Long story short...surgery to repair ligament in my upper bicep coming up on Tuesday. Doc says 6 weeks give or take recovery. repair area is right where a stock will land when shooting. Anyone have any experience with lingering pain? Is 6 weeks realistic or will it be longer before I can shoot? Late spring/Early summer is when me and my 14 year old spend a lot of time with friends on the farm range. Hate to think I'm going to miss out on any more time than needed as any of you with teenage sons know gets more valuable and less available with each passing day. Dad just isn't as cool as he used to be...

Had that exact Surgery November 2015 - Bicep Tenodesis. Was my 5th Shoulder surgery. Everyone's experience is different - but it took more than 6 weeks. 6-weeks was when I got approval to get out of sling, but was 6-mos to get full range and approval to lift/exercise without restriction. I'd plan on 3 months before you want to shoulder a heavy rifle. 5.56, 7.62, and .22 are "easy" ... would think 2-3 months you'd be ok. I shoulder on my right, and surgery was on my left so for me was ability to comfortably support rifle.

Take it easy - soft tissue takes a while and you need to walk the line of doing ALL of the PT while not pushing "too much". Re-injury sucks - reason I've had 5 repairs, pushing too hard. Good luck - it is not bad, but be patient.

Just listen to your Physical Terrorist. You will comr to hate him or her, but they really do know what's best, those sick, psycho sadists.

quote:

Originally posted by LtJL:
Just listen to your Physical Terrorist. You will comr to hate him or her, but they really do know what's best, those sick, psycho sadists.

I came to love my visits to the therapist. Didn't hurt that she was very personable and cute but the bi weekly application of heat and electrical stimulation given was heaven to my stiff and sore repaired shoulder!

YMMV, don't take this as advice on what you should do, but one thing I learned after two busted shoulders is not to follow the instruction to work it daily. That produced no results for me, as it left me far too sore to really do the prescribed exercises. I alternated, recovery and hard workout days. That got me healed quick enough that the Dr said I was a "model" patient and released me early.

Good luck!

Man, not just a couple of days ago I hurt my left shoulder in that same exact area while in the gym. I thought perhaps I had just sprained something, but the last two days I'm fearful I did something worse.

Mind if I ask what exactly caused your injury? Yesterday in the gym I just wanted to feel out a few reps on the bench and didn't dare even put any weight on the bar because I could feel that pain would be too much. I'm just hoping whatever I did eventually heals naturally.

Balze,

The shoulder is a very complex joint with a lot going on. It is worth seeing a good PT to figure out where the problem is. You may have done something simple like pop the biceps tendon out of the groove in the humeral head (in which case a good PT can have it back in in a jiffy) or you may have something more complex going on.

Good luck, heal quickly!

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
Man, not just a couple of days ago I hurt my left shoulder in that same exact area while in the gym. I thought perhaps I had just sprained something, but the last two days I'm fearful I did something worse.

Mind if I ask what exactly caused your injury? Yesterday in the gym I just wanted to feel out a few reps on the bench and didn't dare even put any weight on the bar because I could feel that pain would be too much. I'm just hoping whatever I did eventually heals naturally.

No clue on cause...Doctor was hesitant to just bust out " shit happens as we get older". I coach LL baseball so I throw (threw) a lot of bp to the kids a couple days a week, we shoot quite often, I swing a club every couple of weeks or so. all I can remember is waking up in the middle of the night a month or so ago with " dead arm" you know where you arm falls asleep... anyway, hurt like hell once the circulation started again but just thought would be ok in the morning. Turns out hurt ever since... Dr. says bicep runs in a channel in the bone and the ligament that hold it in are shot so certain movements pop it out of the channel and it gets caught against the outside of the bone....

Three surgeries on my right; one on my left.

First right was a general clean up of frayed tendons. I had fished semi-competitively for a number of years and abused it casting.

Second right was after I used a pair of lopping shears on a tree...I managed to pop the bicep tendon out of the groove while bearing down to trim a limb. When it happened water came out of my eyes and I was immediately on the phone to the doctor. The doc took ligaments and crossed them over the tendon to hold it back in place. On the last day of PT, I was doing the itzy-bitzy spider thing up the side of the wall and it popped again.

The third was done by a new doctor who said the first doctor was using old school repair. He broke out the screw drive and secured the tendon to the bone. Doesn't pop out anymore.

The fourth was for my left...after moving the sofa for the wife during one of her "let's move the furniture around to see if looks better anther way." I picked up one end of the sofa and could feel my tendon tear from my muscle. Got a Popeye muscle now. Most people apparently pop the tendon from the bone, but I tore the muscle from the tendon. Doc went in removed the tendon from the bone.

Ask for an ice machine and shoulder pad. That was heaven for my pain after surgery. I was told to sleep for the first week in an upright chair to reduce swelling, a recliner worked well. Do the PT and understand they won't be perfect.

My better half went through shoulder surgery last year. She's pretty tough but I got to say it looked really painful compared to other surgeries I've been around. Really very painful for quite a while.

Tendons don't get great blood supply (that's why they're white) And therefore they don't heal quickly because they don't get nutrition easily. Keeping the swelling down will help a lot-as mentioned above many places use a fancy ice water jacket that fits over your shoulder called the cryo- cuff. While the cooling helps, it makes sleeping rather difficult. Try to use it as much as you can.

Two strong suggestions: one, follow all the instructions and do the PT. Two, take your pain meds as long as you need them but if you start feeling euphoria (better than normal) that's a red flag for you re: addiction.

If you experience "euphoria", at that point I'd suggest weaning off over three days and trying to use Advil and Tylenol. But also remember that 80% of the population is not at risk for opioid addiction. The news never mentions that fact.

Most doctors will prescribe enough pain meds to get you through a reasonable amount of healing, plus they may put a ginormous cocktail of crap (steroids, various lidocaines, fentanyl, morphine, tramadol, Non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, etc.) into your joint which will help for about three days immediately after surgery. Usually enough strong pain meds to get through 2-3 weeks.

But it's gonna hurt. Six weeks is pretty soon to start doing shit from my observations but YMMV. To me it looks like one of the more painful surgeries out there. Sorry man.

Yeah, the ice machine is a small ice chest with a pump and recirculating tube which takes the ice water to and from a pad which goes around the shoulder.

I was suppose to wear it for 30 min and then take it off for an hour and then repeat.

I think it was the second night home my wife hooked me up to the machine and turned it on. She fed me my pain pill and she retreated to the bedroom to allow me to sleep. ....she fell asleep. I woke up about 90 minutes later and I swear my shoulder was like a side of beef in a deep freeze. I hollered at her and finally woke her.

I couldn't move since I was semi-upright in the recliner. Unfortunately, the let-down lever was on the right and that was the arm in the sling.
It's fun looking back, but at the time I was pissed at my Nurse Ratchet.

quote:

Originally posted by slosig:
Balze,

The shoulder is a very complex joint with a lot going on. It is worth seeing a good PT to figure out where the problem is. You may have done something simple like pop the biceps tendon out of the groove in the humeral head (in which case a good PT can have it back in in a jiffy) or you may have something more complex going on.

Good luck, heal quickly!

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately I'm reporting back to my ship tomorrow so will have to wait on seeing the PT (unless at some point it actually becomes debilitating;I don't expect that). I pretty much can function as normal, but an action such as stretching my arm back to put on a jacket will make me grimace.

I happen at have some experience with shoulder surgery as I once had a grade 5 AC Joint separation in my right shoulder that required reattachment of all three ligaments. Just for reference, it took me about six weeks to recover enough to go back to work. I eventually got back to 100% in my right shoulder.

Damn, found out a month ago I have three partial tears in my right shoulder, I'm in PT and it's helping a little bit. I'm seeing a surgeon on Tuesday to discuss my options, but I'm not really thrilled with surgery.

I tore my tricep tendon recently. I discovered there is a time frame which allows the surgeon to use the existing tendon before it degrades to a point of uselessness. Larger tendons have a longer window of successful reattachment vs smaller tendons. In my case, within four weeks typically yields good results. Over that mark, may require surgical wire to substitute the tendon thus giving less favorable results, range of motion, strength etc. I screwed around for a week and a half icing it, bullshitting myself it was a bad bruise or hairline fracture. Not so much. My point, if you think a tendon is involved get to the doc ASAP because it takes time to schedule MRI/X-ray , surgery etc. Not the end of the world but 4-6 month rehab sucks. To Tompow, I'm almost 4 months post op and have full range of motion but strength is 30% what I would normally have in the gym. The biggest risk is feeling almost normal then overloading the tendon with a task you would normally have completed prior to the injury. The rehab is simple yet essential. Take your time and listen to your physical therapist. Not sure in your case but I found X tra large garbage bags and surgical tape to work well in covering the surgery wound for showering until approximately 2weeks after surgery when the incision area could get wet. Good luck.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

I happen at have some experience with shoulder surgery as I once had a grade 5 AC Joint separation in my right shoulder that required reattachment of all three ligaments.

Not a fun one. Good job recovering so quickly! Good luck with this one!

I put my fist through a wall about 37 years ago when I was a bouncer. Some moron tried to pull the trigger on my gun and I put my thumb into the triggerguard behind the trigger and he kept pulling it and since he had "kookstrength", I couldn't get him loose, so I was swinging as hard as I could at his face with my left arm. My thumbnail was being crushed by the overtravel screw (Dan Wesson 15-2), and I finally shoved him into the wall and tried to basically knock him out. I grazed his head and put my hand through the outside wall of the security office. It felt like a bomb exploded in my left shoulder and it's never been right. A few years later, I fell asleep with a ceiling fan going and when I woke up it was like a giant toothache. After a while, I went to therapy, and I made a huge mistake. I was getting ultrasound and heat packs and it was getting better and better, and then I let them talk me into icing it before the heat went on. Not only did they undo all the progress I had made, they made it a lot worse than it ever was. And my insurance company cut off my therapy, so my left shoulder is still messed up. If I keep it vertical, just hanging straight down, I have no problems, but if I extend it out, the pain ranges from minor, to where I will yell, if I swing it holding something even as light as a larger handgun. The lesson here is if they ice it and it makes it hurt after you leave therapy STOP the ice! The icewater pump thing they put on my knee when I had surgery in 2007 caused me more discomfort than the surgery itself did. My right shoulder was ok until 2007, when I stumbled and fell. I put my right hand out to keep my face from slamming into the pavement, and I tore my rotator cuff, and tore my bicep all to hell. I have about a 35 pound limit to what I can lift with it now. Any more than that, and I can feel it trying to tear itself off. I was told by two different doctors that without surgery on it, that I would not be able to lift my hand above my head, but in 2010, I suddenly was able to and I have full motion in my shoulder now, but limited strength. Since it doesn't hurt, I have no intention of having surgery on my right shoulder, but if I was walking better, I would have it on my left, which bugs the crap out of me.