My doctor thinks I have a labral tear. It may not be torn too badly since apparently it wasn't obvious on the MRI. I took three months off of swimming before seeing the doctor - I figured it would get better on its own, but it didn't.
I've done about 4 weeks of physical therapy and will do another two before seeing the doctor again. My range of motion and rotator cuff muscle strength have definitely improved, but the impingement pain and shoulder clicking during freestyle recovery motion is still there. My doctor suggested that after 6 weeks of physical therapy he'd have a better idea if surgery would be necessary. Two weeks to go...
In searching this and other forums, it seems that physical therapy doesn't do the trick for most swimmers with labral tears, and they end up in surgery. Or maybe those that choose surgery just like to post more about it?
If you've recovered from a labral tear without surgery, let me know! I'm willing to do many more months of physical therapy if I think I can avoid surgery!
Brian
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I started this thread, so I figure I should give an update....
I never did the surgery. I did 2 or 3 months of physically therapy, then got back into the water in January, continuing with PT exercises also. Started with low yardage and frequency, then built slowly. I'm swimming 4x per week now (with a 5th really easy swim on my own) with no real pain. I'm pretty much back to the same shape I was in when I stopped swimming just over a year ago when things were too painful.
On the downside, if I swim fly I feel it a day or two later (though it actually feels fine while swimming), so I don't plan on swimming fly much. Sometimes swimming backstroke is bothersome. I still can't swim "air freestyle" without impingement pain, but then I suppose swimming freestlye while standing on land is much different from being horizontal in water. I'm skipping Zones this summer since I suspect that the stress of diving in and taking that first stroke or two will make the shoulder situation noticeably worse. I know I need to continue with the physical therapy exercises but I don't do them frequently as I should since I'm feeling pretty good in the water.
So I guess my answer to my original question is: Yes, you can recover from a minor labral tear without surgery, but the recovery will take months may not ever be 100% complete.
Brian
I started this thread, so I figure I should give an update....
I never did the surgery. I did 2 or 3 months of physically therapy, then got back into the water in January, continuing with PT exercises also. Started with low yardage and frequency, then built slowly. I'm swimming 4x per week now (with a 5th really easy swim on my own) with no real pain. I'm pretty much back to the same shape I was in when I stopped swimming just over a year ago when things were too painful.
On the downside, if I swim fly I feel it a day or two later (though it actually feels fine while swimming), so I don't plan on swimming fly much. Sometimes swimming backstroke is bothersome. I still can't swim "air freestyle" without impingement pain, but then I suppose swimming freestlye while standing on land is much different from being horizontal in water. I'm skipping Zones this summer since I suspect that the stress of diving in and taking that first stroke or two will make the shoulder situation noticeably worse. I know I need to continue with the physical therapy exercises but I don't do them frequently as I should since I'm feeling pretty good in the water.
So I guess my answer to my original question is: Yes, you can recover from a minor labral tear without surgery, but the recovery will take months may not ever be 100% complete.
Brian
