Exercises for the effed up shoulder...

[chuckman]

I have limited range of motion and pain in my left shoulder. My orthopod sent me for a MRI, revealing a rotator cuff injury, torn labrum, and "significant" bicep tendinitis. Now, what this means for me I haven't a clue...I go back to the doc in June. At best, steroid injection and PT, at worst surgery.

In the meantime, I certainly do not want to aggravate the injury. Anyone know any exercises that will be shoulder-friendly?

[Shao]

Hold your arm out to the side at a 90 degree angle, hand pointed upward. Keep your back straight and feet should-width apart. Clutch a heavy bath towel or small jogging weight in your hand and drop your hand forward like you're setting a beer mug on a counter like a robot. Stop when your hand is parallel to the ground. Repeat until you feel a slight burn then stop. Repeat every other day.

[rsgard]

A torn labrum sometimes requires surgery. I wouldnt do anything with that arm until the Doc give you a thumbs up. At the very least i would expect some physical therapy in your future. At that point the therapist will all kinds of things for you to do

[ddnguyen9]

I had a torn labrum as an on-duty work injury therefore I had to go through workers' comp. They initially took an x-ray of my shoulder and saw nothing (no shit... if an x-ray picked something up, I wouldn't be sitting there calmly in the doc's office. I would have been screaming in pain). I requested an MRI but they initially refused to send me to one. They were trying to save money, of course. They sent me to PT instead.

They also offered to give me some sort of injection. I refused the injection because I did my research and found out it only temporally masks the pain. You can actually injure/aggravate your shoulder further because you think it was fixed so you use your shoulder and tear it even more.

After PT, I got about 100% range back but unfortunately my damn shoulder kept popping out of the socket for no damn reason. I was sitting there and eating lunch one afternoon and my shoulder just popped out. Once it popped out, I couldn't move the shoulder and had to use my right arm to "pop" it back in.

Long story short... I went back to the doctor and they sent me to 2 MRIs. I had a posterior and anterior labral tear. After waiting a few weeks more, I got my shoulder surgery. It took four damn months from the date of the injury to get the surgery done. Big waste of my time, if you ask me. I was out for a total of 10 months. Desk work sucked ass.

So from what you're saying your injury is... physical therapy doesn't fix tears. Injections don't fix tears. Only surgery fixes it. As for shoulder-friendly exercises... I wouldn't do anything to injure it further. Then again, I ain't a doctor. Go talk to your orthopedic doc again.

[ddnguyen9]

I forgot to mention.....

If you get surgery on your shoulder, you will be sent to physical therapy. It's very painful but DO NO SKIP IT. You will definitely pay for it if you pass on the PT. Suck it up and fight through the pain. And remember to follow the instructions of your orthopedic doctor and PT doctor.

Best of luck!

[Ironworker46]

I did a number on my shoulder 1 1/2 years ago, I spent 9 months off. I won't go into details, but the best medicine I found was cold. I was ale to buy a gel ice pack that was about 12" by 16", which I keep in the deep freeze. You can wrap it once in a towel, cover the front and back of your shoulder. After an hour of relaxing, the cold will be down to the bone, and relieving the pain as well. It was better than any pill I took during my time off. I will say this, find a very good doctor. I was able to return to work with a slight loss of movement, which has slowly gotten better. Good luck, and DON'T rush anything with that shoulder.

[ddnguyen9]

I did a number on my shoulder 1 1/2 years ago, I spent 9 months off. I won't go into details, but the best medicine I found was cold. I was ale to buy a gel ice pack that was about 12" by 16", which I keep in the deep freeze. You can wrap it once in a towel, cover the front and back of your shoulder. After an hour of relaxing, the cold will be down to the bone, and relieving the pain as well. It was better than any pill I took during my time off. I will say this, find a very good doctor. I was able to return to work with a slight loss of movement, which has slowly gotten better. Good luck, and DON'T rush anything with that shoulder.

+1. The cold definitely helped with the pain. I never took any pain medication. For me, I used a shoulder sleeve machine that assisted with the pain. It was simliar to this (http://www.polarproducts.com/polarsh...&idcategory=26). Essentially, the shoulder sleeve had tubes connecting to a machine that constantly pumped ice cold water through the sleeve.

[STONE-YARDER]

Try DMSO, pharmaceutical grade only. Dilute down to 75% with purified water and rub on your shoulders. Cured my arthritis! Its an amazing anti inflamitory... Also cured Achilles tendonitis this week in 4 days, I literally could not walk last Saturday and today I am at 100%

http://www.eden-health-products.com/

http://www.mnwelldir.org/docs/cancer1/dmso.htm

[chuckman]

Thanks to all for the tips. Headed to ortho on Monday morning. Good news is, she is one of the country's best shoulder docs, and is also boarded in sports med (so she understands what me needs are and aren't). Will update. Still hoping for PT or other non-surgical intervention.