Remember the movie 9.5 Weeks, with Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke? What a film. That one rocked my world as a young, red blooded heterosexual male in 1986. If only my 9.5 week report on my shoulder surgery was as tremendous as that, or even one tenth of one percent.
I just finished up my 14th session of physical therapy today, for my repaired torn rotator cuff, torn labrum, and torn bicep tendon. 9.5 weeks after the surgery I find myself in a frustrating and concerned position. For the last week or so I’ve been experiencing more than usual pain in my shoulder, and in areas I’ve not had any pain before. I’ve feared I did some damage to the repairs by lifting something heavy out of the trunk of the car. The pain has been keeping me from sleeping.
My rehab therapist checked it out today and does not think that I’ve damaged anything or re-injured myself. We theorized that my more active use of the arm/shoulder (computer, driving, daily activities), are causing the added pain and soreness. That’s good. The bad news is I have pretty severe scar tissue built up in the area of the bicep tenodesis (where the doc cuts off part of the bicep tendon and screws it into the bone). It is enflamed and painful 24/7 and always extremely tight. So tight it’s tighter than Stewart Copeland’s (The Police) snare head. This issue is causing my recovery to go very slowly. This condition is also known as “frozen shoulder.”
In therapy sessions the therapist stretches out and manipulates the arm and shoulder to try and increase the mobility, increase blood flow, and break up the scar tissue. It takes some very harsh and painful movements to get the scar tissue to break up. When it does, I sometimes feel a pop.
During today’s session the therapist started a new treatment. He used some lubrication and a bamboo “tool” to rub the areas where the scar tissue is built up and the tendons are tight. When rubbing the tissues with this device you could literally feel the bumps in the tissue. It practically felt like he was moving the tool over a saw blade. With normal tissue the movement would be smooth.
I do have improved mobility in the right arm which I’m thrilled about. A little mobility seems terrific when you had none for 6+ weeks. I can “almost” brush my teeth with my right hand, almost pull my pants up, and almost wipe my own ass right handed without pain. That’s quite an improvement. I still have very limited range of motion in almost every direction. A couple of days ago I picked up a golf club. First time I’ve had a golf club in my hands in months. In a gentle swing test I got the shaft back about 12 inches from grounded and that was all she wrote. Brutal.
At this point I’m not figuring on playing any golf in 2019, but I’m diligently doing my rehab treatments and exercises in the hopes I can break through as soon as possible.
HOGWire – Golf Industry News
I’ve been through something very similar and you will get through it. Impingements and scar tissue are tough. I went through three stints of rehab and the surgery was tough. The scar tissue is worse. It will take you a complete year to heal. Just do the rehab exercises even after rehab is over. It’ll get better.
Thanks for the comment! I see the shoulder doc in 3 days. I sense a shot is in my near future.