It gets worse!!

Ketsuko, why didn't you tell me??? Holy crap!!

(I'm just kidding...sort of)

The PT gets worse! Like a LOT worse! I've been through a lot of PT in my life, and this is by far the worst! The amount of degeneration of strength in my shoulder muscles is shocking!! My surgery was in early January, and you'd think I'd never lifted my right arm over my head in all my life! I'm as weak as an infant I think (on my right side). It's just...well, shocking!

for the past 2 weeks we've finally gotten into active muscle engagement, and I feel like a little girl in nursery school! The "wall walks" (or 'ladders' as some call them) are pure agony.

I'm doing better at PT now, but I've actually started doing things I'm not supposed to do at home just to begin some strength exercises. I'm not pushing it, but I am lifting my arm forwards and sideways. My GAWD, I can't imagine what a person who has been in a coma for several months must have to go through to rehab!!! My shoulder has been inactive for about 90 days now since the surgery, and I think I've lost about 90% of my shoulder strength overall. I am a complete weakling on my right side, and I'm ashamed!

Anyway, PT has gone to another level of pain, but in some ways I welcome it. Initially my attitude was "Owww, this hurts!", but now I want to push harder, want it to hurt more. I'm now (finally) starting to see some big range-of-motion improvements, but it takes me a half a day or more to recover from PT. Interestingly, PT also works out a lot of other muscles which are in non-injury areas...and those muscles get sore too.

With PT, I've found that the descending exercises and iso's are the worst. Going up is not much of a problem other than pure stiffness, but coming down (especially if I go to fast) is pretty dang painful.

Question for you: Now I'm getting into some clicking and grinding, which I assume is scar tissue and trimmed cartilage being worn away. Was that normal for you also? Sometimes it hurts, but I try to power through it.

Thanks (thanks for ALL responses from folks who have been through major shoulder surgery)!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk


In time you'll be great.
Just keep getting better FCD.

a reply to: Bigburgh

Thanks, but dude, let me tell you...this S# is NOT easy!!

I had no idea!

But think about it. It's not just from the surgery.

You've likely been using different muscles to move your shoulder all this time from before your surgery. The whole joint was likely moving differently and those rotator cuff muscles have all atrophied as a result. What you thought was normal movement was really your body compensating with other muscles working in other ways. Meanwhile, the muscles in and around your shoulder have atrophied.

Mine did the same. I had significant atrophy all around my rotator cuff. I also had nerves that just weren't firing right because I'd been moving wrong to compensate for the range of motion that wasn't working.

So ... yeah, your shoulder will be weak and it's going to take time to build it back. I still have trouble with wingspan stuff, but most of the rest of my normal strength is back and mostly caught up to my left.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Can't vouch for shoulder surgery. But 3 knee surgeries, due for my 8th back surgery in 2 weeks and 2 neck surgeries. Spent a better part of a decade not being able to walk, bend, lift without very limited mobility and pain. Loss of muscle mass too. But it got better and I got stronger. I will do fine after this next surgery given time, and you will cowboy up too

As to clicking and grinding, I didn't have too much of that, but occasionally, my shoulder joint would pop like a gun shot and scare the holy heck out of everyone: me, the PT, and even other people in the clinic. It wouldn't hurt, but it sure would sound like it should have.

a reply to: ketsuko

Yes, yes and...yes!

Thanks!

Whenever I come into PT, my PT will find me and ask how I felt after the last session (they're really very good). Up until recently, I've been saying "okay, sore or major pain". Last week or so I've been trying to power through it, so today I told her "I want to go play tennis, right now!" (she quickly demonstrated that was a really bad idea, but I was just kidding).

This girl knows how to find that one single point which will buckle my knees, every time, and then she homes in on that one spot. Says they're "knots" (I guess I have a lot of 'knots'). Then she proceeds to torture me for a bit more, then see how far I can flex, and then sends me off to this other dominatrix who just loves to beat on me (but she has to work from a list from the DPT).

It's getting better, as I've said, but Wow, this takes a LOT longer than I thought it would!!

Anyway, thanks for the response...it does help!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

PT sucks.

It sucks hard.

But it is important. When I got my knee replaced, the Physical Therapist introduced herself as "F#cking Bitch" because (she said) that's what you'll be calling me.



Currently doing PT for my tremors.

Which sucks because I'm an old bastard.

Stick with it.

a reply to: DBCowboy

Honestly, I look forward to going every time (twice a week).

But, when I get done...I can't imagine why I ever looked forward to doing that!!

Tuesdays and Fridays...I don't know whether to love or hate them!!

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: DBCowboy

Honestly, I look forward to going every time (twice a week).

But, when I get done...I can't imagine why I ever looked forward to doing that!!

Tuesdays and Fridays...I don't know whether to love or hate them!!

I loved and loathed my PT.

6 weeks after a total knee replacement I walked into work.

Keep that in mind.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Shoulder surgery is perhaps the worst surgery I have ever had. I recently had a surgery the Doc said was one of the worst ever, but it was a cake walk compared to my tendon repair, the Dr. dug into the ball of my shoulder and screwed the tendons back literally into the bone. I have had plenty of surgeries and this by far was the absolute worst in terms of pain and recovery.

PT was quite painful too and I was very very weak just one week after surgery. Now a year and 1/4 later I have full range of motion, no pain and full strength back. It does happen, but it is h e double toothpicks for months on end for sure, and almost a full year until all the pain was completely gone.
Now I am glad I did it, for the first few months I didn't think it was worth it at all, now a year and 1/4 out, it was worth it after all.

I can sleep with no pain and don't have to wear an elastic band on my arm just to do daily routines.

Take heart, shoulder surgery is not for the faint of heart or weaklings, it is hard, it is painful, it is awful, but in the end mine was worth it.

a reply to: The2Billies

Thanks! That does help!

I try to measure my progress based on how I was when I came out of surgery (which was NOT good). Yes, my shoulder has improved, but I want more.

I never realized how hard, and how long this would be.

I had ACL surgery on my knee back in the early '90's. This recovery is 10x worse (maybe 100x worse). Perhaps I was younger then, but this is no fun at all!

So thank you for your words of both encouragement and identity!

Thanks!

It probably helped me that I had had a frozen shoulder on the left before having the surgery. I'd already had one long, painful ordeal in my shoulder, and honestly, as much as the surgery and PT sucked, I thought it was less bad than the frozen shoulder on the left even though the frozen on the right was leagues worse - to the point where I literally could not move the joint.

I think the deal was that the frozen on the left was just going to come undone when it happened and in the meantime it hurt like the blue blazes, and I mean I spent a couple months with the joint capsule inflamed to the point where simply brushing my shoulder against something like a doorframe would put me on the floor in agony for a minute or two. PT was painful and unpleasant, but nothing like that frozen in my left shoulder was!

And the surgery made things hard for several months, but I think that compared to the frozen in my left where the strategy was "benign neglect" (home stretches and a cortisone shot to ease me past the worst inflammation), I could feel like the surgery was at least pro-active to get past the problem instead of passively waiting on it to self-resolve. So I dug in my heels and moved past each session knowing each was closer to my goal.

a reply to: Muninn

What "update thread" would you be referring to?

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

PT sucks.

It sucks hard.


Stick with it.

I had PT (slipped disk) with the best therapist in the world. Everything she did helped me. Then she went on maternity leave.
Her replacement was terrible and lazy. Then I got kicked out of PT because I rated them a 2 out of 100...
They asked me why, and I said I wasn’t getting better so I was being honest.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I guess I'm fortunate. My PT is sensational!

I have improved with every visit, although it's very slow. I get frustrated a lot, but my PT folks are great!

P.S. I did have some PT on my back one time in Michigan, and my PT was a total zero. So I absolutely do understand what you are saying! However, I remembered that, and looked around very carefully for my current one and she and the rest of her team are superstars!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I did have some PT on my back one time in Michigan, and my PT was a total zero.

This PT was so lazy she just handed me a photo of the actual exercise and didn't even help. I was like, Hello.. I have the Internet at home....