Shoulder Surgery?

Anyone on here have shoulder surgery?

I keep dislocating my shoulder and it has been an oncurring problem for over a year now. The doctor keeps telling me to get physical therapy because surgery on AC ligaments don't help. I went the whole winter (3 months) without wakeboarding and doing strength training/stretching. The reason I didn't get physical therapy is because the hospital didn't find me a physical therapist covered by my insurance before I left for college so I was SOL. I thought strength training and stretching would help, but I started wakeboarding in the last few weeks without any problems and then it pops out again.

Anyone with a similar problem and similar surgery? What was the recovery problem? When would I be able to start working again? At this point I am about to quit wakeboarding because I cant even throw a normal run down without worrying about popping my shoulder out.

Leo there are a lot of people with wakeboard related shoulder injuries. I had surgery 6 months ago to repair mine and about 3 weeks ago it popped back out for the first time. My friend also had a total dislocation that day for the first time.

My shoulder is really loose and would pop out every run just as you described. It's been a lot better since the shoulder surgery but I have been rehabbing it like crazy with strength training. Obviously it wasn't a total success but I'm still happy with the results. After dislocating it the last time out, I'm not going to ride again without wearing a brace to lock my shoulder down. I only seem to dislocate it when my body rag dolls and my arm gets above my head.

If you can, get an MRI so they can be certain what's going on. I've heard that once you mess up your shoulder, it will never fully recover and that certainly hold true with me. It sounds like your shoulder is just as loose as mine and I doubt physical therapy alone will fix it. Strength training should help though. Even if it doesn't fix the problem, it will definitely help your recovery times.

I had an MRI done and they swear nothing is wrong with it. If nothing was wrong with it, then why does it dislocate or get locked up when my arm goes above my head (just like you described)?

Have you worked with rubber bands and done a lot of pulling exercises?

Also, is this the type of brace you use? Is it water proof?

http://www.bikemania.biz/EVS_SB03_Shoulder_Brace_p/evs_sb03.htm

That's a question I would ask your doctor. In my case it was a torn labrum. I don't do much with rubber bands although I have some. I do a ton of pull-ups, push-ups, and shoulder exercises with dumbells.

I ordered one of those braces and it was too small so I sent it back. I haven't actually tried it, but I don't think it was going to work. It didn't seem like it was strong enough to hold my shoulder from flapping if I wrecked. I'm not actually using a brace yet, but I'm not going to ride without one anymore. I've seen posts where someone was wearing a jumpsling. I'm actually going to take the idea of the jumpsling and make my own modified version. I need something with some movement but won't let my shoulder get above my head. The jumsling doesn't allow you to move your arm at all.

I don't know much about what is happening to you but I do know that when I dislocated my elbow, the doctor told me that it would be much harder to dislocate it again, unlike shoulders, he said once you dislocate one its very easy to do it again and again and again. My guess is that it's kinda normal once you have done it once. Sucks but I don't think there is much you can do about it.

I had surgery, did all the physical therapy, etc and it didn't work. Worst part was I did it with the guy who is supposed to be the best and my insurance didn't cover it. I have made a brace of my own that has been working great. I designed it to work with my life vest and since i've been using it no disloacations. It basically stops my arm before it gets to the point of dislocation. It restricts movement alot but you can stil do alot with it and you can do handle passes etc. Almost anything that doesnt require your arm over your head, so raleys are out. I'll put some pics of it later

Manny please post pics. I'm going to make one as well and I'm curious to see yours.

My arms never go above my head on raleys anyway. Do post pictures!

Thanks Manny. That's pretty much how I envisioned doing one. The only thing that I think could go wrong is the vest buckle un-snapping on you. I've seen this happen a few times on really hard falls. With the added stress from the brace it might be more prone to happen. I guess it depends on the buckle too.

And it was a complete seperation, not dislocation your friend had, get it right! And go to sleep some time will you...

i have dislocated my left shoulder while wakeboarding almost too many times to count. i have done physical therapy and almost everything short of the surgery. the one thing that has help the most were push ups and pull ups, rubberband work because you can use the whole range of motion which builds the muscles that help keep the shoulder in place. i also like to do a little weight lifting but i started out modest and worked my way up to heavier weights. now i can only hope that my damn shoulder doesnt dislocate any this year. i can say that it does feel a lot better so i have my fingers crossed.