Shoulder Surgury please help

[scotty green]

Hi guys,

I really need to know if any of you have had AC surgury on your shoulder. I will be having surgury on my acromionclavicalar (AC joint) soon. I would like to know your experiences if any. Is this a procedure that will sideline me for 6 months??? Or will I be able to bounce back sooner??? My procedure will be done arthroscopely. Is there a lenghty rehab period?? I have no muscular damage at all and all tendons and ligiments are tight. Surly this is a positive. Ive been training 7 years straight and never been Injured. 1 week at a time is the most Ive ever taken durring that period so I have a solid base, 5'11' 210lbs. with clearly visible abs. Any advice or responses would be great..

 

[jakson]

A friend of mine has had it done on both shoulders. He was back in the gym within three months but he did mention he should have taken more time to let his shoulder heal to 100%

Stick with cardio and leg routines in the mean time.

 

[jakson]

BTW the guy I'm talkin about has never done AS.

 

[jbw55]

Had surgery in Sept 2002

I don't know exactly what surgery you're talking about, but I can tell you my experience with what I had done in Sept 2002.... basically what I had done is detailed here...http://www.shouldersolutions.com/impinge_4.php

I had bone spurs, i.e. growth of new bone, that lead to an impingement and also casued some minor rotator cuff tears, very minor tears. I was hurting pretty bad 4-6 months before I had surgery. I had a single cortizone shot to reduce the swelling, took some time off of lifting, but once I hit the gym again, the same syptoms came right back. by the end of it I couldn;t even raise my arms high enough to put on a tee-shirt. Very painful. I got so frustrated in the gym because I couldn't even do legs, any pressure on my shoulder would KILL ME (i.e squat bar, pads on the hack squat machine) lifting was totally useless. my doc said that It would hurt for 6 months after the surgery.

I had my operation done arthroscopically on a Friday morning. they basically go it in 3 different spots on my shoudl front, back, side and grind down the bone. in my case they only cleaned up fragements of torn rotator cuff, didn't need to stitch anything together.

I took the following monday off of work and was back in work on Tuesday with little discomfort. I did have my arm in a sling that restricted my movement. I came out of the sling that week, it was just a pain in the ass to wear that thing and explain to everybody what the deal was. I just made sure I never lifted anything. I went into physical therapy shortly after that for about 2 months of and on (I was traveling for work at the time and couldn't get in every week) the beginning of PT was very good with the stretching and getting mobility back, after that they work on strength without pain, my strength came back pretty fast but I still had some mild discomfort.

I asked my doc about getting back to the gym and if lifting would fuck anything up, he basically said that in my case since there was no muscle or tendon damage, only bone issues, that nothing I coudl do would screw up what he did, but take it slow anyway.

I made it back into the gym end of november and did some light sets for shoulders. next day I did feel some discomfort so I held off. I did go back to the gym to start getting the rest of me back in shape, just laid off heavy shoulder stuff and my goal was to start lifting hard right after the new year. SO in Jan 2003 I starting hitting the weights hard again, and at this point I am easily back to my old poundages, probably more at this point and every thing is A-OK. still get some discomfort every now and again, but nothing llike before. I do throw in some rotator cuff exercises now and again becasue that seems to stop the clicks and pops (that I had before too).

Long story to answer your question..... I Had my surgery beginning of Sept 2002, and I was back in the gym hitting decent weights at Jan 2003, so that's about 4 full months of being out of serious weights (I was lifting small weight in December and NOT hitting shoulder exercises though, just stretching and light weight strenghtening exercises)....

 

[scotty green]

thanks alot guys! Jakson does your friend still have pain or is he back to 100%. Also why do you mention him being natural? Do you thinks steroids would have make recovery time faster?? I was wandering about that too.

JBW thanks bro, Basically may doc says I dont have spurs or tears in rotator cuff. I have bone on bone were the coller bone and shoulder come together. This is very painful, I cant even wash my hair, reach for a glass in the cabinat or do a push up without severe pain. All my strenght is still there though. Well not all, but Im not weak by any means. And I dont think there would be as much rehab since there is no soft tissue dammage, which I guess is good. He says it shouldnt be a big deal but then again he's not the one haveing the surgury. I just want to know if I would ever be able to get back training heavy without pain. Im sure you guys understand my concerns. Thanks for the replys, Bump for more..

 

[jakson]

The last surgery for him was about a year ago and he is now for the first time since than beginning to set new personal best records. No complaints about the back or the shoulders from him.

About the AS I would have to say if he was using that it would have been a big advantage to him. He just doesn't do it....he's also a broke ass that can't afford anything anywayz so that might have something to do with it..

 

[jbw55]

I didn't have any strength loses before my surgery either when I could get through a set and bear through the pain I was strong as hell, the problem was that pain barrier was pretty fucking high. I know what you mean about having pain doing the most ordinary things, It got to the point where I couldn't sleep on that side, or even if I was sleeping on my stomach, in order to turn over in the middle of the nigh I'd do a semi-pushup to roll-over ans that would wake me up, it SUCKED. But I can say this to you now, 6-7 months after surgery, THANK GOD I DID IT. I'm definitely back to training heavy without pain, it's just some exercises do 'twinge' it a bit (fo me it's front raises with dumbbells), and it'll hurt the next day. Good luck. Be thankful you don't have rotator cuff issues.....

 

[scotty green]

Thanks goes out to both you guys on the responces

 

[jbw55]

One more thing to add..... a good friend of mine is a physical therapist and the one piece of good advice she gave me is to ask your doctor how many shoulder surgeries he performs a year.... she said you really want a DR that does this stuff week in and week out, the shoulder is complicated and you want somebody that knows what he's doing. I asked my Doc and he said he does about 2-3 shoulders a week, that's about 100-150 shoulders a year. That's right at the level that my friend said you want your doc to be.