Hi! So I am a serious competitive swimmer. I've been swimming since I was little (over a decade by this point) and I had never had any shoulder pain until this March. It was the end of my season and we were tapering down for NCAA's and all of the sudden my shoulder starting hurting more and more everday. Swimming backstroke caused the most pain (kind of a problem since I am a backstroker) and it got to the point where I couldn't take a stroke of backstroke without being in agony. I also couldn't sleep on that side. I took a lot of aleve and swam through it b/c I needed to be able to race at NCAA's. Once I stopped training backstroke the pain was less acute and more tolerable. I thought that with some time off it would go away. However, even with 2 full weeks of no swimming something still didn't feel right. As time has gone on (very minimal off season training) I've developed extreme tightness in my pec and all across the top of my back and neck.
I went to a sports doc at home and they did an MR arthrogram and diagnosed me with a Labral tear (he said it was a slight tear) and some impingement. My doc said that he thinks some of the pain I am experiencing could be related to the way my back and shoulder muscles have developed after so many years in the pool; but if that was the case it seems strange that my shoulder would all of the sudden start hurting like this. Anyway, he said that he doesn't think I need surgery at this point and I should be able to resolve the problem with physical therapy. I'm just worried that once I get back to serious training (4-5 hours and 12,000+yards a day in the pool plus dryland) it will just start hurting again and it will affect my season.
Does anyone know anything about/experienced this kind of problem? Especially serious athletes or swimmers? My hope was that I could resolve this over the summer so I would be ready to go once my college seasons starts up in the end of August. I was a 6 time All American this past season as a freshman so oviously I feel a certain amount of pressure to follow up on that with a great sophomore season. I have my first PT apptment on Monday but any advice or personal anecdotes would be great appreciated!
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I tore my labrum a year ago and opted not to have surgery. Shoulder surgery and the recovery is brutal and there is no guarantee that it gets you back to 100%. My doctor's advice was if the injury is a nuisance then live with it, if it is seriously limiting your ability to do things you love then get surgery. HOWEVER, that decision can only be made after several months of PT. Shoulders take a long time to heal. Your situation is a bit different because swimming is such a huge part of your life that doing PT for three or four months and then making a decision on surgery is probably hard to imagine. If you do rush into surgery you could be getting a procedure and all that risks that involves that you didn't really need. But unfortunately there is no way you'll know if you need it without waiting several months. Good luck.
I tore my labrum a year ago and opted not to have surgery. Shoulder surgery and the recovery is brutal and there is no guarantee that it gets you back to 100%. My doctor's advice was if the injury is a nuisance then live with it, if it is seriously limiting your ability to do things you love then get surgery. HOWEVER, that decision can only be made after several months of PT. Shoulders take a long time to heal. Your situation is a bit different because swimming is such a huge part of your life that doing PT for three or four months and then making a decision on surgery is probably hard to imagine. If you do rush into surgery you could be getting a procedure and all that risks that involves that you didn't really need. But unfortunately there is no way you'll know if you need it without waiting several months. Good luck.
