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oldcragger
Trad climber
Truckee,CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 5, 2008 - 02:36pm PT
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I am scheduled this week for shoulder arthroscopy to repair a labrum tear and possible bicep tendon reattachment. Anyone here on ST have experience with this procedure and any advice on recovery and effective rehab to return to climbing. Thanks.
Michael
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Koda
Sport climber
The South
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Yes, I had shoulder surgery about 11 months ago. No labral tear, but lots of debridement of the bicep tendon (30% gone), shaved off 1 cm of my clavicle, put an anchor in, and micro-fractured the bony cup. As my OS termed it, "I have a beat up shoulder from nearly 30 years of playing on rocks." For me, it's chronic. The surgery bought me time.
Your return to climbing is dependent upon many of variables - age, degeneration, severity (obviously), and type of climbing you do. What I can tell you is this: be a fanatic about rehab. Get your range of motion back as soon as you can, and then get working on the small RC muscles first. You will feel lame at first using such light weights, but trust the PT - if you rebuild your big mucsles back first, you will be back in the same boat. Your RC muscles and structures will be weak, which then leads to instability, which puts stres on the bicep tendon and other structure, which then leads to more tears and impingiment. Are you having a bicep tenodisis?
I went back to climbing too early and paid for it. At six months I was back on steep routes up to 5.13a. They felt easy, but, my RC muscles and bicep tendon were not ready to handle that kind of stress. As a consequence,I got a terrific impingiment flare-up that has require me to take off totally. I'm a bit stubborn, but now I've learned. Climb easy slab if you simply must touch stone, just don't do anything to create lingering inflamation. BTW: there is a great online community at www.slaptear.com. I found it to be great resource when I would get depressed about progress. Depending upon the type of routes you climb, and level, recovering from this surgery can take quite a while. It is worth it though, for sure.
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Dr. Rock
Ice climber
http://tinyurl.com/4oa5br
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My biggest prob was getiin off the vikes.
Why do they have to make them so pure nowdays?
Go with Canada if you really like em and wanna stay hooked.
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Dwain
Trad climber
Apple Valley, California
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Hey Oldcragger:
Give me a shout at cosmiccragsman@msn.com
and I will send you my phone number.
I went thru major surgery about 11 years ago to reattach my supraspinitus and infraspinitus to my arm which was completly torn off. I can give you a few pointers and give you info about a cheap device that will really help with your shoulder.
And as one of the posters said above, Physical therapy is VERY important!!!
Dwain
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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I found that swimming helped quite a lot after shoulder surgery. Different kind of surgery, but perhaps similar in rehabilitation. Swimming in a disciplined manner thoroughly rebuilds flexibility and strength, in a fairly low-stress environment. The simplest thing, if you're not already a swimmer, is to link up with a local master's swimming group. There's one at almost at all pools, and they often have introductory/rehabilitation groups.
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oldcragger
Trad climber
Truckee,CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 6, 2008 - 12:12pm PT
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I had impingement tendonitis 20 years ago and had the acrominum shaved via arthroscopy but this injury and procedure seem more severe and older bodies take longer to heal. Thanks for the info. I'll e-mail you cosmic cragger.
Michael
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paganmonkeyboy
climber
mars...it's near nevada...
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i know maculated and others have had a nice threads on this a while back too...
i've had both done - get a reclining chair to sleep in, and the withdrawl from the pain meds was part of the worst of it imho...that and the pain...
pay attention when they go through the things you are to start doing the first day, and write it down - you will be woooozy and not want to swing your arm, but you have to and do it right or you will be fighting it all uphill to get mobility back. just write it down so you will remember exactly what they tell you...
good luck and i hope you are happy with the results !
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