I'm putting together an article on shoulder problems for USMS Swimmer with a different slant. With your help, I hope to identify different types of typical shoulder problems swimmers encounter, symptoms, treatment, and your experience with the outcomes for these problems - a resource for swimmers who experience shoulder problems and how other swimmers have dealt with them and managed them.
If you'd like to be a part of this article, please respond to me with answers to the following questions.
1. Diagnosed name of injury and date it occurred (or how long ago it happened).
2. Initial symptoms.
3. Initial diagnosis - by self, PT, MD, other?
4. Initial treatment - as prescribed by self, PT, MD, other?
5. Additional treatment (including surgery).
6. Length of time out of the water. Please include type of training when resumed.
7. Length of time until back to previous level of training.
8. After treatment do you feel you're at the same level of training and performance as before your injury? A higher level? Have not reached previous level of training and performance.
9. Any other useful comments.
Thank you for your feedback. I appreciate your taking the time to help!
Nancy
1. Diagnosed name of injury and date it occurred (or how long ago it happened).
2. Initial symptoms.
3. Initial diagnosis - by self, PT, MD, other?
4. Initial treatment - as prescribed by self, PT, MD, other?
5. Additional treatment (including surgery).
6. Length of time out of the water. Please include type of training when resumed.
7. Length of time until back to previous level of training.
8. After treatment do you feel you're at the same level of training and performance as before your injury? A higher level? Have not reached previous level of training and performance.
9. Any other useful comments.
Thank you for your feedback. I appreciate your taking the time to help!
Nancy
Good luck with the article, Nancy. Sounds like a great idea.
1. Abnormal frayed labrum/SLAP lesion. Original RC injury occurred in college 28 years ago. Rehabbed it then and never noticed it again until I started masters swimming over 2 years ago. Immediately came down with chronic tendonitis and pain.
2. Initial symptoms: pain at back of left shoulder, dull aching pain at rest, pain in trap (which I now understand can indicate a labrum problem)
3. Initial diagnosis: Tendonitis by MD. This was accurate, but he missed the labrum problem.
4. Initial treatment: Cortisone shot and PT. Ineffective. Pain came back.
5. Additional treatment: Did some research and decided to try ART (active relief therapy) for the tendonitis issue, www.activerelease.com. This was much more effective for me than PT, although I continued to do my RC exercises. Still had pain at the back of the shoulder and trap. My ART doc ordered an arthrogram, which revealed the frayed labrum and a SLAP lesion in the supraspinatus. Not really a surgical issue. Since then, I've been doing prolotherapy and plasma regeneration therapy ("PRP") to attempt to regrow and strengthen the tendons. Prolo takes a very long time. PRP seems to be quicker and more effective. After 2 treatments, I have significantly more stability in the shoulder. I understand from a recent WSJ article that PRP is now being used in rotator cuff surgery to prevent re-tearing. I still go to ART 2x+ a month. I plan to have 2 more PRP treatments.
6. I was never out of the water for any extended period. No more than a few days at any point. If my shoulder was bothering me, I did more kicking. PRP treatments keep me out of the water because they are very painful. (You're getting injections directly into the tendon.) I have never done high yardage workouts. Depending on my schedule, I swim 4-5 x a week, between 10,000 and 14,000 max. I cross train a fair amount. Haven't increased the yardage because I'm leery of worsening the injury. Use fins a lot amount to avoid stressing the shoulder while it's healing.
7. N/A
8. My shoulder is significantly better than 2 and 1/2 years ago. I rarely ice, there is no chronic pain. I just have to be somewhat cautious. My times have continued to improve.
9. I think more swimmers should consider treatments other than conventional PT. Triathletes seem far ahead of swimmers on this score.
1. Diagnosed name of injury and date it occurred (or how long ago it happened).
2. Initial symptoms.
3. Initial diagnosis - by self, PT, MD, other?
4. Initial treatment - as prescribed by self, PT, MD, other?
5. Additional treatment (including surgery).
6. Length of time out of the water. Please include type of training when resumed.
7. Length of time until back to previous level of training.
8. After treatment do you feel you're at the same level of training and performance as before your injury? A higher level? Have not reached previous level of training and performance.
9. Any other useful comments.
Thank you for your feedback. I appreciate your taking the time to help!
Nancy
Good luck with the article, Nancy. Sounds like a great idea.
1. Abnormal frayed labrum/SLAP lesion. Original RC injury occurred in college 28 years ago. Rehabbed it then and never noticed it again until I started masters swimming over 2 years ago. Immediately came down with chronic tendonitis and pain.
2. Initial symptoms: pain at back of left shoulder, dull aching pain at rest, pain in trap (which I now understand can indicate a labrum problem)
3. Initial diagnosis: Tendonitis by MD. This was accurate, but he missed the labrum problem.
4. Initial treatment: Cortisone shot and PT. Ineffective. Pain came back.
5. Additional treatment: Did some research and decided to try ART (active relief therapy) for the tendonitis issue, www.activerelease.com. This was much more effective for me than PT, although I continued to do my RC exercises. Still had pain at the back of the shoulder and trap. My ART doc ordered an arthrogram, which revealed the frayed labrum and a SLAP lesion in the supraspinatus. Not really a surgical issue. Since then, I've been doing prolotherapy and plasma regeneration therapy ("PRP") to attempt to regrow and strengthen the tendons. Prolo takes a very long time. PRP seems to be quicker and more effective. After 2 treatments, I have significantly more stability in the shoulder. I understand from a recent WSJ article that PRP is now being used in rotator cuff surgery to prevent re-tearing. I still go to ART 2x+ a month. I plan to have 2 more PRP treatments.
6. I was never out of the water for any extended period. No more than a few days at any point. If my shoulder was bothering me, I did more kicking. PRP treatments keep me out of the water because they are very painful. (You're getting injections directly into the tendon.) I have never done high yardage workouts. Depending on my schedule, I swim 4-5 x a week, between 10,000 and 14,000 max. I cross train a fair amount. Haven't increased the yardage because I'm leery of worsening the injury. Use fins a lot amount to avoid stressing the shoulder while it's healing.
7. N/A
8. My shoulder is significantly better than 2 and 1/2 years ago. I rarely ice, there is no chronic pain. I just have to be somewhat cautious. My times have continued to improve.
9. I think more swimmers should consider treatments other than conventional PT. Triathletes seem far ahead of swimmers on this score.
