# Shoulder Separation Recovery Time?



## roboelmo

Hi Guys,

Just wondering what the recovery time was for anyone else who had a shoulder separation.

Exactly two weeks ago, I had a third degree shoulder separation. As of right now I can finally raise my arm above my head. I have been icing and heating my shoulder like crazy, just to try to speed up the healing process. But the last two weeks have been so depressing for me, as all I can think about is going snowboarding.

But how long did some of you (with the same injury) wait before heading back to the mountains?


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## ShredLife

i did mine about two years ago, and there was really good snow the day after or maybe two days after i did it so i was riding powder in a sling, high on pills. had to ride real conservatively and not fall tho cuz even landing on your ass will jar you enough for it to really hurt. 

if you can ride all day without falling, as long as you ride mellow, then you're probably good to go.

that said - i still have not fished or rowed my boat since it happened (youtube 'spey casting' and you'll see the type of fly fishing i do and how hard it would be with a jacked up shoulder). i am just now getting to the point where i can do things that require strength out of the joint. 

even two years later there is still some crunchiness in there, and it still hurts on long drives and some other stuff. i don't think my shoulder will ever be like it was before i did this. i think the best thing to do is try and build up more muscle there, but its hard to do when it hurts to lift weight with it.

i wish i had better things to say about it....  but it hasn't kept me off the hill too much - mostly other things in life that it makes suck - or impossible


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## Argo

I have separated my shoulder about 5 times, since the first time it would pop out easy after.... It takes about 6-10 weeks to feel livable after a bad separation but I can ride with a bad shoulder. It seperates a lot less now because I focus on working ou my shoulders to build those muscles. It has been about 2 years since my last.


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## kpd2003

as long as it was set back in place properly 3 weeks is usually a basic - obviously it will depend on the severity and how well your body responds. 

if it didnt get set right you will have random terrible pain when you reach out for a coffee cup or something completely trivial like that - can't even do a damn pushup anymore - so make sure if you havent already that you get a proper doc to check you out

i waited 2 weeks and had pain doing pretty much everything... but i am mr. glass so i get used to the constant pain of injuries


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## Argo

Oh yeah, the crunchiness will be there and get worse if you don do range of motion type exercises to work the sca tissue out


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## huckfin

few weeks, but it will happen again, i had a full bankart and rotator cuff repair done in April 2011, was good to go start of season this year; it's still tender and lacks a little mobility.. but it won't dislocate again. good luck


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## ShredLife

Argo said:


> I have separated my shoulder about 5 times, since the first time *it would pop out* easy after.... It takes about 6-10 weeks to feel livable after a bad separation but I can ride with a bad shoulder. It seperates a lot less now because I focus on working ou my shoulders to build those muscles. It has been about 2 years since my last.


watchou talkin' 'bout Willis? that sounds like a dislocated shoulder, not an AC separation (acromioclavicular)



ain't you a doc too?


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## ShredLife

huckfin said:


> few weeks, but it will happen again, i had a full bankart and rotator cuff repair done in April 2011, was good to go start of season this year; it's still tender and lacks a little mobility.. but it won't dislocate again. good luck


shoulder dislocation and an AC tear (separated shoulder) are two distinctly different injuries.

your shoulder joint does not dislocate in an AC tear - although i would imagine it's possible to ALSO tear your AC as you dislocate a shoulder... but they're different things.


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## Riley212

Im about a year and a half out of mine, They said it was level 3 or whathave you. I went back to work after 3 months and could do push ups and pull ups with out it hurting much at 4. still hurts everyonce and a while and pops and stuff and i cant wear a heavy backpack. Mostly i forget about it now.

I didn't get surgury so i just have a lump. 

Just keeps icing it and keep it in the sling and don't do shit for about a month and a half, you need to let the ligaments re net themselves. at about 2 months go see a deep tissue massage theapist/ physical therapist who can show you how to get your strength and range of motion back and break up the scar tissue. those people arent that expensive if you dont have insurance just tell them that you dont and its usually $75 ish an hour which you should do a few times. Doctors can't really do shit for you unless they do surgury. 

dont do like shred did, that will only fuck it up more.

Edit: yea AC seperation is different than dislocation it hurts more for longer and never really heals all the way unless you get surgury to replace the tendons that you ripped.


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## nomembername

Separated mine in high school playing football. Played the next game 7 days later. To this day it isnt the same. If I sleep and leave my right arm up above my head my arm falls asleep. 

So the right answer is hit the mountain and be careful when you think you can take a little spill and not be in agony. Without surgery, which isnt necessary, separations dont "repair" themselves and go back to where you were before.


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## roboelmo

Thanks for all you quick responses. But just to clarify, I had a separated shoulder and not a dislocated shoulder. 

So now I am wondering wondering if I can still separate it agian? Because I orginally thought that once separated (the two ligaments torn), the only way of putting it back together is to have sugery and have the collar bone and shoulder blade screwed together.

I am really considering just going to mountain and staying out of the park (for a least two more weeks). And hopefully I wont fall.


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## Riley212

the way i understood it is then when you ripped the tendons apart, ligament and scar tissue fills the space and reconnects them, it is like growing a spiderweb of ligament and mucsle, moving it durring this process fucks it up. in a month or so you will go from "ow every movement hurts" to "hey this isn't too bad" in about a week span. then you can go do stuff again.


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## ShredLife

roboelmo said:


> Thanks for all you quick responses. But just to clarify, I had a separated shoulder and not a dislocated shoulder.
> 
> So now I am wondering *wondering if I can still separate it agian?* Because I orginally thought that once separated (the two ligaments torn), the only way of putting it back together is to have sugery and have the collar bone and shoulder blade screwed together.
> 
> I am really considering just going to mountain and staying out of the park (for a least two more weeks). And hopefully I wont fall.


yes you can. 

ligaments CAN heal on their own, but it is an extremely slow process because they don't have the blood supply of a bone or a muscle. my uncle is an orthopedic surgeon and he (without seeing my injury or xrays) dismissed the idea of surgery for my level 3 separation saying that the surgery would be more traumatic for the joint than just rehabbing it, and added that the surgery doesn't have a great success rate. <<< he has a huge ego and thinks he knows everything so take all of that with grains of salt. 

AFAIK the best thing to do is rest it, not re-injure it, and strengthen it as much as you can by building up the muscles in the area



As far as my situation, i'm sure i may have prolonged the issue by riding on it so soon but the biggest obstacle in my recovery has been the fact that i'm a skinny dude and i just don't have big shoulders. not a ton of muscle there to begin with, so it's been hard to get to the point where i can try and build it.


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## roboelmo

Thanks Riley212 and ShredLife.

I think im at the point where moving it "dosen't feel too bad". But I think I will wait another two weeks before I head to the mountains. Just to let the ligaments heal more.

Plus I think I am going to have to start hitting the gym again to strengthen my shoulder. I am going go from 50 lb dumbell shoulder presses, to 2 lb shoulder presses with my right arm. HAHA


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## ShredLife

don't try and this:


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## huckfin

ShredLife said:


> shoulder dislocation and an AC tear (separated shoulder) are two distinctly different injuries.
> 
> your shoulder joint does not dislocate in an AC tear - although i would imagine it's possible to ALSO tear your AC as you dislocate a shoulder... but they're different things.



if you repeatedly dislocate your shoulder you'll eventually rip your AC as i did. the AC repair was the 3rd procedure i could not recollect at the time of my original post.


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## roboelmo

Just to put an close to this tread.

First of all, I want to thank everyone for their replies agian. 

It's been exactly three weeks since my injruy. And I just saw my doctor. They looked at my X-rays and said, the seperation is still a bad seperation and were considering sugery. And then they did some mobility test, and they were shocked at how normal my movement was now. They basically told me I don't need sugery, I don't need to start physio, and I can go back to anything could do before my injury (but just take it a bit easy). I was told it I basically almost fully healed.

So I am no doctor. But I will just let you guys know what I did to make the healing process faster. For the first week, I was in my slig and I iced it like crazy, and took it easy. Week 2-3 I was out of the sling and I alternated it between icing and heating. I also did excercises of rising my arms to the front and side. I ate any thing with vitamen C, cause its suppose to help with soft tissue rebuilding. Also I am only 22 years old, which might have also spead of the healing process.

Looks like I am going to hit the slopes this weekend!


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## josh

ShredLife said:


> i did mine about two years ago, and there was really good snow the day after or maybe two days after i did it so i was riding powder in a sling, high on pills. had to ride real conservatively and not fall tho cuz even landing on your ass will jar you enough for it to really hurt.
> 
> if you can ride all day without falling, as long as you ride mellow, then you're probably good to go.
> 
> that said - i still have not fished or rowed my boat since it happened (youtube 'spey casting' and you'll see the type of fly fishing i do and how hard it would be with a jacked up shoulder). i am just now getting to the point where i can do things that require strength out of the joint.
> 
> even two years later there is still some crunchiness in there, and it still hurts on long drives and some other stuff. i don't think my shoulder will ever be like it was before i did this. i think the best thing to do is try and build up more muscle there, but its hard to do when it hurts to lift weight with it.
> 
> i wish i had better things to say about it....  but it hasn't kept me off the hill too much - mostly other things in life that it makes suck - or impossible


Shred, did you get an MRI on that shoulder and are you sure you didn't partially tear your rotator cuff? It shouldn't hurt two years later.


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## ShredLife

Have not had an mri but I have had a torn rotator cuff on my other shoulder and this is different... Crepitus of the collar bone is what is making it hurt.... It's not held down solidly if at all anymore :dunno:


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## blue_noise

i had shoulder seperation about 8 weeks ago. my physio told me, my season is over. but i didnt really listen to him. after 1 month i jump back on my board. i rode really mellow. everytime i ride i would ask my wife to tape me up. its really simple, just some sport tape you can find in drugstore. i watch a couple video on how to tape up my shoulder on youtube. i even bought a harness from ebay to support my shoulder even more. yesterday i had a pretty big fall landed right on my shoulder. for about a minute i felt some pain. i check if my shoulder pop out. it didnt, so i was quite relieve. i had full range of movement, just little bit of pain like muscle strain today. i would recommend wait at least a month, then tape it up and wear a shoulder harness till your full strength is back to you arm.


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## shredheadjunkie

*Torn AC Joint*

I seperated my shoulder about 7 months ago. I was actively going to physio for 3 months. After that I felt like I had full range of motion back, pain free. I started working again and training at the gym. About a month ago, the limited range of motion and pain is back only this time it feels worse. I think I just over worked it a little too much. 

As of now, my collarbone and shoulder is out of place, so I've been back at physio trying to get it re positioned. Unfortunately, my low patience and stubbornness got the best of me and now I'm in a worse situation. I can barley lift a glass or reach for something. I'm on meds Celebrix and T3 and even with taking those, I'm still in a lot of pain. Things like sleeping on it wrong, driving too long (stick shift) can trigger it. Forget trying to lift weights or rotating my shoulder back is a no go. According to my ultrasound I have an extreme inflammation. Ice packs and netflix are my best friend. 

It's a really shitty injury because I could have okay days and then extremely bad ones. I was told with any sport injury due to the shoulder it can take up to years to completely heal. I just hope I can recover quickly, get back to work and be able to ride this season.


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