Hello,
I have not been able to swim without a lot of pain since April. A few weeks ago, based on an MRI and needle fluoroscopy, I was diagnosed with a 50% tear of my right rotator cuff. The orthopedist that diagnosed me is having me do 6 weeks of PT before we follow up. So far the PT seems to have increased the pain, even though I am doing the very very basic.
I have looked at the archives here, and some of the shoulder surgery threads are older and a lot of them have responses from people who had issues with their labrum and SLAP tears mixed in with those who had rotator cuff tears.
I am hoping that I might be able to get some feedback from people who have had surgery to repair their rotator cuffs recently....things I can do before surgery to improve outcome, afterwards, etc.
I should have reached out earlier. When people ask me if it is very painful, I tell them, "Only when I sleep and swim," and they don't "get" it. While breastroke is not painful, I am shealing up a tear in my MCL, so I have to be careful with my knee and breastroke kick.
Signed,
Sleepless (and Swimless) in Seattle
Here is an update on my situation. Exactly 24 weeks ago I had a three hour operation to repair my shoulder. I had suffered a major (complete tear) of the subscapularis and partial tears of the supraspinatus and infraspinatatus 5 weeks previous. First the good news. Today I met with my surgeon and he was extremely pleased with my progress - excellent flexibility and outstanding strength - he says I should be completely back at one year.
OK news - I still have some weakness in abduction and flexibility problems reaching up behind my back. He also wants me to wait 2 more weeks - until 6 full months - to resume "swimming". Full disclosure - since he gave me permission to enter the water at 3 weeks, when my incisions healed, I have been in the water gradually more, up to 6 x per week, the last 4 months. I have been doing much kicking and many kinds of sculling (which looks a lot like swimming) except for no freestyle or butterfly recovery with my repaired side.
Bad news - everyone says the recovery is horrible and they are right. I appreciated all the advice I got here and it really helped. Pain meds didn't work well for me but nearly full time icing for three weeks did. I also "slept" reclined for 6 weeks until I was out of the brace. The first four months went SO slowly and there were many times I didn't think I would get better. After I started seeing some strength gains I had more optimism and the last month went pretty fast.
I would recommend doing everything you can to get the rest of your body as strong as possible - great time to maximize core strength! One of my mantras was "patience makes for good patients". Good luck!
Here is an update on my situation. Exactly 24 weeks ago I had a three hour operation to repair my shoulder. I had suffered a major (complete tear) of the subscapularis and partial tears of the supraspinatus and infraspinatatus 5 weeks previous. First the good news. Today I met with my surgeon and he was extremely pleased with my progress - excellent flexibility and outstanding strength - he says I should be completely back at one year.
OK news - I still have some weakness in abduction and flexibility problems reaching up behind my back. He also wants me to wait 2 more weeks - until 6 full months - to resume "swimming". Full disclosure - since he gave me permission to enter the water at 3 weeks, when my incisions healed, I have been in the water gradually more, up to 6 x per week, the last 4 months. I have been doing much kicking and many kinds of sculling (which looks a lot like swimming) except for no freestyle or butterfly recovery with my repaired side.
Bad news - everyone says the recovery is horrible and they are right. I appreciated all the advice I got here and it really helped. Pain meds didn't work well for me but nearly full time icing for three weeks did. I also "slept" reclined for 6 weeks until I was out of the brace. The first four months went SO slowly and there were many times I didn't think I would get better. After I started seeing some strength gains I had more optimism and the last month went pretty fast.
I would recommend doing everything you can to get the rest of your body as strong as possible - great time to maximize core strength! One of my mantras was "patience makes for good patients". Good luck!
