# Shoulder dislocation



## Willy36

And not the nice kind where it pops back in on its own, the kind that takes a doctor and 2 nurses to get back in :laugh:

Anyone had one and about how long did it take to get back on the mountain?

And before anyone says it, yes I've been to multiple doctors and am in PT for it, but obviously none of them can tell me how fast it'll heal so I'm just looking for an average from people who have BTDT.


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## Brentslide

I dislocated mine 2 years ago with a similar result. Didn't go back in without the aid of three people and lots of morphine. I got full range after 6 weeks without physio. I went back to work in the forest a week after the dislocation. If you can, take it easy cause shoulders are prone to reoccur after the fact. Be adamant with the physio and keep strengthening and stretching. In other words don't be a slacker, then once you feel you're ready; go riding!


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## garlicbread

i know my story isnt average but heres my experience. about 5 years ago i dislocated my shoulder pretty bad skating, i ended up having to go to the hospital and like you said have it put back in by a doctor and a few nurses. then it happened again a few weeks later at a rope swing... back to the hospital. after that it must have dislocated 50 times over the coarse of a year and i just learned how to put it back in myself. i was sooooo bumbed out for the longest time, no skating or snowboarding. i waited a while to get health insurance from work so i could get surgery, it was not practical for me to get arthroscopic surgery as i had done to much damage to the joint, i decided to have full blown open shoulder surgery (i forget the actual name for it) where a useless bone would be cut out and placed in the socket to replace the missing cartilage. the surgeon did a great job, after a painful 6 months to a year recovery, my shoulder was absolutely back to normal and to this day still is. long story short, shoulders are a bitch, my shoulder injury kept me away from snowboarding for 3 years as i was just afraid of hurting my shoulder, then dealing with the rehab/recovery phase.


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## Willy36

Brentslide said:


> I dislocated mine 2 years ago with a similar result. Didn't go back in without the aid of three people and lots of morphine. I got full range after 6 weeks without physio. I went back to work in the forest a week after the dislocation. If you can, take it easy cause shoulders are prone to reoccur after the fact. Be adamant with the physio and keep strengthening and stretching. In other words don't be a slacker, then once you feel you're ready; go riding!


6 weeks I can deal with. 2 weeks already in and it's healing very fast, but I'm constantly worried I'll get too confident with it and hurt it :laugh: I'd kinda slacked before with PT (I've had bad shoulders for a couple years now) because my shoulders didn't give me day-to-day trouble, but in this case every time I try to move my elbow away from my side for any reason I'll have a reminder to get to it 



garlicbread said:


> i know my story isnt average but heres my experience. about 5 years ago i dislocated my shoulder pretty bad skating, i ended up having to go to the hospital and like you said have it put back in by a doctor and a few nurses. then it happened again a few weeks later at a rope swing... back to the hospital. after that it must have dislocated 50 times over the coarse of a year and i just learned how to put it back in myself. i was sooooo bumbed out for the longest time, no skating or snowboarding. i waited a while to get health insurance from work so i could get surgery, it was not practical for me to get arthroscopic surgery as i had done to much damage to the joint, i decided to have full blown open shoulder surgery (i forget the actual name for it) where a useless bone would be cut out and placed in the socket to replace the missing cartilage. the surgeon did a great job, after a painful 6 months to a year recovery, my shoulder was absolutely back to normal and to this day still is. long story short, shoulders are a bitch, my shoulder injury kept me away from snowboarding for 3 years as i was just afraid of hurting my shoulder, then dealing with the rehab/recovery phase.


Damn dude.... At this point, surgery is not an option for me until spring at least, and only as a last resort. You must have done some serious damage because I have a friend who dislocated his shoulder 6 times and had to have surgery and was cleared to ride again less than 3 months later.


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## garlicbread

yeah i should have had surgery way earlier but it wasnt an option, i had to wait a while and it just got way worse. i think it would be smart to take it easy for at least a month and if it doesnt come out and feels normal you should be good.


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## notter123

yea my piece of advice would just make sure it feels 100% and you have full motion before you go back.

I dislocated my shoulder a year ago, playing hockey, and i was back playing in 3 or 4 weeks. Anyways just take your time, make sure its fully healed, cuz like any other joint, if its been damaged once, unless you get surgery it will never be as strong as it was, meaning easier to reinjure.

Another thing you could do is once you get full motion back, build up those shoulder, back, arm and chest muslces to support the joint more.


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## Willy36

notter123 said:


> yea my piece of advice would just make sure it feels 100% and you have full motion before you go back.
> 
> I dislocated my shoulder a year ago, playing hockey, and i was back playing in 3 or 4 weeks. Anyways just take your time, make sure its fully healed, cuz like any other joint, if its been damaged once, unless you get surgery it will never be as strong as it was, meaning easier to reinjure.
> 
> Another thing you could do is once you get full motion back, build up those shoulder, back, arm and chest muslces to support the joint more.


Yeah, unfortunately, while this is the first full dislocation, it is nowhere near the first issue I've had with my shoulders, so I know all about reinjury. Ironically, my physical therapists tell me a big part of the problem is that my chest and shoulders are too built, at least in relation to the upper back. I tried to train pretty evenly, but apparently I was doing something wrong.

Gonna go hard on PT this time around and get these fuckers strong. Tired of this bullshit and can't afford surgery (money OR downtime)


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## notter123

Willy36 said:


> I tried to train pretty evenly, but apparently I was doing something wrong.
> 
> Gonna go hard on PT this time around and get these fuckers strong. Tired of this bullshit and can't afford surgery (money OR downtime)


yea you gotta be careful, i have problems with my knees now because my quads WERE so much stronger then my hamstrings, and it pulled everything outta whack, so ya i believe you when you say you tryed to train evenly, but sometimes just doing equal amounts of work for each muscle isnt enough, i know for me atleast i have to put more work into my back and core to strengthen it then i do for my arms, shoulders and legs. Anyways just keep working at it, you will get there!


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## m_jel

keep training and strengthening your shoulders. i've had problems with both of mine, and i decided to get lazy for a month or 2 this summer, and guess what? it popped out playing volleyball after being good for a year and a half. Now I'm being told to look at surgery because the same shoulder jsut popped out playing some hockey (slipped out while pokechecking)


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## swisscosmo

I dislocated my right shoulder last year though it popped out and then back in. I was out for around a month and 1/2. I didn't go to physio though. When this happened it was in April so it was near the end of the season but still I was just given a tiny piece of blue thick cloth with velcro on each end to hold my arm in place, It hurt like heck the first 1-2 weeks but after that it went away and was fine. 

Currently i haven't noticed any problems with it other than sometimes when i'm walking and my arms are swinging i notice my right arm isn't as much as my left arm but I can move it around with no pain so its kinda wierd.

Good Luck and hope you recover fast


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## boarderaholic

Yeap, I'm in the same boat as you. Dislocated it Dec 5th, then again on the 10th. Only difference is the shoulder popped in again both times. I had a nice little chit chat with my therapist, and I'm looking at about 6-8 weeks healing time from the time of the first dislocation, 12 if I don't do my exercises. Be careful with that joint, because once you pop, you don't stop.


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## Willy36

You two are lucky if you have never had full dislocations. When it pops back in, it's called a subluxation and I've had probably close to 20 of those on the right shoulder and 1 on the left. Thought they were pretty bad until this happened, then realized, they aren't so shabby :laugh:

An update though: It has now been about 4 1/2 weeks and I feel like the shoulder is about 75-80%. The slowest thing to heal has been the deltoids; for some reason, they were been numb and completely non-functional until just about a week ago when finally they decided to join me again, though they're still weak as hell. I figure once I have enough strength in them to keep the shoulder in place even during hard impacts and the like, I'll be back on the mountains. Hopefully no more than another week and a half to 2 weeks.


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## FtCS4

Shoulder injuries suck!

I popped BOTH of mine out at the same (left out the front, right out the back) playing rugby two years ago. They've both popped out countless times since then, though luckily it hasn't happened again since the end of last boarding season. Caught an edge bombing a run and landed right on my right shoulder again. I was able to set it (got pretty damn good at that over a year!) but it still bothered me for weeks.

The most important thing is to really keep up with PT and to not get too ambitious when trying to get back to 100%. Let it heal naturally. I, like a dumbass 18 year old at the time, didn't. Kept lifting on them after the first injury and it completely screwed me over. I used to DB press the 100s for 10 reps easy (highest my school had), now I can barely do 50s for 8. And that's after 3 months of sticking with PT and giving them a lot of time to rest between good workouts. Ruined my military aspirations and got me pretty depressed for a long time which led to me slacking in running and everything else. Only just now starting to really get back into shape, and am definitely taking it easy on my shoulders and keeping up with physio.


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## Willy36

One day short of 7 weeks after the initial injury, got back out and it did great :thumbsup: Even landed on it kinda funny a few times and it never had an issue. Still really weak, but very stable. Anyways, I'm back on a board, so that's all I care about right now (and of course getting my damn strength back)


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## 51bombed

after a freestyle motox incident involved a wide range of injuries to my shoulder/neck area[i.e. collarbone, rotary cuff, dislocation, multiple breaks/fractures in arm] i often dislocate my shoulder now... even happened on a rope swing this summer huckin flips into a lake. after the initial week and half or so of getting it back in and the bruising feeling that comes with it subsides when it's rested im usually back out doing whatever, i just avoid lifting above my shoulder height or putting workloads on it. extreme pain if i do and that period lasts about a month/2months for me. ongoing for about 4 years now


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## Telosin

garlicbread said:


> i know my story isnt average but heres my experience. about 5 years ago i dislocated my shoulder pretty bad skating, i ended up having to go to the hospital and like you said have it put back in by a doctor and a few nurses. then it happened again a few weeks later at a rope swing... back to the hospital. after that it must have dislocated 50 times over the coarse of a year and i just learned how to put it back in myself. i was sooooo bumbed out for the longest time, no skating or snowboarding. i waited a while to get health insurance from work so i could get surgery, it was not practical for me to get arthroscopic surgery as i had done to much damage to the joint, i decided to have full blown open shoulder surgery (i forget the actual name for it) where a useless bone would be cut out and placed in the socket to replace the missing cartilage. the surgeon did a great job, after a painful 6 months to a year recovery, my shoulder was absolutely back to normal and to this day still is. long story short, shoulders are a bitch, my shoulder injury kept me away from snowboarding for 3 years as i was just afraid of hurting my shoulder, then dealing with the rehab/recovery phase.


don't mean to threadjack, but this EXACT same thing has happened to me. i dislocated mine diving for a frisbee (it was night and I landed on a sidewalk that i totally didn't see) and it has been dislocating over and over for 2 years. now i just slide it back in when it pops out and grit my teeth for 5 minutes until the pain goes away. i've gotta get surgery soon but i keep putting it off until after snowboarding/longboarding/wakeboarding season which basically takes up the entire year. it has gotten to the point now where it pops out doing everything. it even dislocated the other night while i was asleep when i pulled up my blanket. was there a certain name for that full-blown surgery?


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