Ok. I admit I have my issues. Shoulders are not being great. I have Bankart tear and slap tear and frayed superpinatus (sp) and bony erosion somewhere, but due to my age (56) and in my mind gender (female), have been told both by PT and orthopedic surgeon that I should do gentle swimming, cut back on the competitive need. Surgery is option, but I was encouraged instead to swim gently, and less distance. I can understand that I would need to begin gently and less distance, which I have been doing since January, but now I am like a race horse ready to bust out of my friggin' mind (paddock, whatever it's called where they stay). The gate?
I really need to swim aggressively, as hard as I can, for many reasons. So I am willing to blow out my shoulder if that's what happens and get the surgery at that point, because I figure I have at least 30 more years of competitive swimming.
I was advised to find other sports or perhaps salsa dancing or perhaps gentle breaststroke.
I am much stronger after four months of much rehab and was able to do full workout with pretty fast intervals (some using fins) on Wednesday. Plan to try again tomorrow.
The point of this posting (always hard for me to get to) is this: for older swimmers who are awesome and so revered in my mind, those who have swum for so many years, and raced, and are now in their 80s, 90s, and still racing, I have a strong feeling that they still are putting their all into their workouts. They may be going slower, but the effort to do their fastest is still there. Which I love.
I will be talking to some of the older swimmers in my region to see what their attitude is toward late-life training.
Swimming is my life! Yes, all eggs in one basket. But until that basket falls, why cut back? Am I crazy (yes)? But I am going to work hard on figuring out hand entry, continue to strengthen scapular muscles, and see what happens.
I am not going to do old-lady breaststroke. Perhaps I am misperceiving PT instructions, but it certainly did not seem so. She seriously said that I needed to realize I would not always be able to swim and I should find other ways to get swim-related effects. I cried in her office and hated her, I confess to this.
So I am waiting on the surgery because I am stronger, even if there seems to be a lot of stuff ready to bust, but my back is very strong and I swam a 200 meter free in what seemed an easy effort but was close to my sprint time on Wednesday, first full practice since January.
There is definitely something to strengthening the scapular muscles. And there is a new move toward "scapular swimming," whatever that is, and I am going to try to investigate/write about that as well.
If any most esteemed older swimmers want to weigh in on your level of effort at practice, I would love to hear it.
In general, I agree with Kirk in principle, if not necessarily in practice. If I had a doctor or PT person say to me what yours seems to be saying to you, I'd have another doctor or PT the next day.
I've had shoulder surgery and been through a fair amount of PT. I think that finding a good fit with the people treating you is VERY important. And a good fit for me would be someone who understands, "gets," and respects my goals.
For instance, we have a group of orthopedic doctors up here who really understand why people want to compete throughout their lives--because a good number of the doctors compete themselves. From my perspective as a patient, it seems to me that this mindset also results in a change in approach to healing. Their goal is not just to get their patients pain free. It's to get them pain free AND as close to 100% as they can, so that the patient can go back to their activity as soon as possible. In other words, I get the impression that if they had a swimmer patient and they could only alleviate pain and discomfort by making the patient stop swimming, they would view that outcome as a type of failure on their part.
In fact, when I had my shoulder surgery, the first thing the doc said to me in my first post-op visit was more or less "I know you are going to ask when you can start swimming again and I can't answer you yet--but we'll get you there as soon as we can."
The only other thought I can give you is that it might be worthwhile to get someone who knows swimming and anatomy to take a long look at your stroke, just in case there is something obviously causing problems.
I know it's hard! Good luck.
In general, I agree with Kirk in principle, if not necessarily in practice. If I had a doctor or PT person say to me what yours seems to be saying to you, I'd have another doctor or PT the next day.
I've had shoulder surgery and been through a fair amount of PT. I think that finding a good fit with the people treating you is VERY important. And a good fit for me would be someone who understands, "gets," and respects my goals.
For instance, we have a group of orthopedic doctors up here who really understand why people want to compete throughout their lives--because a good number of the doctors compete themselves. From my perspective as a patient, it seems to me that this mindset also results in a change in approach to healing. Their goal is not just to get their patients pain free. It's to get them pain free AND as close to 100% as they can, so that the patient can go back to their activity as soon as possible. In other words, I get the impression that if they had a swimmer patient and they could only alleviate pain and discomfort by making the patient stop swimming, they would view that outcome as a type of failure on their part.
In fact, when I had my shoulder surgery, the first thing the doc said to me in my first post-op visit was more or less "I know you are going to ask when you can start swimming again and I can't answer you yet--but we'll get you there as soon as we can."
The only other thought I can give you is that it might be worthwhile to get someone who knows swimming and anatomy to take a long look at your stroke, just in case there is something obviously causing problems.
I know it's hard! Good luck.
