Rotator cuff injury and repair.

[VegasRenegade]

Rotator cuff injury and repair.
Background
Age 57
Trt therapy for one year test cyp. 150/week
Lifting and training on and off for most of my life.
Shoulders have been bad more than likely small tear since I was 30
This was confirmed during surgery when they had to sand off several bone spurs than had been growing for years.
Height 5’11’’ Weight between 265 and 190 will explain.
Recent History
For the last 7 years things had been going downhill all the indicators of low T weight got up to 265 I was doing nothing but getting fat. Got on TRT and huge difference started doing cross fit and lifting. Lost 35 pounds and put on some muscle. Joined the Transformation challenge on this site got my work out routine and eating dialed in lost another 40 pounds put on lots of mass. You can see results on the Challenge thread .

The Injury
Blew out both shoulders during a cross fit work out. This was stupid on my part and the cross fit trainers part. The good and the bad of Cross fit is that it is competitive I love completion and the T had me improving quickly. However when you are over 50 and have not been working out for 7 years and avoiding overhead motions it takes more than 6 months and something’s should simple not be done. The work out consisted of ten rounds of 10 clean and jerks 10 pull ups and a quarter mile run. At round 6 my shoulder were wore out I lowered the weight on the clean and jerk but kept going during the 8th round of pull-ups I felt both shoulder rip. The pain was intense but I completed the set and the adrenaline and endorphins got me through the last two rounds. However the next day I could not raise either arm.
After a week it was clear that the left shoulder was not going to get better the right still hurt but was manageable Went to pain management clinic they did MRI and referred me to surgeon.

Next the treatment.

[VegasRenegade]

The treatment
Went to pain management clinic at first since the do enriched plasma shots wanted to see if that was an option after MRI they said damage was to great referred to surgeon. After looking at MRI he state he had never seen this before no something you want to hear from you surgeon. He then state that I had the exact same tear in both shoulders. I told him the one the hurt the most was the left he said ok we will do that one first but the right looks like it might be worse. Took me a month to get insurance to approve surgery scheduled it on Friday and took the next week of work. I did not find this out until two weeks after surgery but this is what they found when they went in. it was all done with a scope so only 4 small holes
90% cuff tear the cut it stretched it back stitched it together
2 massive Slap tear with complete detachment if superior labrum with some fraying of biceps tendon. this was repaired and anchored
3 shoulder impingement did a bursecyomy and released the acromion ca ligament
Basically all that means that the cuff and labrum where both tore 90% and I had some bone spurs. They cut the cuff and labrum to get clean edges stretched it back and stitched them together. They also anchored the tendon back to the bone with screws. They used a very tiny sander to grind down the bone spurs.
Again the surgery was done with a scope before I went in they put in a nerve block, pain pump and knocked me out. The nerve block was not directed by ultra sound I wished it was as the guy next to me seem to have less pain from putting it in. However if you have this surgery you want a nerve block and pain pump for sure.

UP next the rehab

[VegasRenegade]

The Rehab
Rehab started the day after surgery. I had a chair that passively move my arm a few degrees each day the range of motion was increased by a few degrees. Also had an ice machine that moved cold water over shoulder constantly. I used this almost all the time it kept the pain down. Water was 48 degrees so no freezing problems. Nerve block wore of early the second day and pain pump the day after. Was given percs the first day used one every 4 hours. The second day one every 8 hours then only need them once in a while after that. Could have used them to sleep as that was the worse time however Narcotics keep me awake so that was out. Ending up sleeping in Lazy boy chair for the first month. While sling was on only way I could get confortable. Now I have a pretty high pain threshold so might me different for you. Best day was day three when They took the dressing off and I could take a shower.
After 4 weeks I started PT twice a week. (I would recommend three or four times if you can afford it. )with only passive motion and stretching from the therapist. \
Starting week 6th started actively moving arm moving it out to side and above my head while holding a stick.
Week 8 started doing Houstons which is basically a lateral raise while lying on stomach palm flat then palm up then arm in front instead of off to the side. Started no weight 3 sets of 15 I thought I was going to die pain brought tears to my eyes. This weight was gradually increased over 3 months until I was using five pounds which on the first day seem like it would never happen. Progress is very slow but steady.

Main part of PT was the streatching by the therapist and the houstons with a few other things in there as well. If you have this surgery don’t skimp on the PT it is what gets you moving again.

So PT was a five month process for me they told me it normally is between 4 and 8 months.

Land marks

first shower, First day I could wash my opp arm pit. First day I could scratch my ASS, first day with no pain, First day to sleep in bed. First day not to wake up from pain during night. Day the told me PT was done. Day I swang a golf club. Still looking foward to. First push up First bench press with some weight.

Next up what I have learned

[dec11]

ive to wait till nxt april for an mri. really hurt my left shoulder badly last november, couldnt lift for shit for 3mths and then started off lightly and built my shoulder work back up. last week i felt a good range of motion with no pain. tried a set of light dbell flys tonight and boom, that dull achy pain returned

it seems to be chest work that causes most of my grief, i can bench heavy dbells no prob but if i go above 60kgs on a barbell it kills and after tonight flys are def out also.

[VegasRenegade]

What have I learned.

Just because T makes you fell like superman your not if you have old injuries you still have old injuries.
If you are and old guy rethink the need to do one rep max or multi-reps and sets

If you are a young guy
Take care of your shoulders the surgery is a bitch. Check Docs thread on top of page.
Do extra work to protect you shoulders. Houstons stretching. Do you really need to press to achieve your goals. There is a thread on here someplace that challenge if you must press to develop shoulders.
I will not press again.
Use a two to one ration on your back to your chest and lats to shoulders. This from my PT

Or must be stupid like me and have a very painfull wasted 6 months.
Hope this helps someone.

[lovbyts]

Good information and glad it's working out for you.

Dec11, why do you have to wait until next april for an MRI?

I'm just starting to feel like I can go heavier again. It's funny, dumbells hurt worse than barbell for me and flys? Yeah I still stay light.

[dec11]

Good information and glad it's working out for you.

Dec11, why do you have to wait until next april for an MRI?

I'm just starting to feel like I can go heavier again. It's funny, dumbells hurt worse than barbell for me and flys? Yeah I still stay light.

thats how long the waiting lists are here unless you have private insurance, which not alot of ppl bother with here

[lovbyts]

thats how long the waiting lists are here unless you have private insurance, which not alot of ppl bother with here

Damn that sucks, sorry to hear that. I hope our insurance doesn't get like that but it probably will with due to Obama care
I have never waited more than 3 days to get an MRI and it's typically because it didnt fit my schedule or I could have gotten it in 24/48 hrs. Same with waiting in the doctors office. I have heard some horror stories but typically I don't wait in the office more than 5 minutes and up to 10 in the room sometimes.

[VegasRenegade]

Got the OK to go back into the gym and full workouts. I am a little nervous got to say. MY plan is to start very very read that very light with good form on everthing. Will start out lifting three days a week full body workouts with swiming or bikeing on off days.

[lovbyts]

Got the OK to go back into the gym and full workouts. I am a little nervous got to say. MY plan is to start very very read that very light with good form on everthing. Will start out lifting three days a week full body workouts with swiming or bikeing on off days.

Good to hear you got the OK. I agree, start light and most important spend a lot of time warming up first. Full body workouts 3x a week? I wouldnt, you are not giving your body time to recover. Try doing one body part a day. That will give each muscle group time to recover properly so you dont stress it.

[VegasRenegade]

Only plan on the full body workouts until I fell I can add some weight. but have decide on two a week at work out this am all went well used mostly machines not free weights with no weight to speak of just going throught the range of motion. Joints are all tight Hips worse will take a while to get the squat back.

[lovbyts]

2x a week is better for full body but if you can still split it up more. dont full body you tend to push more, quicker and dont take as much time to stay light or warm up due to it taking much longer and most people dont like to stay in the gym for 2hrs+

There are a lot of good stretching exercises on YouTube and other sites for the back. Dont forget the hamstrings and hip flexors, they have a lot to do with the lower back. Do wall stretches and such as well as calves. Leaning forward, touching your toes is not bad but actuall backwards is better and relieves the pressure off the spine while forward crushes the disk it more.

[VegasRenegade]

2x a week is better for full body but if you can still split it up more. dont full body you tend to push more, quicker and dont take as much time to stay light or warm up due to it taking much longer and most people dont like to stay in the gym for 2hrs+

There are a lot of good stretching exercises on YouTube and other sites for the back. Dont forget the hamstrings and hip flexors, they have a lot to do with the lower back. Do wall stretches and such as well as calves. Leaning forward, touching your toes is not bad but actuall backwards is better and relieves the pressure off the spine while forward crushes the disk it more.

Even when I was a young pup I was very tight and to make it worse I hate strething. I know I need to do it. I am thinking of taking a yoga class hammies are by far the worse.

[dec11]

Even when I was a young pup I was very tight and to make it worse I hate strething. I know I need to do it. I am thinking of taking a yoga class hammies are by far the worse.

i hear you on the younger days thing, im paying for the bad habits and practices now that im older

[Far from massive]

Great thread,

I am 56 myself and had much the same history with low T and getting fat ( although in my case I 'only' made it up to 238 lbs LOL) anyway back then at 52 I made a pass in my buddies blown alky dragster and when I went to get out I injured both shoulders. This happened because you have to pull/push yourself up by these handles on each side of the cage. By the time we got back from the track I knew my shoulders were done. Long story short it took two years of steady training ( I was lucky and have a close friend who is a certified PT and he explained the weakness and imbalance between the three muscle heads that usually causes the injuries and the importance of building the weak head to balance the joint well after going super light but consistantly for the past 4 years I am pretty pain free and can lift dumbells ( or get out of a dragster LOL) again. As far as how bad the injury was I have no idea, I was not working back then do bearing the pain and selfmedicating, (luckily I have a friend who goes to a pain management clinic and helped me out the first year) was the only option.

Anyway keep up the good work and thanks for sharing your story.

[VegasRenegade]

Just an up date the rest of this will be moved to work out thread If I keep posting. But I have now moved to split routine for workouts still going very light first week was about 10% of pre surgery work out weight. Yester was between 25 and 50 % Much less pain the second week. biggest problem seems to be from laying off. Hip flexer is almost froze up so doing lots of stretching and body weight squats trying to loosing thing up. Shoulder problems are where I expected them all forms of pressing motions bench and inclines not doing any overhead lifts. Also pull downs and and a little on other pulling motions ie rows etc. But I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Good luck to any who have to go throught this hope this gives you and idea of what to expect.

[dec11]

after tonight im laying off all overhead work lying down or standing up. thought my shoulder was feeling good so i did a bit of incline bench followeed by tri and bi work. went out into the car and reached for the seat belt, it was like a fvckin knife going right into the front delt!!! im so fed up with this injury, its almost a fvckin year now. im giving up and hitting a plifting routine again, minus the bench work

[VegasRenegade]

It is a bitch I am not doing any press with free weight using machines to insure more stability see how it goes. good luck

[dec11]

It is a bitch I am not doing any press with free weight using machines to insure more stability see how it goes. good luck

cheers, its a real mind messer of an injury, my delts were one of my best features previous to this, you can tell how 'flat' they've gone in my avi