So I am now 12+ weeks post-op from a SLAP repair/capsulorrhaphy.  I started classes for grad school last week, so I have been pretty busy.  I fit my exercises in whenever I can.  I've been doing a lot of stuff in the gym at school which is good.  My shoulder feels great for the most part.  I get a little twinge in the front every now and then, but no big deal.  Probably from doing more than I am supposed to be.  Plus carrying a bookbag, gym bag, and lunch box around every day doesn't help either.  But I had no problems with the move, even though I did lift more than I was supposed to. 

Not much more to say at this point...Most days I don't even notice or think about my shoulder, which was my plan with having surgery.  I will update when I can during grad school, but not much else will be new since I feel great right now.  Just working on some strengthening stuff.

I am now 9+ weeks post-op SLAP repair and capsulorrhaphy.  I saw my OS yesterday for the last time.  He was very pleased with my shoulder ROM and strength.  He said my shoulder was tight enough with the capsulorrhapy that he did and that it would continue to stretch out over time.  He said that my strength was very good.  He just cautioned me to continue to take it easy, especially with lifting things--especially with my big move coming up.  We spent the rest of the visit talking about my future plans to be an orthopedic physician assistant.  He offered to let me hang out and spend some time shadowing up during my breaks, and said he would probably be able to get me into the OR with him.  So I will definitely take advantage of that!!  The one good thing about this surgery is that it gave me the opportunity to make some valuable contacts that could help me in the future. 

Today was my final formal PT appointment.  My boss, who is my PT, trusts me enough to let me do things on my own while in grad school.  He gave me some general guidelines, but said to just keep up with the core group of exercises that I have been doing.  He said there isn't too much more to add since I am not looking to get back to throwing a 90 mph fastball.  He told me I could start doing bicep curls and blackburns at 12 weeks and I could start doing some more stretching at 16 weeks.  I haven't been doing any stretching for a few weeks since I was gaining ROM too fast for having had a capsulorrhaphy done.  So we were trying to let my shoulder tighten up a little bit.  He told me I could start doing the lat pulldown machine and sleeper stretch now.  But most importantly he said to just be smart, since I could only screw it up right now.  He said I would rather start grad school with my shoulder feeling great, than feeling like crap.  My final ROM measurements were: flexion 140, ER at 90 degrees abduction 88, and IR at 90 degrees abduction 40.  All were a little tighter than last time 4 weeks ago, which for me is a good thing. 

So I guess I will write some closing thoughts since I am not sure when I will have time to write again being in grad school!!!  I am 100% happy with the results of my surgery and am 100% glad that I went through with it and had it done.  I now don't have to constantly think about my shoulder and wonder what it will feel like when I do certain things.  I don't have the deep aching anymore.  I don't have any clicking, popping, or clunking anymore!!!  I am not afraid to lift overhead.  So the surgery fixed everything that I complained of before having it done.  I couldn't have asked for a better recovery.  At 9+ weeks, I am way ahead of where I thought I would be right now.  I don't have hardly any pain anymore, nor have I throughout the recovery.  So if you are considering having this done, please don't let a lot of the stories on here scare you.  There is hope if you completely commit to the surgery, strictly follow every guideline given to you (no matter how much you don't want to!!!), give everything to the rehab process, and think POSITIVELY!!!!  Not everyone ends up with complications, most people that have this done have a "normal" recovery. 

Been a little while since I wrote an update.  I am now 8 1/2 weeks post-op SLAP repair (2 anchors) and capsulorrhaphy.  I really don't have any complaints at this point, though I haven't had many from the beginning!!  I see my OS on Tuesday (7/15) so we'll see what he says.  That will be the last time I see him because I will be starting grad school at the end of the month to become a physician assistant.  I have pretty much had close to full ROM since about 4 weeks out, that's when my PT stopped stretching me.  At 5 1/2 weeks I had 167 flexion, 115 abduction, 87 ER at 90 degrees abduction, 49 IR at 90 degrees abduction, and 52 ER at 0 degrees abduction.  Strength for IR was 4+/5 and ER was 4/5--and I hadn't even done any stengthening exercises yet.

 I started active ROM for scaption and ER at 0 degrees abduction at 5 weeks.  I was cleared by my OS to start strengthening at 6 weeks post-op.  I started theraband for IR, adduction and extension just before 6 weeks.  Then we started resistance work in the pool at 6 weeks.  At 7 weeks we started adding weights to some things, including some of the scapular exercises and sidelying ER.  I also added active ROM for flexion.  This week we added what's called the impulse machine.  It's hard to explain it, but my PT clinic has one because we rehab a lot of pro-baseball players who use it.  Also added weight to scaption raises, but only to 90 degrees, tricep extension, and theraband to "no-money". 

My life is pretty crazy right now...I am packing to move next Saturday (7/19).  I finished work at the end of June and went home to spend a week with my family.  I start orientation for school 7/21 and classes start 7/28.  And of course I am faithfully doing my rehab exercises on top of this.  My PT says that I am doing great!!  The goal is to gradually gain strength, and not screw up the repair.  ROM is great and thankfully I haven't had a pain along my biceps tendon, like a lot of SLAP repair patients do.  Well hopefully I will update after my OS appointment next week sometime. 

I will be 4 weeks post-op tomorrow 6/9 from a SLAP repair and slight tightening of my capsule.  I will finally be out of my sling tomorrow, although for the past weeek I haven't been wearing it at home when I'm not doing anything.  So far I must say that my recovery has been about as easy as a recovery from shoulder surgery can be.  My ROM is great (almost full right now!!), haven't been in a lot of pain, and am feeling good about myself.  I think thinking positive is half the battle to feeling good, so let that be a lesson to those of you out there.

PT is going well (man it's nice working for a PT clinic!!) and we have gradually been adding some scapular exercises.  Tried some AAROM for flexion laying on back last week and some AROM the same way with my PT guiding my arm.  OK, so we know that was a little early since I was only 3 1/2 weeks out, but when your boss is your PT and a shoulder expert who treats pro-baseball players, you go with the flow.  Was a little sore the next morning, but not too bad.  We decided to hold on those exercises the next time though.  Will add those back in this week though.  My PT stopped stretching flexion since it is almost full and has never touched ER (I now have about 90^o   at 90^o abduction--without ever stretching it) so we are just working on IR and a little bit of abduction.  But it won't be too long before he doesn't have to stretch me at all.

My only complaint at this point is a little bit of catching in the front of my shoulder I've had for the past couple of weeks caused by scar tissue.  It's really uncomfortable when it catches and then releases, but my PT says that it's normal.  Especially since on top of the SLAP repair I had right by my biceps tendon, I also had my capsule tightened in that same area (OS pleated the capsule around the portal that he went in through in the front of my shoulder to tighten it up a little).  So I had a lot going on right underneath the portal in front of my shoulder making it easy for some scar tissue to start building up.  So I must keep massaging the portals to keep this to a minimum.  But if this is my biggest complaint at this point, I am doing all right!!!  So for those of you contemplating surgery, it is possible to have a great recovery!!!--so don't fear!!!

I was back to work one week after surgery for a SLAP tear.  Thankfully I work for a PT clinic and my boss understood and allowed me to come back to work in a sling.  Obviously I was limited in what I could do, but I managed and had a lot of help and people who understood my situation.  Even after going back to work, I still remained comfortable and in hardly any pain (and not on any pain medicine, including Tylenol)!!

Had my first post-op follow-up with my OS on Thursday 5/22.  The nurse first took my stiches out and asked me how I felt.  Then he came in and we dicussed what he found and went over the pictures.  He wasn't surprised that I wasn't in any pain and said that people in my age group usually do quite well in regards to pain and don't get stiff after surgery.  We just have to be careful and obey the precautions.  Since we feel so good post-op we are more likely to disregard the sling and do things that could jeopardize the repair.  He said that the anatomy takes just as long to heal if your are in pain as it does if you aren't in pain, so he advised me to keep the sling on for the four prescribed weeks and not to be stupid.  He quickly checked my flexion and ER and said that they were really good and that I wasn't going to get stiff at all.  So he wrote my script to start physical therapy and said see you in a month.

I started physical therapy the next day (11 days after surgery) with my boss.  Man it is nice to work in a PT clinic (and not have to pay my copay for PT)!!!  My ROM during the PT eval was awesome and my boss said it wouldn't be long before I had full ROM!!  So he said he wasn't going to push ROM too much since I am lax to begin with.  It is also nice to know the exercises I have to do already, and not have to go through that learning curve process.  Exercises of course are boring right now, just light ROM and scapular/posture exercises.  I have pain right around my repair during exercises, but it isn't bad and goes away right after I stop the exercises. 

All in all I still feel really good after 2 weeks.  Only 2 more weeks in the sling to go!!  My boss says that I look great for just a couple weeks after surgery, and he wishes all his patients looked as good as I do at this point.  So that makes me feel good.

This is the main reason that I started this blog...I am here to give encouragement to those considering surgery.  Before surgery I read so many stories on here of people having problems after surgery, and was hoping that I wouldn't be one of those.  I am here to say that not every shoulder surgery ends with problems, and there are those out there who have "easy" recoveries.  I am here to say that I am one of those.

I took the painkiller Lortab twice after I got home in the evening of my surgery day, and then stopped it that night.  Even after the nerve block wore off, I really wasn't in any pain.  I am sure that the ice machine that I was hooked up to 24/7 the first 2 days helped, and my high tolerance for pain.  So I decided to just take Tylenol (my OS wouldn't let me take Motrin for the first 2 weeks since he wanted the inflammation to start the healing process), and I stopped that the next day. 

The only time I was in any amount of pain was when I was out of my sling while dressing and showering (which I was allowed to do on the third day), and during the couple of exercises that I was doing.  But otherwise I was surprisingly fairly comfortable.  The day after surgery I started pendulums, shrugs, and bending and straightening my elbow.  They started out being hard to do, but got easier as the week wore on. 

I had surgery on Monday and on Wednesday I stopped by the PT clinic I work at to say HI to everyone I work with, plus I was getting bored and was ready to get out of the house.  Thank goodness for my mom, who was staying through the weekend (my dad went home Wednesday morning) because she was willing to drive me where ever I wanted since she knew I needed to get out of the house.  The next day she took me to the high school I work at so that I could see the kids I work with.  We stayed for half of a lacrosse game and a few innings of a baseball game.  Although I was off for the whole first week, I think I could have gone back on Thursday since I felt so good!!

Over all I was impressed with how easy the first week post-op was.  I adjusted quite well to doing things with one hand, including eating, dressing, showering,...I was sleeping comfortably propped up in bed with some pillows and really didn't have any complaints!!  I just couldn't believe that I really didn't have a lot of pain, which can be attributed to the fact that my tear was fairly small.

So after a week of mulling over the idea of having surgery, I came to the conclusion that it was for the best.  And it needed to be scheduled ASAP since I was going to be start classes for physician assistant school in the late summer.  So I called my OS and told him that I was ready for surgery and he said to come in the next day to schedule it.  I went in on May 2 to schedule surgery, and it was scheduled for May 12!!!  I couldn't believe how fast it was scheduled!!  So I didn't have very long to worry and fret about the surgery.

I was checked into the ambulatory surgery center of the hosipat at 7:30 AM and was released around 2:45 PM.  The first few hours were spent relaxing with my parents and getting a little nervous about the surgery.  I was more nervous about him finding something wrong than anything else.  Obviously I know what the post-op recovery is like since I treat patients who have had shoulder surgery everyday in the PT clinic I am an athletic trainer at. 

Around 10:00 AM I was taken up to anesthesia and the pre-op holding area and my parents were shown to the waiting room.  I answered a bunch of questions by the anesthesiologist making sure I was fit to go under anesthesia.  We decided to do an inter-scalene nerve block (which would help with post-op pain) and a light general anesthesia.  The anesthesiologist initialed my shoulder before he did the nerve block.  I had the nerve block done without any problems.  (I thought it would hurt a lot more than it did, but just a little prick)  I met with my OS and he made sure that the correct shoulder was initialed and that the nerve block was working.  The nerve block was definitely a weird feeling: being able to see my arm, but not being able to feel or move it.  I was then wheeled in the OR and away we went!!

I woke up as I was being wheeled into the recovery room and was surprisingly awake and comfortable.  Thank goodness for the nerve block because I really didn't have any pain at all!!  I woke up with a sling on and hooked up to an ice machine (which would be my best friend for the next couple of days!!).  My OS actually came in to see me in the recovery room (which he usually doesn't, but that's one of the perks of knowing him!!) and said that he had found something: a small SLAP tear and had tightened my capsule just a little bit.  After recovering for a little bit I was moved back down to ambulatory care where my parents met up with me.  They showed me the pictures that my OS had taken during the surgery.  After I was recovered, I was released to go home and relax for the rest of the night.

Fast forward to March of this year...I finally decided that I couldn't put up with my shoulder anymore.  It wasn't that I was in a lot of pain, but I have an active job and lifestyle and I was tired of constantly thinking about my shoulder.  So I had my boss (a PT who is a shoulder expert) look at my shoulder.  At first he said it was just impingement, but then he said that there was probably a labral tear.  He thought I should have a MRI arthrogram done, so I had my team doctor (family practice guy) at my high school write me a script for the MRI. 

Had the MRI done at the beginning of April.  Injection of dye wasn't that bad; worst part was laying still for a half hour twice (had images taken with and without dye to compare).  Results didn't show a definitive tear, just a little bit of increased signal uptake along the labrum.  The team orthopedic for my high school looked at the MRI's and also didn't see anything definitive, so he agreed to take a look at my shoulder.  (He was even willing to fit me in his schedule the next morning!!!  It's great knowing doctors!!!) 

So at the appointment, the OS told me he was pretty sure that I had a labral tear (which I was already pretty sure of) since every clinical test was positive for one.  He also said that although both my shoulders are lax, my involved right one is a little more loose than the left.  He said the pain at endrange flexion and abduction was from some impingement due to the laxity.  My shoulder was fighting to find a stable position, causing some impingement at the endranges. 

He said since I had been treating it conservatively for so long, my options were limited.  He could do a diagnostic/therapeutic cortisone injection into the glenohumeral joint, we could think about surgery, or I could live with it.  Well since living with it wasn't an option, and I wasn't completely ready to commit to surgery, I decided to go with the cortisone injection.  We were using it more as a diagnostic tool than therapeutic since I'm not in constant pain.  My OS wanted to see if the local anesthetic in the injection would instantly the pain away with some of the tests and at the endranges of flexion and abduction.  Since it did take the pain away instantly, he said that there definitely was something going on inside the joint. 

The appointment ended with my OS saying to call him when I was sick of putting up with it and was ready for surgery.  He said the surgery would consist of him doing a diagnostic arthroscopy to see if I did indeed have a labral tear, repairing the tear if I had one, and possibly tightening my capsule a little bit.

I was scared to commit to surgery since I didn't have definitive proof that I actually had a tear.  But after talking it over with my boss (a PT), we decided to go ahead with surgery.  I guess I should say that this summer I am going to be starting school to become a physician assistant.  So I need to be able to use both arms and not worry about my right shoulder constantly.