SLAP and Bankart repair surgery and rehab
_benjammin
Posts: 1,224 Member
To follow up on the end of my Bulk and shoulder surgery thread: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10001675/benjammins-bulk#Item_10
My shoulder had a constant ache and even though I was gaining a little weight and my legs were getting stronger my upper body lifts were not progressing. I went to see an ortho shoulder Dr. He said rest shoulder, do therapy and come back in a month. A month later he said I had a torn labrum and would need surgery but go get an arthrogram MRI, even though labrum tears aren't always revealed on an MRI. The MRI revealed a SLAP tear (torn labrum on the top of shoulder). The Dr. said I could resume doing barbell lifts, tear was historically and my shoulder socket was not loose.
This was last summer. I had to postpone surgery because of work requirements.
Before surgery the Dr. told me that standard care for someone over 40 (I'm 41) is to sew or trim the labrum tear and do biceps tenodesis (cut the biceps tendon and reattach in different location) because the labrum might not heal due to the age of the tissue and stress caused by the biceps tendon. Dr. said he thought the age was too conservative and anticipates the standard care guidelines would be revised to the age of 45 in the future. Regardless, he'd done historically labrum repair surgery on guys nearly 50 years old and they healed fine. Said he might be considered a renegade for doing the surgery on me but he would. The only cavet was that if the labrum looked too "chewed-up" to hold the anchors and stitches he would recommend doing the biceps re-location. A biceps tenodesis moves the attachment of the biceps tendon from the shoulder to the humerus and completely changes the shoulder mechanics. I told him to go in and take a look, if labrum was indeed too chewed up looking I did not want the bicep tendon cut and re-located.
Rehab was to be 3-4 weeks in a sling and then another 2 or 3 months of therapy.
8 Weeks ago I had SLAP repair surgery. When I woke up I was informed that the SLAP repair was successful but I had another tear on the bottom part of the labrum and my rotator cuff was damaged. The lower ("Bankart") tear was repaired. The rotator cuff damage was not severe enough to warrant anchors or stitches but it was "de-burred", basically the margins were trimmed/shaved.
I was told recovery would involve 6 weeks in a sling and ~6 months rehab but should be back to 99% in 12 months. Sleeping in a sling for 6 weeks was rough.
As of yesterday rehab has been going "as expected". I can carrying/hold up to 8 pounds and am able to raise my arm about 45 degrees. Laying down I can do assisted (holding a pole/stick with both hands) range of motion to ~140 degrees. I do daily pendulum swings and range of motion work along with some thera-band and 2lb dumbbell exercises every other day. More/different exercises have been add each of the last few weeks.
My previous exercise was a barbell routine in my at home gym. I joined Gold's Gym just before Christmas and SideSteel recently put together a leg machine base routine that I've been doing 3x week. I'm trying to maintain my weight (162-165) during rehab and have been doing pretty good averaging ~2,900 calories per day.
I still have good days and bad days with an achy tightness and have been trying to take less and less prescription strength naproxen (Aleve) but falling asleep and staying asleep is still a struggle.
Alright, that's enough but if anyone has any questions feel free to ask.
Long post is worthless with out pics:
Tears
Repairs
Rolling 7 Day averages since surgery:
My shoulder had a constant ache and even though I was gaining a little weight and my legs were getting stronger my upper body lifts were not progressing. I went to see an ortho shoulder Dr. He said rest shoulder, do therapy and come back in a month. A month later he said I had a torn labrum and would need surgery but go get an arthrogram MRI, even though labrum tears aren't always revealed on an MRI. The MRI revealed a SLAP tear (torn labrum on the top of shoulder). The Dr. said I could resume doing barbell lifts, tear was historically and my shoulder socket was not loose.
This was last summer. I had to postpone surgery because of work requirements.
Before surgery the Dr. told me that standard care for someone over 40 (I'm 41) is to sew or trim the labrum tear and do biceps tenodesis (cut the biceps tendon and reattach in different location) because the labrum might not heal due to the age of the tissue and stress caused by the biceps tendon. Dr. said he thought the age was too conservative and anticipates the standard care guidelines would be revised to the age of 45 in the future. Regardless, he'd done historically labrum repair surgery on guys nearly 50 years old and they healed fine. Said he might be considered a renegade for doing the surgery on me but he would. The only cavet was that if the labrum looked too "chewed-up" to hold the anchors and stitches he would recommend doing the biceps re-location. A biceps tenodesis moves the attachment of the biceps tendon from the shoulder to the humerus and completely changes the shoulder mechanics. I told him to go in and take a look, if labrum was indeed too chewed up looking I did not want the bicep tendon cut and re-located.
Rehab was to be 3-4 weeks in a sling and then another 2 or 3 months of therapy.
8 Weeks ago I had SLAP repair surgery. When I woke up I was informed that the SLAP repair was successful but I had another tear on the bottom part of the labrum and my rotator cuff was damaged. The lower ("Bankart") tear was repaired. The rotator cuff damage was not severe enough to warrant anchors or stitches but it was "de-burred", basically the margins were trimmed/shaved.
I was told recovery would involve 6 weeks in a sling and ~6 months rehab but should be back to 99% in 12 months. Sleeping in a sling for 6 weeks was rough.
As of yesterday rehab has been going "as expected". I can carrying/hold up to 8 pounds and am able to raise my arm about 45 degrees. Laying down I can do assisted (holding a pole/stick with both hands) range of motion to ~140 degrees. I do daily pendulum swings and range of motion work along with some thera-band and 2lb dumbbell exercises every other day. More/different exercises have been add each of the last few weeks.
My previous exercise was a barbell routine in my at home gym. I joined Gold's Gym just before Christmas and SideSteel recently put together a leg machine base routine that I've been doing 3x week. I'm trying to maintain my weight (162-165) during rehab and have been doing pretty good averaging ~2,900 calories per day.
I still have good days and bad days with an achy tightness and have been trying to take less and less prescription strength naproxen (Aleve) but falling asleep and staying asleep is still a struggle.
Alright, that's enough but if anyone has any questions feel free to ask.
Long post is worthless with out pics:
Tears
Repairs
Rolling 7 Day averages since surgery:
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Replies
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Wild. It would be interesting to talk to someone with the relocation surgery that got in to some strength training, and how different does it feel.
Hope it works well for you, I'd imagine they see many tears on older folks doing something they haven't done in a long time, so basically out of shape for what they attempted.
But I'd hope the difference with someone being active and fit could make a big improvement to recovery, and risk doing the surgery anyway.0 -
9 Months Post Op:
I was cleared for barbell training (except for OHP) back in April and training has been going great. Dr. recommended I also stay away from chin/pull-ups.
I've gotten comfortable doing high bar squat and recently attempted some low bar but will stick with high bar for awhile longer. I'm on a slow bench and deadlift progression. Body weight bench and 300+lb deadlift are programmed to occur in Dec., 1 year post op.
I was trying to maintain weight/recomp but in July I went off the rails a bit during two separate 1 week vacation trips. Recently finished an 8 week cut and will again try to just maintain weight.
I put together a collage from after losing ~40 pounds 2.5 years ago through my recent cut:
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This discussion has been closed.