Shoulder dislocation

Tendons and ligaments take a long time to heal, longer than muscles. I wouldn't be surprized if it doesn't take 8-10 weeks for things to heal up some, and needing to take it eaasy for another 6-8 weeks after that... sort of easing back into it.

What did your orthopedic surgeon say?

I'd definitely visit a specialist about this if I were you. I had a very unamusing experience with my shoulder. I dislocated it initially playing another sport. It then came out a couple of times whilst swimming (fly, free). After a few months it started dislocating very easily (once whilst sleeping and once, would you believe, whilst sneezing!) so I had to have an operation to stabilise the shoulder. It then took about a year to recover full movement and to be able to swim properly again.

Yes! a dislocated shoulder bites! What happened in my case is that I would "pop" out my right shoulder every time I swam backstroke. This is also know as a "party trick". I eventually had to stop training due to bursitis and had reconstructive surgery. A lot has to do with a "weak" rotator cuff. There are lots of exercises to strengthen the rotator cuff, but have it looked at by a doctor and maybe a sports physical therapist. the shoulders take a lot of punishment (esp in the back, fly, and sometimes free) in swimming, this is something to take seriously if you are having troubles. Ali

This sounds more like a tear to me, which may not heal without surgery. I would encourage anyone with shoulder pain to see an orthopedist who specializes in sports medicine. Untreated, even chronic tendinitis can predispose to more serious injuries (rotator cuff tears). Physical therapy can be very benificial in the management of swimmer's shoulder, since in many cases the cause is a muscle imbalance which leads to impingement of tendons.

WHile a chiropractor may be good for some injuries--the shoulder IS NOT one of their specialties. You REALLY need to be seeing a medical doctor with a sports med background OR a surgeon who deals with shoulder injuries. The MD MAY recommend physical therapy and that's all the chiropractor is able to do for you. The Chiro, in many states, can NOT prescribe drugs (such as Bextra or Vioxx) that help reduce the inflammation, do an injection for either pain control OR to help diagnose the problem. If you're gonna tell me that the chiro took x-rays and read them--you really need help. Chiropractors ARE NOT trained radiologists who read x-rays for a living. Heck--even my sports med MD sends any x-rays to the radiologist for a firm diagnosis. My doc sees ALOT of x-rays BUT it's not his speciality and he may not notice something that a radiologist spots daily. In the world of medical billing--chiropractors usually treat backs and anything else is considered "EXTRA SPINAL" (shoulders, knees, hips, joints) is under another chiropractic classification. For your own health (and mind)==please see a medical doctor who can run the proper diagnostic tests. If your dislocation is happening frequently--you have a major physical problem that needs to be dealt with.

I just wanted to thank everyone for the feedback. I am seeing a good chiropractor, and it is recovering- slowly but shurly. My range of motion is coming back. However, you never heal as quick as you would like. I'm sure everyone will agree with that.

Plain films will not detect a rotator cuff tear or a SLAP injury; you would need an MRI (with or without an arthrogram). A good orthopedist can diagnose this by physical exam in many (most?) cases. This sounds like a serious shoulder injury to me.

I dislocated my shoulder on a turn in the 50 *** at a meet when I jammed the wall with my arms straight. My orthopedic surgeon said dislocated shoulders are very common with swimmers as we tend to stretch the rotator cuff ligaments. I could do no pulls for 8 weeks & then only very easy breaststroke. It was another month before I was O.K.'d for freestyle & again starting easy. It was a year before fly was O.K.'d. Physical therapy with emphasis on rotator cuff exercises really helped. Good luck with your recovery.

Brining back an old thread in hopes of getting some advice/encouragement/words of wisdom.....apologies in advance, this is long! OK, so about 3.5 years ago I dislocated my left shoulder after I fell on it. Started PT as soon as I could, and also started swimming again once a week. (A blessing in disguise I guess, because this is what got me back into the pool after almost a decade.) I noticed three big differences after my injury: 1) a constant popping with backstroke; and 2) breathing more on the left side rather than right; 3) needing to be really careful when doing open back/*** turns when landing on the left arm as I could really feel the weakness then. So since then, my shoulder has been rather loose I guess. I'd say it has at least partially dislocated several times (once was when I was changing a light bulb, I had my left arm over my head screwing it in, and then I sneezed and it came out lol....but always outside of the pool). But I continued to swim 1x a week, because I noticed that my shoulder seemed to be more prone to popping out when I wasn't keeping up with my weekly swimming. (I am also assuming that it is in fact re-dislocating. When I think its popping out, I can feel a crunchy/tear sensation, but it immediately goes back into place.....longest its ever seemed out of place has been maybe 5-6 seconds tops. This does not produce intense or acute pain however. What really hurts are the days after, when it feels like I've been punched in the arm and I feel the pins and needles in my hand. So I'm not sure if its actually redislocating, or if its just tendons and ligaments moving around....because the pain I feel isn't really my shoulder per se, its more around the of my outside arm below the shoulder joint.) OK so fast forward to 6 months ago when I joined Masters. Shoulder was in great shape.....hadn't redislocated in a while, no pain, no backstroke popping. I would favor left side breathing while using paddles and would go easy on bk/br turns but thats about it. I assumed I was having no problems because my shoulder was nice and strong. So two weeks ago we did an 100 IM for time in practice. I wasn't thinking about it, and landed on my left arm for the back/*** turn and had a nice pop n' rip :( Went home, took ibuprofen and 2 days off from practice. I layed off the backstroke (popping was back) but continued to train with my sore shoulder.....thinking its just sore, no big deal. Then this past weekend I had my first USMS meet. My shoulder was still a little sore but I didn't think much of it since I wasn't doing any backstroke or IM events. However, while finishing hard into the wall for the 50 free, I again landed with my left arm and had another pop n' rip :( I'm not sure if this would have happened if I didn't mess it up 2 weeks earlier, but thats beside the point....its super sore now! Anyway, I will be scheduling an appointment with the doc. In the meantime I'm trying not to get too upset over this. I knew that when I originally dislocated it, things wouldn't be the same in the pool. But over the past 6 months I've really started to feel like a swimmer again, and it pisses me off that this injury could hold me back. At the same time, I guess I'm thankful that this never happened during my 'prime', I can't imagine going through this with a career on the line! Should I even go to practice tonight? I'm not sure if I should let my shoulder rest or keep it moving (taking it super easy of course). Thanks for letting me rant. :)