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504
Joined
11/13/2011
Location
Kaysville, UT, USA
Edited Date/Time
2/8/2018 10:12am
10 days ago I took a spill that resulted in a grade 3 separation of my right shoulder. In short my bike quit right as i blipped the throttle off a ledge and I piled it in. I'm 34 and live a healthy/active life style.
I'd like to hear from people that have experienced this injury. I've begun to recover pretty quickly, using by arm for basic stuff. I have most of the range of motion back and can pretty much go about my business doing daily things. I've read a lot about it online and it seems like surgery usually isn't preformed for grade 3. My arm/shoulder is pretty displaced, it hangs lower and closer to my body by about an inch.
- How have you recovered from similar injury? Constant pain?
- Has your arm remained as displaced as it was when you hurt it?
- Surgery.. Tell me about it please. How was recovery, have you gotten your original shape back?
I think I'm going to pursue having mine fixed. It sounds vain, but I can't stand how it looks to have my arm smashed in the way it is. I'm going to see the specialist soon, hopefully in the next week or two.
Thanks in advance!!
JM
I'd like to hear from people that have experienced this injury. I've begun to recover pretty quickly, using by arm for basic stuff. I have most of the range of motion back and can pretty much go about my business doing daily things. I've read a lot about it online and it seems like surgery usually isn't preformed for grade 3. My arm/shoulder is pretty displaced, it hangs lower and closer to my body by about an inch.
- How have you recovered from similar injury? Constant pain?
- Has your arm remained as displaced as it was when you hurt it?
- Surgery.. Tell me about it please. How was recovery, have you gotten your original shape back?
I think I'm going to pursue having mine fixed. It sounds vain, but I can't stand how it looks to have my arm smashed in the way it is. I'm going to see the specialist soon, hopefully in the next week or two.
Thanks in advance!!
JM
Mine was never really displaced, at least not that I could see, or maybe I just never noticed.. Once the swelling went down all looks normal, other than the small lump on the top of the shoulder socket.
Get some medical opinions before you commit to the surgery, it might be completely unnecessary.
After about a week I saw a specialist and he stated it was a typically a toss up with surgery, but there was a new procedure out there called the arthrax dog bone procedure (google it, tons of detailed info out there). Anyways I decided to have the surgery and get it fixed right because I didn't want to hacd it bother me the rest of my life.
The surgery was a two hour procedure with one large incision on the top of your clavicle and two small incisions on the front and back of the AC joint. The pain was moderate for the first few days and then it was minimal. Recovery consisted of six weeks in a sling only able to do "desk" work and then another 6 weeks of light ROM excercises. After 12 weeks I was cleared to do weights and then after 4 months I was given the all clear to do whatever. I also did all of my pt at home on my own with resistance bands.
due to my first child being due around the time I was cleared to get back on the bike I took a little extra time to recover. My first ride was over Labor Day wknd and other than being out of shape the repaired shoulder didn't bother me a bit. I am back to regular riding and every thing else and I couldn't tell a bit of difference. Once and a while it's a bit tight but the doctor said it takes a year to completely heal.
As for appearance, other than a scar it is hard to notice. There is a bit of a bump from the button under the skin but my shoulders are even again and the huge bump is gone.
Sorry for the long winded post but figured I would give you the complete story. It's a bit of a long recovery period, but At 35 years old you have a lot of active life ahead of you. I don't regret the surgery a bit.
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My advice is to talk with the doctor/surgeon about pros and cons. See if physio can get you back feeling 100%, if that doesn't work you know surgery is the backup plan.
I Did physio for a year and felt great, but a minor tip over set me back to 0... Now I know surgery is the answer.
I know we have different injuries but I felt compelled to say something when you said it doesn't feel right. Again different injuries but if it's not right, get it fixed. You know your body the best.
I just went over barrs and left hand first on enduro trail.. Shoulder went back in pretty fast but
recovery took long. After 2-3 months it was moving some and had to work out hard to get back full range.
Pain continued and there was no strenght to ride full potential untill 5-6 months. It was so bad after such small
crash that was hard to believe. It still hurts some if i dont workout for some time, doing moto and gym keeps shoulder in good shape. Surgery could make it too tight and take also 5-6 months to rehab.
Next one was right shoulder just simple fall to shoulder first. Movement was limited and got some sharp pain when hand was in bad angle. There was bruise that gave me nerve pain. Shoulder was best while riding bike even i could not do gym. Big problem was that sharp pain in couple arm angle that make hand grip loose some strenght.
Only way was get movement back with rubber strap workouts and took again 5-6 months to get it back to normal movement and strenght.
All different but i have learned it will take so long to get it back to normal. I have always started riding too soon but its hard to not ride..
josh8811, most of us just go ahead and live with the bump. I was back to feeling normal in a few weeks after my grade 3 sep. It has been a long time since I did mine but it seems like it isn't the easiest thing to have fixed and may be relatively easy to separate again not to mention the time off the bike while getting it fixed and rehabbed.
Never felt right on the bike until I had them fixed. I tried but ended up going right into surgery.
Find a DR that specializes in shoulders. Plan to sleep in recliner for a week and make sure to do all your Re-hab.
Shortest path to a full recovery and back to the tracks.
My two cents & good luck.
They done an awesome job. Advised to wear the sling for 6 weeks. Went to the physio back in Ireland the day the 6 weeks was up. I was back racing 2 weeks later with only slight discomfort. After about a month it was back to normal and I've never looked back since. That was 9 years ago.
Have a slight bump and a long scar that's the only reminder left! No pain or complications.
I struggled with the exact same question of to have surgery or not. I read a lot about it and what it boiled down to for me was the fact that it would probably be ok without surgery, but it would always be just a little off without getting it fixed. at this point in my life, the time away from the bike was worth the better quality of life I have now with it fixed right. I wanted to be able to ride, golf, and throw a baseball with my kids without the lingering issues that I may have suffered from forever without getting it fixed. And sleeping on it, forget that if its not completely stable.
I can honestly say I don't think about it one bit while riding. And yes the chance is always there to re-Injure it again but it's no different than any other injury. That is the chance you take every time you unload the bike.
Two years ago I took a hit to my left shoulder in a mtb fall, pain was bad like a burning sensation. Went to my local hospital and was given the all clear with no damage, just bruising. After a week though the pain was still the same so went back to get checked up again, this time I was told different as the x-Ray (above) shows that the shoulder was out of its socket and the collarbone was out of place a little with legiment damage. That's about as technical as the doctor got so I'm not sure what actual term for the damage was, he also commented that I would suffer from frequent dislocation on that shoulder.
Two years on I still get sharp pains in my shoulder from time to time, if I lay on my left side in bed it kills after 2 minutes, playin pool/snooker hurts too when I have my arm out stretched and pressure on it. Haven't experienced much pain when on my mtb or mx bike but I think adrenaline has something to do with that. Thankfully no dislocations yet so I'm happy with how it is, I can live with it.
Hope your recovery goes well mate!
Pit Row
My brother and a guy I ride with done the same but have had lots of problems with theirs coming out repeatedly, even from something as simple as sneezing. It seems from speaking to a few people that if its the once you may be lucky, if it happens again it will become an on going issue until it is surgically fixed.
(note I'm no medical expert on speaking through experience haha)
edit* Just noticed separated not dislocated......
I got the surgery and I'm super happy about it. The doc said I'd likely lose some motion but he was wrong. Now I feel like the injuries never happened.
I have a feeling that the separated shoulder is similar. Definitely consider the surgery (but talk to real doctors, not Vitalogists.)
edit: here are a couple of links with info from docs
http://www.howardluksmd.com/orthopedic-social-media/ac-separations-when…
http://www.drdavidgeier.com/ask-dr-geier-monday-shoulder-separations-ac…
The damn thing actually feels better now than it has in a long time. If I could get the left shoulder to feel half as good I'd be straightened out.
With a separated shoulder, since your upper arm is still in it's "socket" (it's actually not a socket, but for ease of illustration, we'll just call it that), there is no instability of the shoulder joint. There is no real increased risk of re-injuring it in the future just from normal activities or riding, like you DO have with a dislocated shoulder (gleno-humoral). With an AC separation your arm doesn't really "hang down" as some have said. It's actually your collar bone that is "sticking up". Now with a dislocation (glenohumeral), yes, your arm will hang down, because it's actually ripped out of the "socket". Your arm will probably be flexed at the elbow too, until you have the dislocation reduced, due to the shortening of the biceps tendon (long head).
So it really is not absolutely necessary to surgically repair an AC separation. Yes, it will make the shoulder somewhat stronger in the long run, but remember the surgery itself will cause some trauma and resulting scar tissue formation itself. Speaking not only as a doctor (Chiropractor) for more than 30 years, and as a MX'er who had an AC separation from a crash at age 19, you can do pretty damn good just with physical therapy. Whenever you have any serious soft tissue injury, things will never quite be the same, but overall, you can do just fine. I didn't have surgery on mine, because it really just would have set me back time-wise on my recovery. You can achieve 90 to 95 % of healing with PT alone versus surgery combined with PT, IMHO. It's a whole different story with a dislocated shoulder, but that's not what the OP has.
You have to make your own choice, but if I was you, I'd get real serious with the PT. As for me, I never even did PT when I had my original injury (dr didn't even suggest it - just told me I'd do fine and surgery wouldn't make any difference in the long run). I took up weight lifting in my mid 30's, and this really strengthened my shoulder. So much so that even in my 40's when I suffered other shoulder injuries at work (SWAT team for 10 years) like 2 torn rotator cuffs, 2 torn labrums, and bicep tendon avulsion, that my shoulders were strong enough to recover every time via PT combined with surgical repair. I continue with weight lifting today, and at age 55, even with all the injuries and a total of 3 surgeries, my shoulders are pretty damn good, and I ride/race without any shoulder pain. (arm pump is a totally different issue! LOL)
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