Hi folks
In Feb 2009 I had rotator cuff surgery. They sewed up a 2.5cm buttonhole like tear in my supraspinatus tendon.
For about 7 years prior to the surgery, I had been swimming 1k 3x a week.
After the surgery, I had given up on the idea of swimming for fitness, but I'm starting to think that was premature.
I've read on this forum of people with much worse rotator cuff injuries than me getting back in the water.
The physical therapist says I'm good to start swimming with a kickboard. I'm going to get some fins because kicking alone seems to get me nowhere.
Can any forum members who've recovered from a rotator cuff repair give me some advice about how to approach my return AFTER I stop using a kickboard?
Thanks in advance
Mark
Parents
Former Member
Yes, they cut the rotator cuff.
Wow. That was a wild guess on my part. Must be pretty serious stuff if the dr's are willing to take the shoulder apart to THAT degree in order to fix the problem.
I did one shoulder, re-habbed that, & then had the second one done around 6 months later. the surgeon told me that I could expect to get back to about 90% of where I was. That might have been a little conservative.
You are not the first person I've talked to who's had a conservative surgeon. Mine almost had me convinced that my arm could drop off at any moment after the surgery. I guess he was afraid I wasn't going to behave myself ;-)
It sounds like you're going about things the right way!
I've had lots and lots (and lots) of practice with this physical therapy/rehab thing :-(
One word of advice, when you start getting back to normal, you still have to do the strengthening & stretching. It's natural to back off when things are going well. That's usually when the achiness starts. In that regard, your shoulder is never going to be normal. And I'm over 15 years post operation.
That's ok. Based on stuff I've done to my back, I have to be in the gym working on my core on a regular basis - so we'll add the shoulder stuff to the core routine.
Still swimming and 15 years post surgery. Now that's great to hear.
Mark
Yes, they cut the rotator cuff.
Wow. That was a wild guess on my part. Must be pretty serious stuff if the dr's are willing to take the shoulder apart to THAT degree in order to fix the problem.
I did one shoulder, re-habbed that, & then had the second one done around 6 months later. the surgeon told me that I could expect to get back to about 90% of where I was. That might have been a little conservative.
You are not the first person I've talked to who's had a conservative surgeon. Mine almost had me convinced that my arm could drop off at any moment after the surgery. I guess he was afraid I wasn't going to behave myself ;-)
It sounds like you're going about things the right way!
I've had lots and lots (and lots) of practice with this physical therapy/rehab thing :-(
One word of advice, when you start getting back to normal, you still have to do the strengthening & stretching. It's natural to back off when things are going well. That's usually when the achiness starts. In that regard, your shoulder is never going to be normal. And I'm over 15 years post operation.
That's ok. Based on stuff I've done to my back, I have to be in the gym working on my core on a regular basis - so we'll add the shoulder stuff to the core routine.
Still swimming and 15 years post surgery. Now that's great to hear.
Mark
