Rotator Cuff
Posted: 05:08 pm Nov 23 2004
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!
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!