After much pain, soul searching, cure searching, kicking with fins and general advise seeking, I've elected to have arthroscopic surgery to treat my "shoulder impingement syndrome" which I guess is tendonitis....The fact that I made the decision before consulting the USMC forum may be inexcusable, but, be that as it may, I'm on the docket for two weeks from today...
The surgery, as I, a layman, understand it, will widen the subacromial space allowing unimpeded movement of my supraspinatus (one of the rotator cuffs) muscle and tendon and biseps tendon....
I ain't looking for sympathy or an explanation...but I'd love to hear from someone who's had this type of procedure and can outline their recovery process...I was planning on making some waves in the 55-59 age group at Coral Gables in May but realize now I may just be a cheerleader...I'm keeping the Chesapeake Bay swim on my June calendar even if I can just kick my way across...I'd love to know what to expect..Thanks
Marcia,
You'll never know why your left shoulder now shows arthritic changes, but it doesn't necessarily point to a bad repair earlier. With my 3 surgeries, the first one was considered to be the most serious - so many full thickness tears you could see through the shoulder - but actually, the arthroscopic bone repair on the other shoulder turned out to be the most serious. There were arthritic changes that caused the doctor to doubt that I could ever swim again at the level I aspired to. He told me he wished he could get me to try another sport. The first surgery had nothing to do with it, it was the result of poor technique, heavy weight training, etc. that caused the changes on one shoulder and not the other - the luck of genetics I guess.
The result was that the doctor told me I could never put any weight on that shoulder again - ever. No pushups, getting out of the pool over the edge, nothing that would put all my weight on my shoulders.
So far, so good. I'm swimming and after two 1/2 years training with lots of intensity. Hang in there and good luck!
Nancy
Marcia,
You'll never know why your left shoulder now shows arthritic changes, but it doesn't necessarily point to a bad repair earlier. With my 3 surgeries, the first one was considered to be the most serious - so many full thickness tears you could see through the shoulder - but actually, the arthroscopic bone repair on the other shoulder turned out to be the most serious. There were arthritic changes that caused the doctor to doubt that I could ever swim again at the level I aspired to. He told me he wished he could get me to try another sport. The first surgery had nothing to do with it, it was the result of poor technique, heavy weight training, etc. that caused the changes on one shoulder and not the other - the luck of genetics I guess.
The result was that the doctor told me I could never put any weight on that shoulder again - ever. No pushups, getting out of the pool over the edge, nothing that would put all my weight on my shoulders.
So far, so good. I'm swimming and after two 1/2 years training with lots of intensity. Hang in there and good luck!
Nancy
