The Butterfly Lane

I'm rehabbing a torn rotator cuff and I've been staying away from fly altogether. It is, however, my best stroke and a lot of fun (when you're sprinting at least). Has anyone been able to get their fly back after a torn rotator without surgery? I'm trying to stay away from the knife and the six months out of the pool, if possible. I guess I'm looking for a success story to give me a little hope, if there's one out there. So far, so good for me. I'm 52, fly is my best stroke, and I had bilateral shoulder pain at Nationals last May. An MRI showed partial tears of the subscapularis (a large tear), supraspinatus, and infraspinatus tendons, and a SLAP II tear in the left shoulder, and partial tears of the supraspinatus and infraspinatus tendons, a SLAP II tear, and bad AC joint arthritis in the right shoulder. I had platelet rich plasma (PRP) injections of each tendon and the labrum in the left shoulder (a single session, under ultrasound guidance) in June, and then had these areas and the AC joint on the right done in July. I primarily kicked most of the summer and did typical rotator cuff physical therapy. I swam fly in a meet at the end of August and started back to usual training in September. I was able to swim 10 events in a 2 day SCM meet (someone dared me to --- I'm usually sane) a few weeks ago, including the 50, 100, and 200 fly. I never get pain now in my right shoulder, but I still get some muscular pain (trigger points) around the scapula on the left if I try to do too much fly on consecutive days. I'm learning my limits, but considering the extent of my rotator cuff pathology, I'm pretty amazed I've avoided surgery, can train, and swim fly. There's no great clinical trial evidence yet that PRP works, but I'm pretty certain I wouldn't be as pain free and able to train and compete without having had it done. It's generally not covered by insurance, and I sank about $2500 into having it done, but I'm glad I did.

I'm rehabbing a torn rotator cuff and I've been staying away from fly altogether. It is, however, my best stroke and a lot of fun (when you're sprinting at least). Has anyone been able to get their fly back after a torn rotator without surgery? I'm trying to stay away from the knife and the six months out of the pool, if possible. I guess I'm looking for a success story to give me a little hope, if there's one out there. So far, so good for me. I'm 52, fly is my best stroke, and I had bilateral shoulder pain at Nationals last May. An MRI showed partial tears of the subscapularis (a large tear), supraspinatus, and infraspinatus tendons, and a SLAP II tear in the left shoulder, and partial tears of the supraspinatus and infraspinatus tendons, a SLAP II tear, and bad AC joint arthritis in the right shoulder. I had platelet rich plasma (PRP) injections of each tendon and the labrum in the left shoulder (a single session, under ultrasound guidance) in June, and then had these areas and the AC joint on the right done in July. I primarily kicked most of the summer and did typical rotator cuff physical therapy. I swam fly in a meet at the end of August and started back to usual training in September. I was able to swim 10 events in a 2 day SCM meet (someone dared me to --- I'm usually sane) a few weeks ago, including the 50, 100, and 200 fly. I never get pain now in my right shoulder, but I still get some muscular pain (trigger points) around the scapula on the left if I try to do too much fly on consecutive days. I'm learning my limits, but considering the extent of my rotator cuff pathology, I'm pretty amazed I've avoided surgery, can train, and swim fly. There's no great clinical trial evidence yet that PRP works, but I'm pretty certain I wouldn't be as pain free and able to train and compete without having had it done. It's generally not covered by insurance, and I sank about $2500 into having it done, but I'm glad I did.