How soon to skydive after surgery?

[daniellarson 0]

How do I know when my body (chest) can handle a parachute deployment after a major surgery? The doctor said I am able to do all activities and to build up to where I was, but there is no way to build up to a skydive/deployment. I'm only worried because the harness pulls on my shoulder where the surgery was.

I had surgery for a major pec rupture (tendon between chest and arm became completely detached) in April2016. I was pronounced free to do all activities in Oct16, however I had no real muscle strength. 2 months after being able to start strengthening I can do about 25 Push ups and 1 pull up. How can I make sure I will not have any issues once I deploy a parachute?

Thanks for your input.

[Pobrause 6]

You can't make sure you wont have any issues. Even the most reliably opening canopy can smack you hard enough to injure you, especially if certain parts are already preweakened.

But if your problem is the harness vs shoulder part you might want to tighten your cheststrap more so that your harness rests firmly on your chest, where it should be anyways.

Also be pepared. Don't pull and relax. Pull and expect a hard pounding every time. Muscle tension in the critical parts in combination with a good stretching and warm up is the most effective way to avoid opening related injuries.

-------------------------------------------------------

To absent friends

[sammielu 3]

I agree ^^^.

Doctors have no idea the G forces involved with canopy opening.
A friend had a shoulder dislocation this year and was cleared for jumps 3 times this year after intensive physical therapy to build the muscle. Each time all it took was one skydive (freeflying twice, canopy opening once) for the shoulder to dislocate again - the 3rd time after 6 full months of PT. Shoulders are different, I know, but build that muscle as much as you can. My friends repeated injuries are covered by L&I (because the initial injury was during work), but you might not be so lucky (and now he's scheduled for surgery and off jumping for at least a year). Better safe than sorry...

[riggerrob 558]

First remember that tendons and ligaments heal much slower than muscles.
For example, I dislocated my right shoulder a few years back.
Two rounds of physio-therapy helped but my insurance company kicked me out of physio' 4 months after the accident. The insurance company approved me for "light duties."
Five months after the accident, bone bruises to my sternum and ribs quit aching.
Six months after the accident, I tried jumping again but was still too weak to pack for myself.
Eight months after the accident, I resumed jumping with tandem students but it was a full year before I could lift anything heavy without immediate pain in my right biceps.
I did thousands of push-ups, sit-ups and chin-ups during that first year. My muscles regained strength far faster than tendons and ligaments.
To this day, if I lift something heavy (e.g. sewing machine) my right shoulder (acromia-clavicular ligament) throbs for a week or two afterwards.
Patience grasshopper! And while you are being patient, pound out thousands more exercises. Tendons and ligaments will eventually catch up with your growing muscles.

[nolhtairt 0]

The first thing I would evaluate is whether you can do the exercises you were able to do before the surgery. Major surgeries are nothing to sneeze at. It's been 9 months now. You should be close enough to normal as possible by now, but everybody recovers differently. Only one pull up, you say? At least try to get more than that. Or work your way up with a weight training machine that simulates pull-ups. There are at least 5 exercises you can do with a machine to build up your pecs, but the ligament attachment do take a long time to heal.

You can't ever know whether you will have issues or not until you do that first jump back.

What kind of canopy are you using and its wingloading? You'd like to have a soft sniveling opening. Your first jump should be a quick hop and pop, clear and pull.