Popped shoulder out of socket

So I finally managed to dislocate my shoulder. Let me tell you it is about the coolest looking thing when you peel back a wetsuit and find your limb dangling like wet noodle.

Who else has done it? Please tell me no surgeries were necessary and that you were competing in two weeks following your injury. Any PT tips?

Dang man! Ive heard that dislocated shoulders are sometimes painfull, but rarely keep you out for over 2 weeks.
Ive never had one though so I could be wrong

I had one two summers ago and I never went to the doctor. I still have pain in it when I run.

i had one last summer it was a stage 2 seperation in my shoulder from carveboarding at 45mph. at first the doc in the er said my sholder was fine so they sticked me up and did dermabration and sent me back to the cabin but i kept having pains and 2 weeks later i tried to wakeboard on it but it was to painful and hard riding one handed so i went to the doctor and got x-rays. no surgery just 2 months of physical therapy 2 times a week. but i still get a little pain and its not completely back in place. so make sure u get it checked out u dont want pain later on in life.

For me, the first dislocation did most of the damage, and it continued to dislocate until I had it surgically repaired. I was told, once the ligaments are stretched, that's it . . . they never go back. I would say take it easy, and do some low impact strengthening exercises . . . P.T. might be a good idea, to learn the proper exercises.

Take care.

3 times within 18 months here. None wakeboarding, all skateboarding... vert ramp crashes. The last time was about 8 or 9 years ago. I lost range of motion and still have pain when my arm is extended and any kind of force is applied. The easiest way to explain it is that I can no longer swing a bat or throw a ball without pain.

I can say from experience that, with each dislocation, it gets easier to knock it out again.

See a doctor!

I didn't mess mine up from Wakeboarding, but high school football. I had to have a bankheart procedure or something like that. Still only have about 85% mobility in it. It sucks man!

I did something to my shoulder I am not sure if I separated it or what but it got pushed down and now it is permanently lower then my other shoulder and there is a huge freaking bump there now, which is my bone. I never went to see a doctor but the same thing happened to my cousin and we are both fine with out surgery.

I guess it all depends on how you fell and how your shoulder was separated. Some of them need surgery and some of them, like mine are fine with out it. I just chilled for about 3 or 4 weeks and I was fine.

Thermal Capsular shrinking is an option for shoulder instability, but its use is controversial. Studies are still occuring.

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1: Am J Sports Med. 2006 Aug;34(8):1356-63. Epub 2006 May 9.Click here to read Links
Thermal capsulorrhaphy for the treatment of shoulder instability.

* Miniaci A,
* Codsi MJ.

Director of Sports Health, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 9500 Euclid Avenue, A41, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA. miniaca@ccf.org

Thermal capsulorrhaphy has been used to treat many different types of shoulder instability, including multidirectional instability, unidirectional instability, and microinstability in overhead-throwing athletes. A device that delivers laser energy or radiofrequency energy to the capsule tissue causes the collagen to denature and the capsule to shrink. The optimal temperature to achieve the most shrinkage without causing necrosis of the tissue is between 65 degrees and 75 degrees centigrade. This treatment causes a significant decrease in mechanical stiffness for the first 2 weeks, and then, after the tissue undergoes active cellular repair from the surrounding uninjured tissue, the mechanical properties return to near normal by 12 weeks. If the thermal energy is applied in a grid pattern, then the tissue heals with more stiffness by 6 weeks. Clinical studies on thermal capsulorrhaphy for the treatment of multidirectional instability have shown a high rate of recurrent instability (12%-64%). The clinical studies on unidirectional instability showed much better recurrence rates (4%-25%), but because most of the patients also underwent concomitant Bankart repairs and superior labral anterior posterior lesion repairs, the efficacy of the thermal treatment cannot be ascertained. A randomized controlled trial would be needed to assess whether instability with Bankart lesions requires augmentation with thermal capsulorrhaphy. For the patients with microinstability who are overhead-throwing athletes, thermal capsulorrhaphy has shown varying results from a 97% rate of return to sports to a 62% rate of return to sports. Complications of this technique include temporary nerve injuries that usually involve the sensory branch of the axillary nerve and thermal necrosis of the capsule, which is rare.

PMID: 16685091 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Did it and had the full dangle scenario. I actually had the ball end of the arm stuck under the socket, so pretty much it was in my armpit. After 2 weeks I could lift a soup can without screaming in pain or having my socket fully pop out again. Did PT as soon as I could and got my arm strong enough to ride in about 2.5 months. months. Still was not solid even then, I still do the PT stuff every week to keep up the strenght and to keep the shoulder joint as tight and tough as I can without surgery. I do however have full range of motion and NO pain. Even when weight training. That is because I still do the PT stuff every week. Doing the proper stretching that they show you in PT is a MUST and every day till you get the highest range of motion that your shoulder is going to let you have. It has been 5 years. I have no pain, but I can still move it a specific way that will pop it right out.. I just avoid moving it that way. Also, when I crash, or feel a crash comming on, I tuck that arm in as fast as I can to my chest to avoid it happening again. You must see a doc and get the correct PT or surgery. IF you don't you could be in some bad shape down the road. Good luck to you

(Message edited by colorider on May 17, 2007)

hommie, i dislocated my shoulder last fall wakeboarding. after 6 months i still felt pain so my doc had an mri done on my shoulder. sho nuff my shoulder was jacked and i had orthoscopic surgery done. i'm still recovering and haven't wakeboarded at all yet until i heal up. my doc said if i didn't get surgery there's an 80% chance that my shoulder would come out again. it's not cool if i can't even do the shoulda lean at the club.... get it fixed!

Four Times here, now I just pop it back in and put a immobilizer on it for a week without even going to the doc. They tell me that there's nothing out of place or stretched out either so I haven't had surgery. I kind of want it but I don't want to be immobile that long either.

You know that feeling you get when your back cracks in like 7-8 places? I get that in my shoulder about everyday just from normal stretching. Get it checked out.

I'll try and find some X-rays later, mine goes all the way down to the front of my armpit when it comes out. It looks pretty messed up.

There's a chance even after surgery it will pop out again. I think it all depends on the seriousness of your injury, how your arm heals, and how hard you are on your shoulder in the future. My shoulder dislocated constantly for two years. I finally had surgery 7 months ago and my shoulder dislocated again a month ago. Your body may be able to handle the pain after 2 weeks, but that doesn't mean that your arm is ok. If it happens again, get an MRI.

Dislocation of a shoulder is a very significant injury and without proper care can lead to a chronic situation. 40% of people who dislocate their shoulder will dislocate a second time and 80% will dislocate a third time and so on. If taken care of properly with early immobilizatio to allow healing of the ligaments, followed by physical therapy you have a chance of having long term success without having surgery. I would strongly urge you to get in and see an orthopedic surgeon as soon as possible to make sure nothing else was dameged and to get on the right track. Repeated dislocations can cause more problems than just laxity in your joint, such as nerve damage,and premature arthritis. You are to young to start havting repeated issues with your shoulder, so get I suggest getting in to a doc and start rehab.

Oops, sorry about the spelling above, I had a long night and fatigue is setting in a little early.

P.S. Keep us posted on your situation.

The only time someone has gotten hurt behind my boat was a dislocated shoulder. My buddie got his arm caught in the handle. He had dislocated it several times before this.

I did mine last year trying to land a pete rose wrapped (first and only time Ive ever tried to land it wrapped). I was also on someone else's board I hadn't adjusted to yet. I actually landed it, but soon after I landed I got jerked back unwinding me from the wrapped position - caught the hs edge and I guess I was holding on too tight. Pop!

They say once you've done it once, there is a 90% chance of doing it again. After speaking with a lot of people, and hearing stories of multiple dislocations - I figured I wanted to go ahead and get the surgery rather than rehab the hell out of it just do pop it out again back at square one. The Doc I went to said basically he wouldn't operate on me bc I was too young, and generally he waited till 2+ times to do it.

Anyway - I rehabbed the hell out of it, and now I honestly cannot tell it ever happened. When I go to the gym now I still do 3-4 shoulder specific exercises every time. The only time I ever feel a difference would be if I raise my arm up over my head almost behind my neck - then I can feel it slightly. It's a personal thing, but either way take it easy and take the rehab seriously.

Dislocated mine when I was a junior in High School (class of '96). Still can't put any weight on it above my head, military presses at the gym are out of the question, my arm will not support weight above my head. My reach straight up with my left arm is a couple inches shorter than with my right. Still have intense pain when I move it just wrong.

The good news is that I am right handed so it doesn't completely shut me down for most sports. I can also wakeboard no problem and can't ever remember having my shoulder slow me down.

I would get it looked at ASAP though. There are different degrees of severity, mine was pretty mild and it still affects me 12 years later and will for the rest of my days. Don't push it too soon, give it time to heal up.

Here's the damage. Is this what you meant by "stuck in your armpit"?

yep, that looks like all 4 of mine

I've heard of one method of popping it back in so far. Could you give me your description on how you do it?

I was told to leave my arm down at my side, elbow bent 90 degrees forward. Then rotate the forearm back/out to my side until the shoulder sets back in.

A friend of mine had the laser surgery done where you just try to heat shrink the tendons and muscles so they tighten up. It helped but he dislocated it agian stretching too far for a rebound

My son dislocated his shoulder while wakeboarding a few years ago. It was at the beginning of summer between his Junior and senior year at high school. The timing sucked because it really killed his wakeboarding for the summer and also his football practice. It was especially ironic because we had just bought a new Super Air Nautique......

When he popped it out the first obstacle was getting him back into the boat, then getting his board off, then getting his life jacket off, then the trip to the hospital. They took Xrays, sedated him a little, popped it back in, strapped it down and sent us on our way.

We went to a sports specialist orthopedic doctor who was really, really good! I highly recommend going to a sports specialist if you want to continue doing sports, you get a totally different approach than the doctors that replace hips on little old ladies.

The doctor told him that he needed to let things heal for about 6 weeks but afterwards he could return to doing whatever he felt like, but with the knowledge that once a shoulder has dislocated it will dislocate again much easier. The good news is that it also gets easier to pop it back in and he will learn how to do that on his own.

He also predicted that when he got tired of it popping out all the time can come back for surgery. The down side of the surgery is that he will be out of commission for about three months.

The doctor was 100% dead on. My son dislocated his shoulder several more times, twice during football practice, once while in bed! He got so that he could just drop his hand to his side, grab his pants, pull his arm down towards his knee to stretch the arm out and it would pop back in.

A few weeks ago I was at the collegiate finals down in San Diego and watched one of the riders dislocate his shoulder on his run. This has obviously happened to him a bunch before because he gets back to the beach and pops it back in and goes about his day. His approach to popping it back in was to bend down, step on his hand and then jerk his body upwards.

Once my son was done with his senior year of football we scheduled the surgery. I mean, the week after the football season ended so that he would heal up before spring so he wouldn't miss any wakeboarding.

The surgery went great, the recovery was tolerable, and he was fairly quickly back to 100%. He is a bit more careful with that arm, and now he tends to throw the rope away rather than trying to drag himself out of a poor landing. So far he hasn't had any more trouble with his shoulder.

Rod

Riley,

No greenlake for you then I take it??? Nick are you going to be there?

How is it feeling these days?

Riley,
Correct on how to get it back in. You can also lay down with your arm at a 90 at your stomach then slowly with support lift the arm over your head. It flops right back in. NEVER EVER use force to get it back in place. you will most likely do more serious damage. And the pic is exactly what mine looked like.