damage

telemachus

I've been having some seriously frustrating and demoralizing shoulder issues for about the last 8 months which have interfered with almost everything bar squat/deadlifts to varying degrees (and god am I sick of those two lifts at this point!).

I was previously going to a physio and getting nowhere so i've recently been to a new one highly recommended to me and he was much more straightforward and clear about the problem, apparently i've damaged the ligament in my shoulder, he's prescribed me various rehab exercises and i'll be checking in monthly to gauge progress but apparently these succeed fully in roughly 50 percent of patients, and after that the only alternative is an MRI and arthroscopic shoulder surgery which is somewhat daunting! I'm not looking for medical advice as the physio explained things very clearly and answered my numerous questions, but I was just curious wether anyone else has had a similar problem or is familiar with it and has any other avenues to follow, or if they underwent the surgery what the process was like.

EileenG

Not my shoulder, but I had knee ligament problems and was told the likely outcome was surgery. I did one hell of a lot of physio exercises, cycled, wore the contraption, and it came right on its own.

InTheTrees

telemachus wrote: »

I've been having some seriously frustrating and demoralizing shoulder issues for about the last 8 months which have interfered with almost everything bar squat/deadlifts to varying degrees (and god am I sick of those two lifts at this point!).

I was previously going to a physio and getting nowhere so i've recently been to a new one highly recommended to me and he was much more straightforward and clear about the problem, apparently i've damaged the ligament in my shoulder, he's prescribed me various rehab exercises and i'll be checking in monthly to gauge progress but apparently these succeed fully in roughly 50 percent of patients, and after that the only alternative is an MRI and arthroscopic shoulder surgery which is somewhat daunting! I'm not looking for medical advice as the physio explained things very clearly and answered my numerous questions, but I was just curious wether anyone else has had a similar problem or is familiar with it and has any other avenues to follow, or if they underwent the surgery what the process was like.

This Friday it'll be four weeks since I screwed up my shoulder. I tweaked it twisting to change the weight on the weight stack, it went away, and then 10mins later while using the chest press my left arm (at the shoulder) just seized.
It hurt like hell for a week, I thought it was dislocated and it would cramp up at times. Went to the doc, who passed me to an orthepedist who said just baby it, take painkillers, use heat pads and let it heal itself.

I havent done any upper body for four weeks. nothing. Its down to a dull ache, like a minor bruise. But i'm still too scared to stress it at all. Next week I'll start doing some simple stretches.

It sucks to not workout. I hate it, I feel like i'm atrophying.

telemachus

EileenG wrote: »

Not my shoulder, but I had knee ligament problems and was told the likely outcome was surgery. I did one hell of a lot of physio exercises, cycled, wore the contraption, and it came right on its own.

I'm praying to all thats dear I have similar success! It's difficult to imagine getting stuck permanently like this, it's uncomfortable enough that I can't sleep on it and it's significantly weaker even day to day outside the gym. According to the physio any pain at all while doing rehab exercises is a bad sign and likely worsening it, so it's not a case of working through discomfort to improve things, if anything I think i'm going to have to work at not overdoing the rehab!

Does your problematic knee give you any trouble now, or is it indistinguishable from your good knee these days?

InTheTrees

telemachus wrote: »

I'm praying to all thats dear I have similar success! It's difficult to imagine getting stuck permanently like this, it's uncomfortable enough that I can't sleep on it and it's significantly weaker even day to day outside the gym. According to the physio any pain at all while doing rehab exercises is a bad sign and likely worsening it, so it's not a case of working through discomfort to improve things, if anything I think i'm going to have to work at not overdoing the rehab!

So you still have pain? After 8 months? I think its certainly time to see a surgeon.

But also (and i'm no expert), are you sure you should be doing rehab exercises while there's still pain? Any twinge of pain there would need a week at least before attempting to work it again and even then really gently.

"Working through the pain" in this kind of injury will only prolong it and I worry that it sounds like you havent given it time to rest.

Again i'm no expert just feeling my way...

telemachus

It's been diagnosed as ligament damage in the shoulder, so unfortunately it's not going to heal by itself no matter how long I leave it, that's why the pain and weakness has lingered on so long, the rehab exercises the physio gave me are to try and strengthen it slowly to the point where (hopefully) I can avoid surgery. Not only do I want to avoid surgery for the sake of it but paying for it could be difficult at the moment with no health insurance!

EileenG

telemachus wrote: »

I'm praying to all thats dear I have similar success! It's difficult to imagine getting stuck permanently like this, it's uncomfortable enough that I can't sleep on it and it's significantly weaker even day to day outside the gym. According to the physio any pain at all while doing rehab exercises is a bad sign and likely worsening it, so it's not a case of working through discomfort to improve things, if anything I think i'm going to have to work at not overdoing the rehab!

Does your problematic knee give you any trouble now, or is it indistinguishable from your good knee these days?

Can't tell which one was injured. I do remember that it hurt like hell for a very long time, and I sweated buckets doing the physio exercises. It felt loose and injured for a long time, and I thought it was never going to come right, then one day, it just seemed to work properly again.

telemachus

Thanks, that gives me some hope anyway, it's strange that you had such a sudden success without much progressive improvement but i'll bear it in mind if things are going slowly, what sort of timescale was it until you noticed things getting better?

I want to work at the rehab as hard as I possibly can but the physio is adamant any pain during it is sign of further aggravation, when you talk about the difficulty of the physio work was is it direct discomfort or just a lot of strain? I've found compared to the other shoulder certain stretches or exercises almost feel like supporting a dead weight which is where the most effort is required.

EileenG

Might be worth getting a second opinion?

I think it took about three months of the whole joint feeling wobbly and loose before it suddenly started to feel like a functioning knee again. I remember sending an e-mail whinging about the lack of progress, then the next day saying that I could use it properly.

telemachus

I think I definitely will try and find a second opinion, though I am a lot more impressed by the current physio than the first who was extremely non specific about the problem and assured me it would go away in no time with massage and general shoulder band-work. If you don't mind could you pm the details of the physio you saw? If you had success with a similar problem they'd seem a good place to start, at the moment i'm inundated with recommendations for miracle curers of back-ache and tennis elbow!