Recovering from shoulder surgery; feeling crummy...
Former Member
and actually considering giving up swimming. I am so discouraged these days....
I fell and hurt my shoulder about 9 years ago. I didn't have surgery at the time (was told I didn't need it) and thought I healed correctly. Fast forward to today...after swimming 6 years I start to feel an ache in my "bad" shoulder when I swim longer than a mile. So off to the sports med doc I go....I get an MRI which looks like I might have torn cartilage, which is causing the pain. Surgery is scheduled....they find nothing. Nothing is torn; nothing to fix. So now I will have to swim with the pain....
I know that some of the tension is a result of an imbalance in my freestyle...I always breath to my left, which means I pull harder with my strong (right) side. When I try to breath to the right it all falls apart. I don't feel balanced in the water; I am sure there are a million things wrong with my stroke...I should kick more...blah blah blah.
I just started swimming again...been in the water for the last few days and I am very discouraged. I'd love to hear from folks out there who have taught themselves to breath to their uncomfortable side.... and how you did it, how long it took, etc.
Anyone else out there going through a discouraging time...or if you have in the past, how'd you get over it?
Ande - what are your thoughts?
I used to box...maybe I should just go back to the ring and stay out of the water....:(
PS I know you said your doctor didn't find anything wrong when they did surgery on you. It sounds like a muscle imbalance. That is what caused a lot of my pain before and after my surgery. Make sure you don't do too much freestyle. Balance your workout with backstroke. It will help strengthen the back of your shoulder and help stretch out the front of your shoulder and pecs.
Where does your shoulder hurt?
Try replacing the committee in your head with a couple of meet announcers who are, to paraphrase Spiro Agnew, prattling paragons of positivism (he once famously referred to the media as "nattering nabobs of negativism") Try and forget times and past glories and focus on improving what you can right now.
"ANNOUNCER ONE: (voice of Mark Gill) Well, it's sure good to see Kari back in the pool. You can tell she's been working on those stroke mechanics in this recovery period. Just look at the glide she's getting in that drill!
ANNOUCER TWO: Right, and is that some bilateral breathing I see happening? Unbelievable, this gutsy swimmer has really gone back to school on her stroke, and it's starting to pay off . . . "
You get the idea. Good luck.
Hi Beth....thanks so much for the post. When my shoulder hurts, it aches deep inside near where my clavicle and top of my shoulder should meet (make sense?) - due to the initial injury, my clavicle sticks up. Looks really weird.
The doc thought that I might have a SLAP lesion (still not sure what that means) but once they got inside and poked around - nothing - clean as a whistle.
Fortunately, I have been lifting weights steadily for 2 years and when I take a week off, the pain comes back. Sometimes my arm goes numb if I swim longer than a mile.....
I will try to be patient with myself. This is really hard for me to do, so wish me luck!
BillS - Hmmmmmmmm. I like the announcer idea....! I for sure need to get that critical committee outa my brain....
Kari- sounds like it could be a cervical impingement in your neck; I'm no doctor, but have been working around that condition for sometime & my symtoms resemble yours (in the shoulder & arm, not the neck). Then again, might not be.
Peter - maybe so. When I've gone through an especially hard workout, the left side (bad shoulder side) of my neck hurts and I end up with a horrible headache.
What do you do for it?
Treatment Ideas???
orthoinfo.aaos.org/category.cfm all kinds of things to check Thoracic Outlet Syndrome or whichever one you like they are all a pain.
Kari- in weight training, two key exercises: shoulder shrugs, full range of motion, light weight, high reps; barbell upright rowing very strictly done light weight high reps. These two help strengthen & condition the muscles supporting your neck.
- in posture: most people carry their head too far forward, stressing the neck: you should get feedback on this.
- in swimming: almost all of the tips you have been getting contribute to balancing the load on your neck.
- in doctor management: you should have an mri of c5c6, you can probably get it fairly quickly, up here it took over a year of constant pain before I could get one (the system: when I finally saw a neurosurgeon after 18 months, the first thing he said was "why has it taken so long for you to see me?" I could only gape). MRI should likely reveal if that area is the problem, if it is, they may want to do neck fusion-that is a last resort, many rehab strategies to try before that.
I have been 'managing' this condition for over 20 years, through several crises; always, part of the solution has been to get back in the water & do long, easy distance with no expectations working on perfect technique, slowly building from there. It has always worked, that is until I next collide with someone.
Hi Kari,
Check out this site. Stanford has a reputable program and I found the suggestions regarding changing one's stroke really helpful. Implimenting the changes felt real weird at first, but they sure relieved my shoulder pain.
www.physsportsmed.com/.../johnson.htm
