shoulder dislocation?

[brits17 0]

Quote

i'm just so glad i finally got it taken care of

or not... almost exactly a year later, here i am again with the same problem. i wanted to bump this thread to share the experience, see if any one else has been there, and what was done as a solution.

My shoulder has recovered nicely from surgery, I've been back jumping for 8 months now. Yesterday, while goofing around doing flippy-doo's in the swimming pool, I launched a back flip and out slipped my right shoulder. Quickly went back into place, but the usual haunting feeling is back again. Its undoubtedly sore today.

Before throwing suggestions out there, let me say what's been done thus far. I had orthoscopic surgery, reattaching the two torn posterior ligaments back to the bone. Diligently stretched and strengthened the shoulder, and up to this day, I have full strength back with 95% range of motion. I'm a fitness fiend, so honestly I am not understanding what is going on. With the rest of upper body strengthening, I always pay close attention to anterior, medial, and posterior deltoid exercises.

From the rumor mill, and the doctor, the success rate of the ortho surgery is around 90%, significantly higher for youngsters (like myself). Apparently if it dislocates even after surgery, you're screwed. Or so I hear. This is greatly disturbing, as to I don't want my skydiving/base career ending at 21 due to a faulty shoulder. I'm in no way giving up hope, this will only make me try harder, but I'm at a loss at the moment on what to do. Like before I will try everything in my power to carry on, without placing myself at greater risk... despite the disheartening situation.

Comments, suggestions?

_______________________
aerialkinetics.com

[christelsabine 1]

did they do any nuclear spin tomography? this is the one and only way really to discover all damages inside of your shoulder. X-ray and computer tomography do not show enough.

i had 2 smaller surgeries after few dislocations but, only a specialist for shoulders discovered on the nuclear spin tomography pics what really happened and really was torn.....a lot, too much.

after that, a conventional surgery was done with a huge scar, i lost nearly one year (of working and skydiving ) . my moving range of right arm still is only at 75 percent but enough for skydiving (after training like a fool)

if not already done, ask your doc! shoulder injuries, especially after dislocation(s) do not forgive anything. shoulder with something torn inside is not healing by itself in a proper way.

i did not read your complete thread, and i am not a doctor. but ask as your dics as much as possible to avoid further damages.

it seems, you really have a serious problem with your shoulder. stick on it and try all to solve it. it probably will take a long time but, with only 21 years, you will recover quicker than you expect.

wish you best on that, you will do it right

dudeist skydiver # 3105

[brits17 0]

Nuclear spin tomography... not familiar with the procedure. I had an MRI done, which pointed out the problem. Is that going to show the same outcome?

Thanks for your input.

_______________________
aerialkinetics.com

[GeeeeeeFly 0]

I have had similar problems with my left shoulder. During AFF I was dealing with dislocation of the shoulder during free fall.
But I read all these stories of DISLOCATION, if this were the case then they would be on the ground in excruciating pain waiting for assistance to put back in place. It is extremely difficult to put a dislocated shoulder back into place without assistance.
What most people are experiencing is SUBLOCATION, this can easily be replaced by the person by rotating the humerus back into its socket. But it is also very discomforting. And will continue due to the weakened joints and tendons.
There is hope though, if you prefer you can do continued physical therapy on the shoulder to help strengthen the muscles in order to keep the joint in place. I was not successful with this I would have frequent sublocations and continued to damage the joint.
There is an orthoscopic surgery called "caspulary shrinkage" where a laser or micro waves are used to denature the tissue around the joint thus shrinking the joint and making it tighter. I opted for this and had it done over a year ago; It took about six to ten months to get my range of motion back but I have not experienced a sublocation since.
Ask an orthopedic surgeon about this...

Good luck

~G~

"The edge ... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who know where it is are those that have gone over"

[mjosparky 3]

Quote

I might consider going to a ripcord and spring loaded pilot chute for the main if I had to worry about a shoulder dislocation on every jump. At least you could pull with either hand.

Or go to an AFF type BOC that can be pulled from either side.
Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[christelsabine 1]

Quote

Nuclear spin tomography

this is MR/MRT

you will be laying down on a small bed, slowly moving forward into a metal tube. (i always hated that procedure, gave me a kind of agoraphobia, as metal roof is nearly touching the nose, cannot move, may not move ) but, they gave me a bell-rope to stop, just in case of panic.

during this time, hundreds of pictures are taken, showing body part in question in closest details/slices.

procedury takes about half an hour. only after doing this, my doc (a specialist in shoulder surgery) discovered every injury caused by 4 dislocations at various situations. muscles were pulled down, ligaments torn.

all of this was not be seen on any X-ray (of course not) or by doing CT.

do not hesitate. ask your doc. in worst case, simply calculate few/several months to be lost.

wish you tons of good luck, whatever will come.

christel

dudeist skydiver # 3105

[freakydiver 0]

I had problems, popped out at pull time once (right arm). Had to go reserve. Got surgury and got it fixed. Dont F around with a fuct shoulder.

-- (N.DG) "If all else fails – at least try and look under control." --

[brits17 0]

i see some have responded to andy2's first post. i actually bumped this thread addressing post surgery dislocation.

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1021014#1021014

_______________________
aerialkinetics.com

[flyingarab 0]

Wow..well let me just tell you, I dislocated mine yesterday due to a ground impact after a canopy collusion upong landing. I train with weights twice a day up until this point and hope that all will be well. I will visit the ortho. on friday of this week. He did look at x-rays and says that two weeks should be long enough given the muscle build etc...

Being that it is on my right shoulder I am concerned about what will happend at pull times and hope that this will not pose a problem. I guess I will leave it up to the doc for now and hope that the weight training up to now will pay off with a quick and reliable recovery.

P.S. Coming out is ok..popping it back it at the DZ, that sucks!

Be safe..

Sincerely,

FlyingArab
www.flyingarab.com

[TribalTalon 0]

what??? i thought popping your shoulder back in was fun!!!

[askir 0]

Yeah...was fun for you you were just holding him. I was pulling aginst DOC and it was hard to do, hope I never have to do that again, it was weird.

LIFE IS LIKE A CIGARETTE, YOU CAN SIT THERE AND WATCH IT BURN AWAY OR YOU CAN SMOKE THAT BITCH TO THE FILTER

[brits17 0]

Tarek,
As you know I train with weights 3 times/week as well. IMO, I would lay off of jumping until you are confident again that it will not dislocate during pull time. The more it comes out, the more it tears. Its difficult to decipher the strength of your rotator on the ground vs the air, but don't make the same mistakes I did and rip it apart so bad you are completely grounded. I had to this weekend, even though it was difficult. I don't want it to be the way it was before, that was hell.

_______________________
aerialkinetics.com

[flyingarab 0]

hey brit,

I appreciate your reply to this and agree with you 100%. I am going to see an ortho tomorrow and will take it from there. I have already gained a ton of movement back and want to remain pos. about the whole thing. Being out this sport for even a day is uncomprehensable to me at this point, however I will do what is determined to be safe for myself and my fellow skydivers.

have a great one..you rock!

Sincerely,

FlyingArab
www.flyingarab.com

[cadmium 0]

I too have been plagued with shoulder sublocations for 10-12 years. My left was always the worst and it happened about every 4 months. I tried all the PT exercises and it never worked well enough. I let it bother me for years before doing anything about it. I recently consulted an orthopedic surgeon and had the shoulder reconstructed with arthroscopic surgery. The Doctor confirmed to me that it was "very" loose.
Now many people complain that this is a horrible painful procedure. Well its not. Modern surgical procedures have greatly lessened the pain and recovery time. I was using the arm in a limited capacity again in 2 weeks. I was supposed to be in an immobilizer for 4 weeks. After 4 weeks I started PT and after 12 weeks I was over 90% and jumping again. It has been 5 months now and the shoulder is stronger than it was when I was a teenager. The funny thing is the "good" right shoulder is noticeably weaker than the left. I plan to have that one rebuilt this winter.
I haven't had any repeat injures but I'm confident that the chance of injuring that shoulder again has been greatly reduced. I know if I need surgery again it may not go as smooth.
The shoulder joint is the weakest joint in the human body. My advice to those with recurrent shoulder problems is to consult an orthopedic surgeon about surgery or other treatments. Left unattended with repeat injury only makes things worse. Better to prevent further injury or the possibility of worse if you lose the use of you arm at an inopportune time. I’m completely happy I had the surgery. If you have to take time off from the sport for awhile do it. It will be around when you come back. Better safe than sorry.

_________________________________________

On the Journey of Life! Want a Ride?

[mcashatt01 0]

I recently dislocated my shoulder during freefall I have been out now for 2 months since it happened. I went to 3 weeks of PT and they said i was good to go. still being unsure this paste weekend i got my friend to crank his car up to 140mph and hung myself out the window. Of course this might be more dangerous than jumping out of a plane. Anyway everything went fine and i plan to be at CSS this weekend. wish me luck

[hookitt 0]

Anterior or posterior?

Which Shoulder?

How old are you? <== believe or not that matters.

My grammar sometimes resembles that of magnetic refrigerator poetry... Ghetto

[mcashatt01 0]

It's my right shoulder(of course, My luck), to tell the truth I'm not sure if it's interior or posterior. I ended up not being able to jump last weekend but this week end it's on. I can't help but still be a little nervous. I'm going to the Ortho again today for hopefully my last visit.
I haven't received an MR or even a MRI, I intend to ask the Doc about that today. It kind of makes me mad that they haven't offered either to me. But I'm going to get on top of things today.

[AndyMan 7]

My wife (craichead) is recovering from shoulder surgery following a series of dislocations.

The thing about MRI's is that certain shoulder issues don't show up very well at all. Craichead had an MRI done which really didn't show much of any significant damage. She proceeded with the operation because she was still having major issues with normal life.... Her shoulder would pop-out while throwing a blanket on the bed, for example.

They treat shoulder injuries by analyzing symptoms. If you show symptoms they assume you've got a problem. If you don't show symptoms they leave you alone. MRI's, X-Ray's, and other diagnostic tools aren't terribly helpful.

They treat shoulder dislocation issues in stages. First they'll just assign PT, and send you away for a few monthes. If you're showing symptoms after a few monthes, then they'll investigate other options. They won't explore more complicated options until you've given a good run of the simpler ones. MRI's are expensive and they probably won't do one after the first event unless you continue to show symptoms after doing PT.

In craichead's case, even though the MRI showed very little damage, during surgery they discovered major damage to 70% of her labrum The surgury took 4 hours when they initially expected it to tak 1.5.

_Am

__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

[craichead 0]

Is this the only shoulder dislocation you've ever had? Did you do anything weird during freefall that caused it to dislocate? My dislocations happened during flares on student canopies (NOT reaching out for the ground on landing). I flared hard, and I pretty much yanked my arm out of the socket. My doctor reports that I just have loose ligaments (he tested my left shoulder while I was asleep for surgery).

Be sure to keep up with those exercises every day. After my first dislocation, I didn't keep up with them and ended up with another dislocation. I had 2 months of PT, an MRI (with contrasting dye, the arthrogram was awful) and finally surgery because I was still having sharp pains while doing simple tasks.

Believe it or not, I'm looking forward to starting active exercises in physical therapy (just passive exercises right now). Having my arm in a sling and not being able to move it much really sucks.

_Pm

__
"Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

[rebies 0]

Bump from long ago!

Found this topic on Google. Was considering skydiving and curious if my shoulder would be good enough after my surgery. Just happened to run upon this topic.

I’ve never skydived. In fact, I’m not sure if I ever will just to not mess with it – but I sure would like to do so. But for anyone reading this in the future – I’ll share my shoulder experience…

Dislocated 20+ times myself. (right shoulder, I’m mid 20’s.) First time it happened snowboarding. Later on it happened literally getting clothes out of the dryer. Stretching with my arms above head. One time even turning over sleeping! (talk about scary – you wake up in pain, wondering what the heck just happened!)

Anyway, after 8 years finally visited an orthopedic surgeon I trusted about this. Turns out I had a bankart legion problem, as others here have had. I had a lot of time to research it – and learned a few things. If you do surgery – do it right! First – do it “open”, not “orthoscopic”! Orthoscopicly more or less means they try not to leave a scar and do it with a very tiny external wound. Open means they literally make a 5 inch slice (in my situation) which leaves a very nice battle wound. Starts a little in the armpit – goes straight up from there about 4 inches. Literally – while some doctors might say otherwise – letting them slice your shoulder up allows them to go in and do what they need to do to fix the problem! As others have said here – if you dislocate after surgery it sounds like you are in a big mess. Surgery takes care of 95% of people for life. If you dislocate after surgery – you’re likely to have lots more problems in the future.

If curious – search google for “open bankart repair”. You’re likely to find some nice nasty pics of the surgery and details of what is done. (At least if you have an anterior problem in my case.)

Second – if you have the surgery do it with a well known doctor! I honestly believe your doctor is one of the bigger factors! While this is a fairly common surgery – your doctor can easily over-tighten you or not tighten you up enough! Someone that is on top of their game will analyze and do it right. In fact – until your shoulder is open, it’s very hard for them to tell exactly what the exact nature of the problem is.

I’m nearly at 11 months now and have not had a problem since. (One or two times a quick, mediocre pain for a half a second. I think this is more of my mind thinking about it than anything else. Nothing serious. No popping / cracking sound as shoulders often do.)

To answer a few other questions brought up here… For the surgery I had to go under for I think 4 hours. It was an outpatient surgery meaning I left that day. They tightened the ligaments and screwed them to the bone with a couple tiny screws. I was told it would be a very painful recovery for a few days. In fact I kept on the Vicoden and did not feel a single ounce of pain from the surgery. Most people were shocked (doctors, physical therapists, nurses) that it went so easy for me. The PT afterwards went on for 3 months very vigorously. The PT was the most difficult part – not because it was painful – but because you want to do a good job stretching the ligaments and rebuilding the muscle to completely heal the surgery. If you do the surgery – do the PT afterwards!!! Otherwise you might very well be wasting money. I’ve kept on the PT since the surgery. Overall I think the surgery (doctors bills, anesthesia, PT, hospital bills, etc) ran about $14k. With insurance I paid about $2500 of that. The doc I found is a very well know doc in my area – and with insurance did not cost a dime more than a 1-year med student grad would have. In fact – I was shocked he was able to fit me into his schedule with just 6 weeks time.

Anyway – hope this might help anyone here in the future. My doctor and physical therapist recommended no physical activates for 6 months. I decided to give it a year just to be safe and strengthen properly. It’s a year of my life – but well worth it.

And lastly – now it’s my left shoulder that is the “bad” one. Actually – not “bad”. However, my right shoulder is much stronger and better than my left as funny as that is. I’ve never had problems with the left shoulder. Though – when working out it tends to be the left shoulder that is in pain and wants to quit before the right. I do think this is due to the fact that I rebuilt the right and did more PT on it for the first 4 months. (don’t worry – I’m not lopsided!) But as the right got fixed – interesting how I now notice the left is now not as strong!

* no – I’m not a doctor! Just my personal experience. And I definitely don’t know all the details. Although I have a copy of my surgery report – it’s nearly a foreign language to me!

[LongWayToFall 0]

There are lots of threads on dropzone.com regarding shoulder dislocations. I happened to have the same surgery as yourself, and as you said, it now is stronger than the other uninjured shoulder. So, obviously you will not have strength problems if you choose to jump. Not sure you will just not to mess with it? what kind of excuse it that?

[popsjumper 2]

Because of this very issue, we've discourged more than 1 AFF candidate from jumping until physically fit.

Repeated dislocations is not good.

Please get it repaired.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[nicoledc109 0]

Quote

did they do any nuclear spin tomography? this is the one and only way really to discover all damages inside of your shoulder. X-ray and computer tomography do not show enough.

i had 2 smaller surgeries after few dislocations but, only a specialist for shoulders discovered on the nuclear spin tomography pics what really happened and really was torn.....a lot, too much.

after that, a conventional surgery was done with a huge scar, i lost nearly one year (of working and skydiving ) . my moving range of right arm still is only at 75 percent but enough for skydiving (after training like a fool)

if not already done, ask your doc! shoulder injuries, especially after dislocation(s) do not forgive anything. shoulder with something torn inside is not healing by itself in a proper way.

i did not read your complete thread, and i am not a doctor. but ask as your dics as much as possible to avoid further damages.

it seems, you really have a serious problem with your shoulder. stick on it and try all to solve it. it probably will take a long time but, with only 21 years, you will recover quicker than you expect.

wish you best on that, you will do it right

Thanks you for the post.

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