Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below I tore the posterior labrum in my right shoulder about a year and a half ago. Fortunately the MRI said it was not a SLAP (whaterver that means). The first opinion I got reccomended surgery, the second opinion wanted to try extensive physical therapy first that would hopefully prove surgery unneccessary. I have been doing the therapy for about two months now and there has been some improvement in range of motion, strength, and pain. However, my progress has not been what I anticipated since I am still not able to perform any upper body exercises that use the shoulder. I think surgery is inevitable which really sucks because post-op recovery takes almost a year. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of injury that could advise me? Thanks.
Labrum Tear anyone?
- Thread starter Mike145
- Start date
eaglesnest
New member
Mike, I just had surgery for a torn labrum 2 weeks ago today. Had a well known orthopedist work on mine. He also cleaned up a couple of bone spurs and just a touch of bursitis. They used arthroscopy and used a kevlar band mounted to an anchor in the bone to replace the torn part. My doc told me 6 weeks before I could begin with any type of heavier weight to allow time for the bone to grow over the anchor. After that, he told me it would be better than new. Yours may be worse than mine but he never even recommended therapy and said surgery would be my only recourse to fix it. I already have about 80% of my flexibility back and am going to physical therapy now which makes it very sore for the couple of days after. I knew I would never be able to put up the big weight without getting it fixed so if you have a great doc, I would say go for it. Feel free to ask if you have any specific questions.
eaglesnest said:
Your expereince has made me more optimistic about the prosepect of surgery and its post-op time. The surgeon I saw did not seem to think that my tear was that bad and even compared it to the shoulder injuries sustained by Ken Griffey Jr and Derik Jeter. To this last part I reminded the doctor that these guys were getting the best treatment possible, 24/7, on the best steroids and GH money could buy. REcovery for these guys was a job where as I would be lucky if I could do physical therapy a few times a week.
A
ALIN
Guest
Mike145 said:
get a third opinion.
southpaw45
New member
I've seen many people go through shoulder surgery's and they've all recovered fine. I would definitely get another opinion though.
torn labrum- 6 weeks post op PT. Im in school and have been doing PT for 4 weeks now (even though i intend to do surgery in may). It makes it less painful but i know i need the surery if i want to lift abov emy head or play sports again.
Mike145- where is your doctor? kevlar? slap (got me)???
Mike145- where is your doctor? kevlar? slap (got me)???
NickyE3
New member
I had a torn labrum. SLAP lesion i think is what my doc called it. BAD dislocation in a car accident. Orthropedic surgeon recommended surgery with this type of injury. I have bad shoulders anyway, so I decided to go ahead and do the operation. Also my doc was a surgeon at West Point for many years and had to do shoulder operations all the time.
They were hoping that they could fix it arthroscopically, but they were wrong. I had an open shoulder surgery, big vertical slash starting from the top of my arm pit up (about 6 inches long) and 2 little cuts about an inch long in front and back. They had to put 3 screws in to place the socket back to the bone.
That was about a year and a half ago. Did about 8 months of physical therapy (stretching, strength lifting, and a baseball throwing program). I can do everything like i could before EXCEPT being able to throw something as hard as I can without warming up and stretching. Also, I lost a little bit of range of motion mainly behind my back (like taking your billfold out).
The shoulder that got worked on is better than my natural shoulder! Glad I had the surgery done. Just stick to the physical therapy, it sucks but it is very important that you do it correctly.
Good Luck
They were hoping that they could fix it arthroscopically, but they were wrong. I had an open shoulder surgery, big vertical slash starting from the top of my arm pit up (about 6 inches long) and 2 little cuts about an inch long in front and back. They had to put 3 screws in to place the socket back to the bone.
That was about a year and a half ago. Did about 8 months of physical therapy (stretching, strength lifting, and a baseball throwing program). I can do everything like i could before EXCEPT being able to throw something as hard as I can without warming up and stretching. Also, I lost a little bit of range of motion mainly behind my back (like taking your billfold out).
The shoulder that got worked on is better than my natural shoulder! Glad I had the surgery done. Just stick to the physical therapy, it sucks but it is very important that you do it correctly.
Good Luck
I had the slap surgery on my shoulder. I went though 6 months of pt before the surgery with no improvement. They finally decided to operate and when they went in they found out my labrum was "shredded", using the doctor's words, and that my bicep tendon was torn completely away from my shoulder. I was in a sling 24/7 for six weeks, then rehab for ten more weeks. My range of motion is not where it was before. The only weight lifting issues it causes is doing anything overhead, shoulder press, military press, etc., because my left arm does not come back as far as my right. I work around that by using smith machines, and plate loaded nautilus machines, where I can use leverage to force my arm back.
bigjd69
New member
I had my right Labrum torn playing F-Ball in High School my Freshman year. I had the surgery to repair it back in 99. My right shoulder is fine. P.T. didn't help much but a buddy of mine is a Message Therapist and he would work on me when ever he could. He did more for me than any Physical Therapist could do. He would stretch every muscle around the shoulder ie: bicep tendon, rotator cuff, lats etc. I believe the technique is called A.R.T. Check into it. GOOD LUCK
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