Hi everyone,
I'm new to the formums but have been reading a lot of the posts related to shoulder injuries over the past week or so (first found the forums searching for information on shoulder impingement). I am a lifelong competitive swimmer, and swam through college. This is my fifth year out of school, and my fifth year swimming Masters. I have been one of the lucky few to get through my swimming career with no major injuries, but unfortunately, I started having pain primarily in my right shoulder this past October. It also occurred very minimally in my left shoulder. When it continued to reoccur and gradually get worse, I tried two weeks of rest in Dec. The pain worsened during the rest period so I finally saw a doctor at the end of January. At that point my right shoulder was so painful that I was barely using it. Predictably, I was diagnosed with bilateral shoulder impingement and prescribed PT, and told to ice when when it was painful, but try to stay active as long as I wasn't in serious pain. On my own, I cut out butterfly, kickboards, diving off the blocks, and pulling (all painful things). I was told to stay away from NSAID's because they delay healing.
Up until a week ago, my shoulders had been improving gradually and I had been doing PT and targeted rest pretty strictly. The right one was still very mildly painful, but just barely. Then, a couple of things happened. Over the past two weeks, I've had to do some heavy lifting for work, and I also stupidly decided to do a fun dryland-integrated practice where we were starting off of the blocks and repeatedly climbing out of the pool. I also pulled with small paddles. (yes, I know... dumb). My left shoulder hurt during this practice but I figured I'd just ice it and take the consequences, because I was enjoying myself.
Now, my left (not the original one) shoulder has been in pretty bad pain for the past 4 days or so. I can feel what I think is it subluxating with certain motions (particularly if I squeeze my lats together and pull my shoulder back), and I get a popping sensation inside the joint. It hurts with almost any motion, even washing my hands. The worst is how it aches inside the joint; that is keeping me up at night. Icing makes it a little better for half an hour or so. I also started taking ibuprofen, which helps a little, but not much. I'm worried about a SLAP tear to my labrum because of these symptoms.
This is a lot of background information.... but what I want to know is how long I should wait before I go back to the doctor? I am trying to see if rest, PT, icing and NSAID's will help. Unfortunately getting time off from school/work is very difficult for a doctor's appointment so I don't want to go unless it's really serious. I'm pretty strongly anti-surgery if there is even a slight hope of medical management improving things, just because I know surgery is not benign and requires a long recovery time.
Former Member
Sorry to bump this thread again, but thought it was better than posting another...
Does anyone have any clever workout ideas for the land-bound swimmer? What have those of you who have had shoulder problems done while resting them? I can't really bike right now because it hurts, and I have been running as much as I can (about 4 miles, 3 days a week), but I have patellofemoral pain syndrome as well (long-standing knee pain I've had since a teenager, which generally won't bother me unless I run or hike too much uphill/downhill).
I've also started lifting legs-only, but from there on out.... I have no idea what to do :(
Any fun ideas would be wonderful.
I swam right through a bad shoulder injury. They call it kicking. I had plenty of time to work on my whip kick, and my dolphin, as well as the flutter kick. I do admit I didn't make three practices per week. and I often got out early. I found that the bad arm could be floated up into streamline even though I couldn't make it move on my own. I did rotation drills and rode over my arms till I got my strength back. It too six months before I could fully use my arm and I'm still strengthening it.
The key is to pay attention to the pain. Is it a muscle soreness that can be pushed a bit? Or is it a joint pain that needs to rest?
Good luck with the shoulder.
PS I had a wonderful Chiropractor who worked on the spasmed muscles and helped the healing.
I don't know if you would consider this, Water-For-Life, but if it were me, I would invest in an Aqua Jogger and do suspended running training in the pool. That way you could stay in shape, while resting the knees and the shoulder. I injured my shoulder in 2009 and it took 3 months to rehabilitate and 8 months before I swam fast again. Physical therapy, ice and rest worked very well and I swam, but much easier and less frequently as it healed. I also ditched paddles and webbed gloves...
I've been kicking, too... I'm losing patience. Been going 5 days a week, but have reduced it to 3 and now think I might take a break altogether because not being able to swim with everyone else is really upsetting me. Did you do sets with everyone when you kicked? I had been doing fins/no fins/some snorkel kick, etc. Every time I think I'm feeling a bit better, I try and streamline or just swim a tiny bit, no more than 1,000 m, and it flares up immediately again. So I guess that's my body telling me it needs rest (and it's def joint pain, not muscle soreness).
Thus... I'm looking for other things to do.
