Rotator Cuff

Causes and cures...
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skipro3
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Rotator Cuff

Post by skipro3 »

I thought I would post my experiences with this injury since I am familiar with it and how to deal with it.
I injured my left rotator cuff on December 12th of 2003, almost a year ago and I can still feel the pain when moving in certain ways.
My injury occurred when doing tabletop jumps in the terrain park at my favorite ski resort. It was my first day of the season and I had been in the park for about 2 hours practicing iron crosses and back scratchers. (Cross skis to form an X and then pull them back behind so the tails of the skis point up over my head.) There were two jumps in a row, a 20 foot followed by a 40 foot. The approach was not pitched steep enough so I really had to point straight down the hill to gain enough speed to clear the jump and land on the downhill portion of the landing. Everything was going great and I had done about a dozen or so jumps with confidence growing with each one. On my last jump, the cross must have caused one ski to hit the release of the heal of my other ski's binding. I didn't notice it until I took the second, longer jump. Everything felt fine until landing. My left ski seemed to be really dragging. I looked down and saw the ski as off. Just my boot on the snow for my left side. Before I knew it, I was flipping down the landing of the jump. My ski pole caught and my arm was locked at the elbow and wrist. All the energy of the crash went straight into my shoulder. I found my disconnected ski as my hip slammed into it upon impact too. When I got up, I could feel my shoulder and hip hurting but not bad. I shook it off and took two more runs on the park just to keep from getting frightened of it before heading out to ski some bump runs.
Later that night, when I went to bed, that's when things started to really hurt. And still does today. When I sleep, my elbow on the left side is pulled in to my side, then up across my chest. Try taking your right hand and grab your left elbow. Keep the elbow against your body and pull up. That's the movement that hurts and is also how I sleep. I took off on December 20th for Maui for a two week vacation over Christmas and New Years. Not much fun sleeping but during the day, as long as I was careful not to move in that pattern, it was good. When I got home and saw my doctor, he sent me for x-rays. The radiologist is my neighbor. He injected dye into my shoulder and took photos. Your rotator cuff is a pocket in your shoulder that is sealed with muscles and tendons. The dye indicated the fluid in there was leaking out. I was refereed to an orthopedic surgeon. He prescribed physical therapy. The treatments and exercises seemed to work but still too much pain to sleep. Daytime o.k., night was a torture chamber in hell. After 6 months the surgeon gave me a cortisone shot. Instantly I felt complete healed. I could do my exercises much better and more often. The shot lasted 6 weeks or so, but during that time, the exercises could begin to work since the inflammation was reduced. Now the only way to get rid of the remaining pain is with another shot or surgery. Since I'm not much for drugs of any kind and the pain is now liveable, I am planning on just living with it.
Here's my advice to anyone who gets this type of injury:
1. Prevent it by not crashing with your arm locked. If you fall, don't stick your arm out to catch yourself. This is instinct and reflex. Practice falling and pulling the arm in to roll with the fall and not brace to block the fall.
2. See your doctor. It will not go away by itself unless you're 20 years old or so.
3. If you have pain to where you can't sleep after 6 weeks, insist on a cortisone shot. The inflammation is preventing the exercises to do their work.
4. After the shot, exercise! This is your window of opportunity to strengthen the muscles and pull the arm back up into the socket so it doesn't rub on the bursa. (SP?)
5. during the time you are waiting for a shot, (if needed) here's how to sleep:
Lay on your stomach with the injured arm away from your body. Fold a pillow lengthwise and place it under your arm and down the side of your body. This keeps the shoulder at a position that prevents the loose/torn shoulder ligaments from allowing the bones to pinch to bursa and cause pain.

Hope this helps someone out there someday. If there are questions, let me know or join chat night on Sundays and Wednesdays. If I'm not there, e-mail me to remind me. I am forgetful!
Jerry

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Post by KDXSean »

I hurt my rotator cuff probably 15 years ago playing hockey. It still hurts when I twist the right (wrong) way. I had to stop playing baseball because I can't throw a ball.

I can still twist the throttle. That's all that matters anyhow.
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Post by Colorado Mike »

Those shoulder injuries are slow to heal. I would have thought different since they're big, and seem like they should get good blood flow, but that's just not the case. That's good advice going to the doctor though. I was having a lot of pain and went after about a year. Turns out I had broken it in 3 places. That doctor must have thought I was the stupidest person he'd seen. He got me on a therapy program (for the shoulder... I'm still pretty stupid) but it was a long road. Now I have a pretty reliable weather predictor, if it starts aching, we'll probably get some snow.
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Post by bronco95tgp »

Here's my story!!! A week ago today (thursday) I was working with a young horse and she freaked out and blew up and went plumb crazy on me, which is not to unusual, especially out of a 'she' in at least a few types of mammals I am aware of! :wink: And so when I heard and felt my left shoulder make a crunching type sound, I was in real pain and knew exactly what had just happened. If you put your left arm behind your head as to scratch the back of your right shoulder, that was the position that my arm was in at impact/injury. I was driven immediately to the hospital and taken straight to a room where I had an IV and morphine shot within 10 minutes of my arrival at the ER! After x-ray, and another morphine shot, they put me to sleep and relocated my shoulder, as it was visibly dislocated. I was home with ice packs, pain pills, and an immobilized shoulder 4 hours or so after the 'horse wreck' took place, and that was really cool considering I could have sat in a waiting room that long alone some places. A week later, I have no more than an inch or two of movement in any direction out of that shoulder. Moral of the story is that it really sucks but I am right handed so it could be worse! I go to the doctor in the morning to see about the rotator cuff and if it is torn or not, really hope it is not torn after reading your post Skipro. I am 19 so hopefully that will work out in my favor. So far, ice packs have relieved my pain more than any pain pill or beer or mixture of the two. The initial pain after lifting my shirt and seeing how deformed my own shoulder was really turned my stomach and was honestly one of the worst pains I have ever had. :shock: I will post again tomorrow with an update from the doctor, I am actually excited to go to the doctor for once!
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Post by skipro3 »

Great post Bronc. At 19, you should heal quick. (Well, quicker than the 49 I am anyways!). Get that shoulder MRI'ed and not just X-Rayed. The MRI will provide more detail and is much easier to do. The X-Ray requires dye to be injected into the shoulder, then they move the shoulder around to see if the dye leaks out anywhere. Keep with whatever exercises you are prescribed, or else your shoulder will heal up with that limited range. Lucky for me, dirt riding was great therapy for my shoulder. My doc didn't think so, but my body sure did. It would feel great for a day or two after a good ride. Mybe the endorphines from riding, I don't know.

My update: This year on the second day out, I tore my calf muscle. I haven't been on skiis since. Again, I am lucky the injury is aidded by riding my dirtbike. It hasn't hindered me. The pain comes when I hyperextend my knee, like when walking a streached pace. Of course, in dirt riding, you never lock up your knee anyway, always bent a bit. so it is getting better now. My shoulder is almost completely restored to full range and strength. Grip strength is still down, but not too bad.

Get well soon Bronc!

Horses: I HATE those things!!! The last one I was on belonged to my brother. We were out hunting deer in some pretty remote areas. (You wouldn't want to damage a shoulder back there; 2 days for a heathy man to get out on horse.) Seems my horse was lonely and every time my brother rode away from me, my horse would get nervous and then take off after him. So what if there's a 3 foot diameter log in the way or low tree limbs, as far as that horse was concerned, I didn't exist anymore. The next "discovery" happened when we got into deer country. That horse was convinced a deer is a 4 legged horse eating T-Rex. Man, I didn't know a horse could get that spooked. It was terrified. Anyways, having a loaded rifle on a horse that is in panic is no place to be. It's a LONG ways to the ground.
No KDX took it upon itself to try and kill me on purpose, but that horse sure did after seeing the deer. If I had recovered in time, I'd a shot that thing!! My brother saved his horses life that day!
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Post by Colorado Mike »

I feel the same way about horses. Me and them just don't mix. I like the steel ones with kill switches on 'em. I had a long term girlfreind that was into horses, and I was amazed at how self-destructive they can be. I honestly don't know how they survive in the wild. Would have thought they'ed have extinctified themselves thousands of years ago.
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Post by bronco95tgp »

Adrenaline, Adrenaline, Adrenaline, thats all there is to it, if you are a junkie for it, then get a dirt bike, if your a hard core junkie for it, break horses to supply money for your dirt bike! "There ain't a horse that cant be ridden, and there ain't a rider that cant be thrown"
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Post by KDXGarage »

Good luck on your shoulder(s).
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Post by skipro3 »

LOL!!!!
(I read your post, Jason, as a premonition of things to come for the young man!!!)

To that I add: Good luck with your whole body!

I wish I was 19 again. I spent it on a remote outpost in Alaska. Dang liars said I would see the world. All I saw was a whole lota white!!!!
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Post by KDXGarage »

I meant one for each of you. :grin: not two for him.

bronco95, if you need adrenaline and want to do it before those horses break you up so bad you can't ride anymore, try lining up with 40 other guys at the New Hope hare scramble. That will get the adrenaline pumping for you. :grin:

New Hope is an hour from here, for the geological lesson.
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Post by bronco95tgp »

skipro3 wrote: (I read your post, Jason, as a premonition of things to come for the young man!!!)
I hear ya Skipro, but that is the price to pay when you play hard I guess, no one else on this forum is totally innocent of the trait though, are they? I mean, ski jumps and all... you guys are probably just a little more mature version of me in alot of ways, but only more mature because life (or wife) forces you to be!?!? So I am on my way there faster than Id like, but by golly Im gunna live the hell outta whatever life God has in store for me, cause if I died tonight, then NO ONE can say that kid sat around on his a$$. I guess I may be a little wild, maybe a lot, is it not totally worth it though in the long run? I think this is what being young is all about, within limitations I understand. I am going to school and keeping up good grades though so why isn't the world mine to rock for a few more years? I guess that is enough preaching, yall tell me if all that isn't valid...

P.S. I only get hurt more on horses than KDX's because I spend a good bit more time horse back... There is the good chance that if I rode a KDX for a job then I would get banged up every so often too...! Yea, I am just about 20 mins from that sod farm you are talking about Jason...
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Post by Indawoods »

I tore the hell out of my left rotator 18 years ago bench pressing too much weight and while trying to let it back down gently behind my head (laying on the floor... stupid!) I heard this loud rip... didn't hurt at first ..just couldn't move it and just ached. It ached for 10 years or so afterwards... never had it checked out but I can feel it every once in a while. It never seems to go away completely.

I wish you a speedy recovery Bronco...
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Post by Colorado Mike »

Sounds like you got your head on right Bronco. You'll have some good stories when you get old and creaky like us.
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Post by KDXGarage »

Yep, it will creep up on you. Have fun while you are young.
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Post by bronco95tgp »

So I said I would post a long time ago about my doctor's appt. My rotator cuff is NOT torn!!! But I guess most all of the ligaments and tendons are quite stretched out. Started a physical therapy program yesterday and the results from just one hour at the place are amazing. Finishing up the appointment yesterday the therapist attached these 4 'leads' with the old school big round EKG pads, similar to the ones you would see in an ambulance. She called this a "tenz unit" (sp?) and WOW it was amazing, it was a pulsating electric current and it really relaxed the joint and muscles of my shoulder, I was very impressed with this contraption! So I go back two more times this week and two the next week. The therapist said that 21 days was the period of time after the injury that was pretty high risk for re-injury. In otherwise I still have 9 or 10 days until I can even crank up my bike, this is the longest time I have gone without riding since I bought the bike.... :cry:
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Post by KDXGarage »

OK, OK. You can park your bike at my house. :grin:

I am glad to hear you are recuperating. Try not to get out there and mess up your rehabilitation.
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Post by bronco95tgp »

It would probably do my bike a lot of good to come spend the night at your house Jason! Not to say that I didn't make the second hardest hill climb up at Coalmine the last time I got to ride, and it was the first time I had balls to try it too! Oh well, ya win some ya loose some... :cool:
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Post by bronco95tgp »

It has been 18 days since I dislocated my shoulder. Today, on my 4th visit to physical therapy, I FINALLY got to work with some rubber bands, and even a very small weight! I am going 3 times a week for a few weeks. I haven't ridden my bike in more than 18 days, I am still going crazy over that. But I did upload some pictures of random stuff into my gallery album, check it out! Recovery is going good though, should be back to work by the end of next week!$!
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Post by KDXer »

bronco95tgp wrote: I haven't ridden my bike in more than 18 days, I am still going crazy over that.
HA !!! 18 days, try 18 months !?!?! :lol: I'll be in the saddle hopefully end of this month. YEAHAW !!!

I wish you the best of luck with your recovery. Just a tip from a fool who didn't listen to doctors, "make sure you are good to go before you try to as it may just inflame and compound the problem / injury", but I know you knew that.... :grin: Happy and healthy healing to ya !!!
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