Ugh...SLAP tear, gonna need shoulder surgery

[JonBoy]

A SLAP tear is different than a rotator cuff tear. You can wait too long on a rotator cuff tear leading to a higher failure rate of surgery and if you wait too long, it can become irreparable. With a SLAP tear, that is not the case. And again, there are a lot of folks out there with asymptomatic slap tears. If you were to MRI a bunch adults without shoulder pain, you would almost definitely find some with what would be read as a SLAP tear on an MRI. Biceps tendon pathology (a slap tear is technically a tear of the labrum where the long head of the biceps tendon anchors to the glenoid) and treatment are a highly debated subject among shoulder specialists. There are some that would argue that a SLAP repair in the adult population is not the right answer, and a biceps tenodesis is a better treatment.

But the take home is, a SLAP tear alone is not (in my opinion) something that I would say HAS to be addressed with surgery, especially if conservative measures have not been exhausted.

This is actually what's being performed on me along with the SLAP repair to relieve the labrum from being pulled on by the biceps. Subacromial decompression, distal clavicle resection, labral repair and biceps tenodesis...all arthoscopically. Not sure what the deltas are from the other surgeries mentioned here but after talking with the doctor again he was confident in a 3 month window to recovery. He said 3 months and I should be able to do most things including working back into martial arts and slowly getting back into weight training (to pull my bow back)

[LiftAndShoot]

Hey man - sorry to hear this. Happened to me in a different way my first year getting into bowhunting. I tore up my wrist and was on the sidelines. Good news is that I consumed so much hunting content otherwise I kept the fire stoked. Hope the surgery is quick and the recovery is clean.

[Clark]

Wear your fricking sling like the doc tells you to! Don’t try and be a hero and use the arm before you are supposed to.

Listen to this advice. ^
Wear your sling, all the time and the prescribed amount of time.

You will be unhappy.
You will not sleep.
You will be motivated to use that arm.
And you will hate that sling.

When the doc finally tells you to ditch the sling, then go vanilla gorilla on the PT.
It's gonna take a while.
Good luck.

[NWhunter]

HS50121240

This sounds more reasonable

[NWhunter]

A SLAP tear is different than a rotator cuff tear. You can wait too long on a rotator cuff tear leading to a higher failure rate of surgery and if you wait too long, it can become irreparable. With a SLAP tear, that is not the case. And again, there are a lot of folks out there with asymptomatic slap tears. If you were to MRI a bunch adults without shoulder pain, you would almost definitely find some with what would be read as a SLAP tear on an MRI. Biceps tendon pathology (a slap tear is technically a tear of the labrum where the long head of the biceps tendon anchors to the glenoid) and treatment are a highly debated subject among shoulder specialists. There are some that would argue that a SLAP repair in the adult population is not the right answer, and a biceps tenodesis is a better treatment.

But the take home is, a SLAP tear alone is not (in my opinion) something that I would say HAS to be addressed with surgery, especially if conservative measures have not been exhausted.

This is actually what's being performed on me along with the SLAP repair to relieve the labrum from being pulled on by the biceps. Subacromial decompression, distal clavicle resection, labral repair and biceps tenodesis...all arthoscopically. Not sure what the deltas are from the other surgeries mentioned here but after talking with the doctor again he was confident in a 3 month window to recovery. He said 3 months and I should be able to do most things including working back into martial arts and slowly getting back into weight training (to pull my bow back)

That sounds more reasonable and more in line with what I have seen in practice

[cj_sandman]

Only advice is to KILL it in rehab. Sorry to hear that. Good luck

This is the truth. Do not slack off or skimp on the rehab exercises no matter how small or meaningless they seem. It will ultimately have impact on future recovery of range of motion and strength.

[shortstroke 91]

After rehab check out Crossover Symetry. It’s done wonders for my back and shoulders. Orthopedist says I can put off surgery as long as I keep doing it.

[DCZ71]

I have torn labrums in both shoulders as well as rotator cuff scar tissue. I’ve heard shoulder surgery is last resort and you’re never the same afterwards. I decided not to do surgery and have just rehabbed it on my own. Not perfect but it’s finally ok.

[JLivi1224]

Been there done that. As others have said, do the PT and do it right. Try not to kick doc in the face when they put your hand behind your back and start pushing your hand up toward your shoulder blades.

[JonBoy]

Slap tear repaired and doc removed some bone spurs at my AC joint. Let the healing & physical therapy begin! Gonna beast mode this

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[JonBoy]

Update: Day 2 doc had me getting my arm out of the sling 4x a day for unweighted bicep curls & wrist rolls. Iced the joint religiously. Today is Day 12, stitches were removed yesterday and started passive stretching...pendulums (aka elephant trunks), table slides and external rotations using a stick...all as much as I can stand. I will say (to my shock) that I haven't had a single day of pain. I took myself off of all pain meds after a day-and-a-half and I've been pain free the entire time. Pretty remarkable what surgeons can do these days.

Going keep this up for another couple of weeks and then I get to ditch the sling and they send me to physical therapy. Following TBH brethen's advice...not skimping on the rehab

[Ouch]

Update: I will say (to my shock) that I haven't had a single day of pain. I took myself off of all pain meds after a day-and-a-half and I've been pain free the entire time.

Bruh... that's incredible. I had mine done 12/23/16 and it stopped hurting like last week. After 3 PT trips, I went about the recovery on my own. I had been told it would take anywhere from 6-14 months for a "complete" recovery (some people are wienies), but I felt better than I had in several years after 6 months.

Good luck to you!

[JonBoy]

Bruh... that's incredible. I had mine done 12/23/16 and it stopped hurting like last week. After 3 PT trips, I went about the recovery on my own. I had been told it would take anywhere from 6-14 months for a "complete" recovery (some people are wienies), but I felt better than I had in several years after 6 months.

Good luck to you!

My thoughts as well...the hardest part has been convincing & reminding myself to keep this arm immobile while in the sling even though it doesn't feel hurt.

[TXHUNT3R]

Glad to see you are on the road to recovery. I didn't read the whole thing but how did you tear your shoulder?

I have some worsening pain in my left shoulder (non dominant) worried its something that need the ole blade to fix... ugh

I lift 4-5x a week so no telling how I did it.

[JonBoy]

Glad to see you are on the road to recovery. I didn't read the whole thing but how did you tear your shoulder?

I have some worsening pain in my left shoulder (non dominant) worried its something that need the ole blade to fix... ugh

I lift 4-5x a week so no telling how I did it.

Short answer is I'm very active and wore it out. Martial arts, archery, weight lifting, hauling countless tons of corn, deer leases, building and lifting heavy crap you name it.