Shoulder brace/dislocated shoulder, also looking for Christy West/Dusty Smith

[Newtons2nd 0]

I just dislocated my shoulder for the 5th time while doing backflips last weekend.

I was told by a few instructors that there are braces out there that will help with this and that the two names mentioned above were people who had tried these braces.

If you either know of the brace and where I might find it or know of these two people and can kindly let them know I am in need of the info, it would be greatly appreciated.

[KevinMcGuire 0]

Call skydive AZ and ask for Dusty (520) 466-3753

[ltdiver 3]

IMHO, you should seek out a qualified surgeon. Once a shoulder dislocates, it will keep doing it again until it is fixed. No amount of bracing will rehabilitate it.

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[Newtons2nd 0]

Thanks,

I have been to the appropriate analysts and just need a brace.

There is no surgery available for what my shoulder has gone through.

I have had the same laxicity since I was a young boy (29 now) and it comes out at will no worse than it ever did.

It is not even painful anymore, however I lose total control of the arm until I am under canopy, so this makes deployment a bit spinny as I am unable to stabilize with my left straight out to my side.

[flyangel2 2]

One injury leads to another.

IMO I don't think I would be jumping with that kind of problem.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey

[tigra 0]

Christy posts on here sometimes, but I don't remember her user name. Maybe she'll see this.

[eeneR 1]

Quote

IMHO, you should seek out a qualified surgeon. Once a shoulder dislocates, it will keep doing it again until it is fixed. No amount of bracing will rehabilitate it.

ltdiver

I have to agree here with Ltdiver. The ligaments will never heal, and at some point with all the dislocations you are going to do serious damage to your shoulder. It is a very complext joint, one not to be fucked with. If it contiunes enough, you can and will do permanent non-repairable damage. READ: FUCKED for LIFE.

I had to have my shoulder fixed, May 20th it was done. Im out most of the season, but I know that It will not dislocate on me now.

Editied to add...im not sure what exactly is wrong with your shoulder, but if it is loose they can do a capsulization (sp?) where they tighten down the ligaments in your shoulder. This is what happend to me. I have a genetic trait which causes me to have very flexible ligaments. Thus allowing them in acute incedents to stretch out WAY to much. This is what happend to me, causing my shoulder to sit half sublexed out of the shoulder (out of the socket half way) This was fixed by anchoring down 3 of the ligaments and tightening down the shoulder capsule. If I were you I would talk to another doc for a second opinon.

Thing big picture.

Do search for my shoulder threads....there are a few.

She is not a "Dumb Blonde" - She is a "Light-Haired Detour Off The Information Superhighway."
eeneR
TF#72, FB#4130, Incauto

[psw097 0]

I use a Bauerfeind OmoTrain Shoulder Support.

[meltdown 0]

I dislocated my shoulder the day after Christmas last year. I rehabbed it for about 2-1/2 months and have been jumping with a Sully Shoulder Stabilizer since then. I've had no problems (I've got 84 jumps post injury), but then again it took a pretty major trauma to dislocate in the first place. I got the brace over the internet at a place called Collins Sports Medicine. Good luck.

[GAskygirl 31]

Hello Newtons2nd,

Sorry to hear about your shoulder, that is absolutely no fun. Been there, done that, braced that, had the surgery, braced it some more, stopped bracing it, tried it out in the tunnel, threw the brace in a closet, so far OK about 4 years and three ten-way medals later
I tried a couple of different things to support my shoulder, all of which would be different for you depending on your injury. My injury was pretty simple: The ligament running left to right across the front of my right shoulder was split, along with a stretched and torn joint capsule. The fix was to stitch up the joint capsule and abrade the split ligament edges and stitch them together. I still have probably 99% range of motion. If you have not seen a shoulder specialist, I would highly recommend it. That and working out the right muscles heavily (rear of shoulder primarily; these are the ones that pull the shoulder back in socket if it tries to sneak out).

So if there really is nothing to be done for your shoulder (the shoulder is a tough joint to stabilize due to its wide range of motion in all axes), let's talk about bracing. Do you primarily belly fly, freefly, or a combination? The stresses are different, so the brace objectives could vary.

I primarily belly fly, 4way training in particular. I tried creative ace bandaging, neoprene support device, and a rigger homegrown brace that we made up over a bottle of tequila. The homegrown one was the only one that worked, as it was a strap-based deal that fully stopped my arms from fully extending (lots of leverage in the wrong direction on a fully extended arm when falling on your belly) or my elbows from both moving too far behind my back (as in a wide open arch). The bandaging and neoprene might be enough for some people, but for me they did not provide enough resistance to keep my poor shoulder where it belonged.

It was tough to get used to as it was a motion limiter, but it was very effective and not too bad once you learned to ignore all the bondage jokes. If motion limitation in those directions sounds like it would help, I can describe the brace in more detail. Just out of time at the moment.

Blue Skies!
-=Christy=-
D-21464