SLAP tear, recovery experience and advice?

I tore up my right shoulder last year (camel's back... straw?). After several months of taking it easy on my shoulder and getting a few treatment opinions I am having stem cell treatment tomorrow (from my bone marrow). I will be following the treatment regimen advised by my orthopedic surgeon who is doing the stem cell and prp.

I was just looking for any advice or experience regarding returning to exercise and training ideas for/during recovery. Open to nutrition/supplement recommendations. And yes, I'll be running it past the doc too.

FWIW: SLAP tear w/4mm displacement, partial tear bicep long head tendon, partial tear glenoid (flattened, deformed), partial tear teres minor.

That’s a question for your PT or doc... random internet strangers are not the place for serious medical advice.

Medical is covered. I'm asking about exercise and getting it back in shape afterward. Docs and pt's are pretty poor sources in regards to actual performance IME. This is a somewhat common athletic injury, just looking for experience of others and how to get the shoulder back in good working shape after the medical folks are done. Unless you are an athlete, they don't get real interested in how well you get athletic (work and recreation for me) performance back.

Hell, the first doc I saw wanted to just clip the bicep tendon and call it all good. "Men over 40 really don't need to worry about repairing the damage. You don't really need that anyway and it will release the tension on the labrum." Actual quote from the guy. Some doc he is.

There is a member here who is a physical therapist, who gave me some very good gouge when I had my repair a few years back. I will ping him to see if he's still active on here, I haven't seen him on in a bit.

The surgery itself isn't that big of a deal, but you need to follow your physical therapist's guidance to the letter. Do not rush your comeback.

I'll certainly take any advice offered. I'm a month into recovery. PT is really only stretching and range of motion so far. Plus the shock wave treatment stuff. I'm freaking dying to push some weight, but I'm being good.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by utahjeepr

I'll certainly take any advice offered. I'm a month into recovery. PT is really only stretching and range of motion so far. Plus the shock wave treatment stuff. I'm freaking dying to push some weight, but I'm being good.

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Dooood.... I was no where close to pushing weights for maybe 9 months post. You don't want to go too far, too fast, and you will be very deconditioned and will need to build back, slowly.

Edited to add, I reached out to the member here who is a PT and specialist in this thing. I asked him to take a look at the thread.

Follow up FWIW:

To recap and clarify I had four tears in my right shoulder. A displaced SLAP tear, tearing of the long head tendon at the tendon groove, tearing of the long head tendon at the anchor, and tearing of the Teres Minor attachment.

Received stem cell injection harvested from my bone marrow as well as subsequent PRP injection at 3 months. Regular follow ups included Shockwave therapy.

Just had a follow up MRI. SLAP tear is still identifiable but is no longer displaced. Appears to be attached and properly aligned but not yet completely healed. Long head tendon tears at the tendon groove and the tendon anchor are healed and are "unremarkable" (?- Doc says that means it's good) Teres Minor tear healed and "unremarkable".

Shoulder is feeling great. Doc says I am on track with a "best case" surgical attachment, and much better than common surgery results.

Doc is gonna do another PRP treatment to help the continued healing process.

Sample size of 1, YMMV.

Great to hear recovery is going well. My shoulders are rough, my only recommendation is to take as much time as you can getting better.