Shoulder Injuries

[ryan_d_sucks 0]

Hey,

I'm kind of in the middle of my student progression, and I was hoping to have my A by later this summer, but I've hit a possible bump in the road. I noticed a few weeks ago that the day after making 2 jumps my shoulder felt kind of 'loose' in the socket, and a little bit painful on rotating my arm above my head and back. However, after a day or so the pain went away, and I went again to jump a week later. After that, the same thing happened again. Now this weekend I went out Sunday and made 2 jumps (5 sec. delays) and my shoulder is pretty damn sore today. Much more than previously

The thing I can't understand is what part of the skydive is causing this. I'm not taking grips on anyone and therefore not getting slung around the sky. I'm not tweaking it on exit- its just a poised exit from the strut of a 182. I feel like it COULD be the opening shock of the canopy, but the fact that I'm only doing 5 second delays and not quite even reaching terminal seems to disprove that. However, my next jump will be a 10 second, so if its the opening shock, can I only expect it to get worse?

Unfortunately I have had problems with this shoulder before. About 4 years ago I had arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn labrum. But, I went back to play 3 seasons of competitive baseball after that with just a little pain. I'm wondering if I have re-aggravated a previous injury or if this is something totally new. Obviously if this continues I will go see my doctor and look into surgery again, but its SUCH an inconvenient time in my progression to take 4 recovery months off. That would put me back in FJC and on the dope rope. Usually my shoulder recovers during the weekdays and I head out to the DZ with no pain. I will not jump again if its hurting at the DZ, because I don't want to be unable to reach my BOC hackey.

Does anyone have experience with shoulder injuries related to skydiving? What part of the skydive was causing the problem, and was there anything you did to correct it? Any home remedies or specific PT exercises that helped you out?

Thanks a lot.

Ryan

[denete 2]

I don't have any solutions, but I wanted to let you know that I'm having the same thing. I've never had shoulder injuries, but after jumping I've been having pain in just my left shoulder. I can feel it if I raise my elbow higher than my shoulder. I'm hitting the Advil and waiting for it to subside. It showed up after my 3rd and 4th jumps.

SCR #14809

"our attitude is the thing most capable of keeping us safe"
(look, grab, look, grab, peel, punch, punch, arch)

[FallingOsh 0]

My shoulders suck from mutiple torn rotators. Skydiving abuses the body in a completely different way than most sports and it may just take some time for your shoulder to adjust. I've never met anyone who isn't a little sore after a full weekend of jumping. That being said, know your limits. If you can make 6-9 jumps and be fine after a day of recovery then I say keep doin what you're doing. If you're layed up for three days after one hop-n-pop then there's probably something more serious to look into.

As far as suggestions, I use basic ice and icey-hot on my joints after a full weekend. Stretching is also important for me, especially afterwards. I have no idea what the details of your past are, but I would avoid surgery. Serious reconstruction and 4 months of recovery is a pretty large gamble just to see if you'd be less sore after slamming your body around. Your decision on that one.

Like I said, just know your limits. I can't jump more than 6-9 times in a weekend because my sinuses start hurting. That doesn't mean I need surgery. Just means i stop when it hurts.

--------------------------------------------------
Stay positive and love your life.

[Andrewwhyte 1]

Shoulder injuries are endemic to our sport. Years ago I just got used to having a sore right shoulder. Various doctors and physiotherapists have failed to nail it down. One thing I do know is that strength training helps.

[daremrc 0]

i had multiple dislocations on my left arm before startimg this sport. found out that after getting to 10 second delays, the wind resistance on my arm would thow it out of socket and render in immobile. was pretty scary thing to happen on student jump #8. Had surgery & now things work well, so I guess its different for each injury.

All that said, in retrospect, I would never again risk a mid-air disloation if I felt that one was possible or imminent. I posted quite a bit of detail about my shoulder ordeal here, if you search my sn you should find the posts...

good luck with that

Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement.

[Para5-0 0]

I watched this happen to a student just cleared for solo, and doing a coach jump. Her right shoulder dislocated in free fall. I had to deploy for her. Needless to say that it was not listed as a medical condition on her waiver and we were never made aware of the problem prior to this jump. I was told by the student that her shoulder "pops out" every now and then. She did seek medical treatment but I have not seen her since. It is very important to know that you have no physical limitations prior to pursueing this sport. Need I explain why?

[AnKaLi 0]

daremrc is a ninja, he was able to pull AND relocate his shoulder under canopy.
I'm just happy he finally found something worth getting his shoulder fixed over!

[Scubadivemaster 3]

Search for "Shoulder". There are several thread about this. Your arm position puts your shoulder in a naturally weak position when flying boxman or making turns using your arms flying mantis.

Strength training helps greatly. Don't get back in the air until you have your shoulders in really good shape. Is this your right or left shoulder. Dislocating a left shoulder in freefall can be scary. Dislocating a right should, because of standard BOC placement, can be terrifying or even deadly.

I feel your pain, I am waiting to get my shoulders right to get back in the air again as well.

Again, there are many threads on this, search them and spend some time reading them and thinking about how you can deploy and perform emergency procedures, steer, and land, without the use of one arm.

[daremrc 0]

Quote

thinking about how you can deploy and perform emergency procedures, steer, and land, without the use of one arm.

this was the scariest part for me, as I had not planned ahead for the dislocation at all. At the time, I did not know it was possible to put both toggles in one hand and steer/flare like that. It just had never occurred to me with 8 jumps under my belt. I spent about 30 seconds under canopy going 'holy shit, holy shit' until I was able to get the arm back in. Had I not been able to re-set it, I might've just flown off into whatever obstacles laid ahead on my glide path. I now try turning & flaring with just my left, and just my right every couple of jumps incase I ever have this trouble again. Mind you without good upper-body strength, it's pretty difficult to do much flaring with that one arm anyways.

All this trouble doesnt even begin to mention the stability issues you would have if one of your arms instantly turned into a dead fish at the top of a jump. Mine was during the reach/pull.

dont mean to harp so much here but it scared the crap out of me, and happened to me after I told myself 'Oh, it's probably fine to just jump anyways'... It might not be a bad idea to schedule an MRI before your next jump.

Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement.

[apollard24 0]

Quote

Like I said, just know your limits.

To the poster: This is worth repeating...

I have a dislocating right shoulder and yes it has popped out during deployment time once. I have to constantly work out my shoulder to keep the muscle built up from doing it again. Get checked out by a doctor. I know my limits and know that I cant jump more than 6 jumps a day but thats ok. Hope everything works out for you but please just get it checked out.

Breathe out so I can breathe you in...

[SmoothAl 0]

Hey Ryan,

Here's a little discussion I had started up a few weeks back. Some of it may be of some use to you.
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2750295;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread

Good luck!

SA

[calledisrael 0]

you can search on here for my tales of dislocation in freefall... but listen to these guys. as someone who has had my shoulder dislocate twice and i just had to pull silver with my left hand and land with almost no flare (toggles in one hand) and a good PLF... it isn't worth the risk.

it can be fixed - fix it. there's never a convenient time in the progression, but the sky will always be there, and being SERIOUSLY broken is way more inconveneient.

i know i CAN land myself even if i dislocated in freefall, but i would not be irresponsible enough to put myself in that position and not do everything i can to avoid that scenario. also in terms of knowing your limits, like these guys said... i did 5 months of PT, was all excited about how strong i was, and decided (like a stupid person) to go fly in the TUNNEL. very physically stressfull on a shoulder injury (which incidentally is why they have all those signs about people with shoulder injuries.) it went fine, i was just motionless for a few days afterward.... doing a tandem and turning/pulling/flaring with an instructor on my back ended up being a much safer test of how recovered my shoulder actually was.

whatever you decide to do about it, good luck! and be careful out there.

life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.
(helen keller)

[ryan_d_sucks 0]

Wow this sucks-

Everything I've read has given me very little hope for a speedy recovery without going uncurrent, and more disheartening-- without surgery. I went to the doc today, and she stated ~1 month before I think about going up again, and offered a physical therapy referral. However, she's only a general practice doc, and I think I will go to an orthopedic guy for a second opinion. I see no reason not to go ahead and get x-ray/MRI rather than just play the 'wait and see if strength training helps' approach. If something's fucked in there I'd rather find out before I waste a month of not jumping and doing PT that won't fix a torn ligament.

However, I am thinking about just taking a couple weeks off until the soreness goes away and making a couple more jumps. I don't think it will dislocate in freefall, as its never dislocated before, and it never hurts while skydiving, it starts the next day..

Good luck to all of you still battling your shoulder problems. And for those of you who did only physical therapy/strength training (no surgery)- how long did it take for your shoulder to be jumpable? Also how old are you? I feel like as a healthy, young 20 year old male I shouldn't be bogged down by such a weird 'injury.'

[Scubadivemaster 3]

I was 24 when I first dislocated mine badly. With PT 3 times a week for 2 months I was able to use it pretty well again. I dislocated it a month ago for the second time, not nearly as badly, and after very intense PT, I hope to start jumping again this weekend. Note that the labrum was NOT torn in either incident.

If you have not actually dislocated it, I wouldn't think you have torn your labrum (WTF do I know?), so I suspect that PT and strength training would prevent further problems. You are at the stage where you are trying prevent a real injury, not trying to fix a major one that has already occurred.

The way it has been explained to me is that having all of the large AND small muscles around your shoulder joint in very good condition will help hold the ball in the socket, preventing the stretching and tearing of the ligaments and such. It is when your body has to rely on the ligaments and the joint to hold itself together without the assistance of those muscles that you end up hurt..

But again, WTF do I know?