partial bicep tear?

Hey guys... So I know I've seen people on here with injuries like this. How long is the recovery time for something like this? At least it happened toward the end of the season, but I'm still hoping I'll have time to ride again before it gets too cold. So how long will I be out?

It's the lower half of the bicep. My entire upper arm has swelled and there is brusing down on the bottom part of my upper arm. I have an ortho appointment, but it's a couple of weeks off, and the doctor couldn't tell me for sure any details about the injury because she doesn't know much about them.

i tore my left bicep like 4 years ago when my arm got caught in the handle spinning off a rail. the swelling sounds similar to what you have right now, so I can assume its pretty painful too. For me it was more towards the upper side of my bicep.

I was out probably around 7 or 8 weeks, and it was only a partial tear. They did not have to perform any sort of surgical repair, but i was in a sling for about a couple months, and then i did a little bit of rehab. But i also started riding again while i was rehabbing it.

My situation could be different than yours depending on the severity of injury and other factors, but I hope that gives you some sort of perspective.

I have a full torn and dislocated bicep tendon hanging by a thread and a torn R.C. and I have seen two orthos and am scheduled for 11/18 cause I didn't want to ruin my summer even though it keeps popping out of the socket. They told me orthoscopically it would be four weeks in a sling and then PT which varies for everyone. He stated in my case even if I tore it the rest of the way he could still repair it with out cutting. Mine will consist of repairing the tendon and anchoring it back in place and then repairing the tear in the rotator so it may be different then yours.
I had a left rotator cuff repair several years back but it was where they cut through everything and it took eight weeks to get to where I could start using it again. I vowed to avoid this route and do the scope method.

Good luck

Thanks for the replies. It doesn't seem to be a really serious one like what you've described. I haven't been able to get a good picture of it, as the camera doesn't like to pick up proper skin colors. Anyways, here's a picture from 5 days in. The swelling has mostly gone down everywhere except the injury site. I still can't use the bicep without pain, but it is better when just moving my arm around... The discoloration runs about 3/4s of the way up my bicep before it turns back to normal skin tones from the bluish of the bruise, you just can't really tell in the picture.

I ripped all (4) muscles off the shoulder, torn labrum, torn rotator cuff. 18 Months until I finally was out of pain. Most people I talk with that have any type of shoulder/arm tears are about a year before they are pain free even with proper rehab. My doctor had told me mine was going to be a 40 minute surgery, torn rc. - almost 5 hours later and more pain than any of my surgeries, I was jacked. Plan on lots of rehab and pt. Good luck.

Jason did they do yours cutting or orthoscopic? I understand that the regular cut is much worse (which I had on my left) then O.S. due to cutting through all the muscle. I have put mine off for some time but it keeps popping out and that gets painful, the O.S. procedure is supposed to heal much faster due to no rehab on the actual muscles since they were uncut. The O.S. they navigate around them all and you are supposedly up and around and out of a sling in days versus weeks.

Just curious

Nick, I hope for your sake it was a strain and not an actual tear. Have you seen the ortho yet and any word on what it is?

I'm hoping that too. I have an ortho appointment on the 10th, no availability until then unfortunately. The doctor I saw thought it was a tear. very minor, but a tear nonetheless. I can feel all the contact points for the muscle on the joint, so nothing has separated.

Nick, the injury you're describing sounds basically identical to an injury of mine last year, even the same time of year. I caught my toe edge on the lip of the wake when coming down from a backroll and managed to hook my arm through the handle as I fell and the boat of course yanked it away tearing my bicep in the process.

For me, everything swelled up and felt very tight and I couldnt move it at all without serious pain for several days. It gradually got better and better though and I was back on the water I think 3 weeks after it happened, give or take a few days. It still hurt to strain it much so I definitely babied that arm for a little while, but I was back out there none the less. Best of luck to you on the quick recovery, it sure sucks watching the last few weeks on the water slip away!