My original injury was in October of 2007. I was unracking 185 lbs on military press and had it slightly behind my head/back. As soon as it was unracked, I felt a sharp pain in my left shoulder and the weight fell. After sitting there for a few minutes, I still had some discomfort, but nothing too crazy.
In November of 2007, I went to the ortho because my shoulder was still sore and kept cracking/popping/grinding. He ordered an MRI. About two weeks later, the MRI results came back negative other than some fluid around my biceps tendon and I did 12 weeks worth of rehab.
April 2008 - I went back shortly after completing the rehab and told the ortho that my shoulder didn't feel any differently. The PT's diagnosis of my shoulder hadn't changed, either. I was told it just might be one of those things that gets aggravated every now and again... just stay away from lifts that piss it off, stick with anti-inflammatory medication, and keep doing at-home stretching and strengthening exercises.
October 2008 - I went back to the ortho again after gradually feeling more discomfort (I'm careful to say discomfort rather than pain because I only experience sharp pains occasionally - the cracking/popping/grinding is constant). Sleeping and driving became annoying. An arthrogram was ordered and it showed a posterior labral tear. Despite this, my doctor did not want to perform the surgery and referred me to his colleague (who specializes in shoulders).
January 2009 - I finally see the ortho who specializes in shoulders (damn him and everyone planning their surgeries around the Holidays). He goes through an eval, talks to me about posterior labral tears, how MRIs are horrible at diagnosing them, how things might actually be worse than what is being seen (biceps tendon), etc. He recommends surgery since I've done plenty of PT and at 15 months post-injury it feels like its getting worse. I'm getting surgery on Friday (1/23/09).
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Cliffs:
Oct 2007 - Hurt shoulder trying to unrack 185 lbs on military press.
Nov 2007 - Have MRI; nothing seen other than some inflammation.
Dec 2007 - Mar 2008 - Physical therapy.
Apr 2008 - Return to doctor; tells me to stay away from motions/lifts that aggravate and to keep doing at-home PT.
Oct 2008 - Return to doctor; arthrogram shows a torn labrum; recommends me to another ortho.
Jan 2009 - Return to another doctor; getting surgery after 15 months.
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I'll update this as time goes by (surgery, post-op eval, rehab, etc.). I've searched and found a few good threads on here concerning labral tears, but most stop after only a few posts. I'll also try to answer any questions, but my information is mostly limited to my specific problem.
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Thread: My Posterior Labral Tear Thread
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01-20-2009, 09:25 PM #1
My Posterior Labral Tear Thread
"The wise know too well their weakness to assume infallibility; he who knows most, knows best how little he knows."
-Thomas Jefferson
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01-20-2009, 09:45 PM #2
- Join Date: Oct 2007
- Location: Daly City, California, United States
- Age: 42
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Best of luck to you, man!
I hate dealing with these ****ing doctors/nurses/health practictioners!! Rather than doing everything immediately possible to ascertain the exact cause of pain and diagnose the injury properly, they always wanna go the conservative route and make you wait. Some of these people don't realize time away from the gym is precious time lost!
Currently, out of commission, as well, with a shoulder injury. Except, I don't know exactly what's wrong. I have to wait and see...
In any case, good luck!
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01-23-2009, 05:20 AM #3
Thanks for the kind words and same to you!
I think that was one of the major annoyances along the way... the constant "Well, I'm not really seeing anything here..." type thing. I knew something was wrong. I could feel something was wrong. I hope you find out what is wrong with yours shortly.
Anyway... I'm off for surgery in a few hours. I'll most likely be posting later or tomorrow to describe what exactly was done and how I'm feeling."The wise know too well their weakness to assume infallibility; he who knows most, knows best how little he knows."
-Thomas Jefferson
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01-23-2009, 03:41 PM #4
Back from surgery... I'm tired so I'll keep this short until tomorrow.
Once in the recovery room, my dad said to me, "So, do you know what all he did?" I gave him a puzzled look and he told me that the ortho called him after surgery and said, "Other than the torn rotator cuff, torn biceps tendon, and torn labrum, I don't know what your son was complaining about." So, even though the MRI didn't show it, a lot more was going on. I don't know how significant the tears were, but they were there.
I'll provide more info tomorrow after my post-op appointment."The wise know too well their weakness to assume infallibility; he who knows most, knows best how little he knows."
-Thomas Jefferson
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01-23-2009, 09:31 PM #5
I wonder how the bicep tendon and RC got injured. Was that the top RC tendon? The supra ...
Also, did you have internal rotation ROM problems before the surgery?
I suffered some sort of posterior shoulder injury, and over time the shoulder capsule tightened (probably scarring), and at one point, I could not extend the arm straight up. I still have limitations with cross body stretch. But I no longer get impingement like I used to.
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01-23-2009, 09:43 PM #6
- Join Date: Jun 2004
- Location: Chicago, Illinois, United States
- Age: 45
- Posts: 601
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sucks that the doctors make you wait for all this stuff.
i got hurt on a sunday, called a surgeon (one of the best in the country) on monday to make an appt, and his office said to go in the same day. the mri was done on that same day and the mri was read on the same day...3 appointments in one day...the day i called!
we pretty much did everything, he made me follow-up for surgery after complting my pre-surgery pt.
even now when i follow-up at dr's office, i am out the door in 20 minutes, and the office is super-busy
hope you have a great recovery...keep us posted and keep up with the re-hab, i imagine it will be super-tough for you, but it will all be worth it
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01-24-2009, 07:13 AM #7
The ortho warned me that the bicep tendon might've been torn, but wasn't entirely sure until he did the arthroscopy. He talked with me about how/where it connects and how it that plays into the labral tear that I had. How the rotator cuff got torn is beyond me!
In any event, it was the supraspinatus that was torn. Both the rotator cuff and bicep tendon were grade II tears.
And yes, I did have some internal rotation problems before surgery.
How did you hurt yours? I'm guessing you didn't have anything done to it (surgery/rehab)? Did it better on it's own?
That sounds like one hell of a doctor! What did you have done? I'm guessing your knee by your avi? ACL?
Thanks for the support. My post-op was this morning so he explained in some greater detail exactly what was done during surgery. As of right now, I'm actually feeling pretty good. I'm in very little pain and haven't taken any of the pain medication prescribed. I'm icing regularly and taking Motrin as an anti-inflammatory. I'll be starting rehab this week... 3x per week."The wise know too well their weakness to assume infallibility; he who knows most, knows best how little he knows."
-Thomas Jefferson
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01-24-2009, 09:05 AM #8
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01-24-2009, 04:24 PM #9
I f'ed up labrum a while ago and had surgery last year. My advice, follow the post op procedures and pt to the Tee. I still have pain in my should when I work out but nothing like before. Its suppose to be up to a year after surgery before everything goes away. I started lifting a little earlier then I was suppose to and i just hope I didn't screw anything up. So take the year or so off of weight trainining!!!! It will help in the long run.
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01-24-2009, 07:47 PM #10
it sounds silly, but I injured my shoulder while physically spinning my arms at high speed, similar to what you would see a swimmer doing in butterfly stroke. Don't ask why I was doing that. I figured it would heal, but it never did. Months later, I went to ortho, who did a couple of routine checks, and he diagnosed impingement. Over two years, the shoulder slowly tightened, with substantial loss of ROM. Normally there is no pain, but if I stretch the shoulder, in both internal and external rotation, I get pain at the endpoints, which is loading up the capsule / ligaments.
Question: does a posterior labrum injury normally involve sublux / dislocation symptoms? I haven't stressed the shoulder, such as throwing a baseball, so I don't know if my shoulder is stable on inner rotation.Last edited by paul0616; 01-24-2009 at 07:50 PM.
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01-26-2009, 09:21 AM #11
I've recently read your thread... I really wish you the best!
Thanks for the advice. I had my first PT session this morning and it was ugly. I don't think I knew how bad off I was until I had it out of the sling and started working with it. It seriously ruined my day... I know my ortho and everyone else were telling me how long the recovery road would be, but I don't think it really hit me until I realized how utterly useless my arm is right now.
How bad was yours prior to surgery? What was wrong? How bad is the pain now? Any instability issues?
I never had any dislocations issues other than the initial injury (I at least assume that is what happened). However, I did suffer from my shoulder subluxing on occasion (highly dependent on the movement). While I could internally rotate, it was significantly weaker and caused a lot of pain.
Here's a list of things that caused problems/pain (keep in mind this is my non-dominant hand, so things may have caused me pain if I had done them with that arm):
Lifts - Upright rows, t-bar rows, deadlifts, pullovers, lat pressdown, chest flys, decline bench, heavy curls. Ironically, any overhead pushing movements gave me no problems.
Daily Activities: Sleep, driving, and sitting at my computer with my arm outstretched (I'm a grad student so I do this hours a day). They were the big three, but you could imagine the random things you do throughout the day that could aggravate it."The wise know too well their weakness to assume infallibility; he who knows most, knows best how little he knows."
-Thomas Jefferson
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01-26-2009, 03:59 PM #12
- Join Date: Oct 2007
- Location: Daly City, California, United States
- Age: 42
- Posts: 1,157
- Rep Power: 403
How you doing, man?
Prior to surgery, were you still working out? What exercises were you able to do without aggravating the injury? I was curling a 25 pound dumbbell with both hands the other day and it was hurting the shouler!!!
Exactly how many mg's of Motrin are you taking? The nurse practitioner at school has me taking 2400 mg of ibuprofen for 10 days, because she *thinks* it's "inflammation."
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01-26-2009, 05:01 PM #13
I'm taking 600 mg three times per day. I'm supposed to continue with the Motrin until I see my ortho again in three weeks. It sucks that you have to deal with a response as to what someone thinks rather than knows. How many days has it been since the initial injury?
I was still working out regularly prior to the surgery. I could actually do most lifts without any problems. This was my routine:
Monday - Chest/Bis/Calves
Incline Bench (BB) - 4 x 8
Flat Bench (BB) - 4 x 8
Dumbbell Press - 3 x 8
Dips (Weighted) - 3 x 10
Bis
Hammer Curl - 3 x 8
Barbell Curl - 3 x 8
Preacher Curl - 3 x 8
Calves
Standing Calf Raise - 3 x 12
Seated Calf Raise - 3 x 15
Tuesday - Quads/Hams/Glutes
Leg Extension - 3 x 8 (Lighter weight)
Squats - 5 x 8
Leg Press - 4 x 8
Leg Curl - 4 x 8
Wednesday - Off
Thursday - Back/Calves
Back
Lat Pulldown - 3 x 8
Shrugs - 3 x 12
Seated Row - 3 x 8
Back Extensions - 3 x 15
Calves
Standing Calf Raise - 3 x 12
Seated Calf Raise - 3 x 15
Friday - Shoulders/Tris
Shoulders
Military Press - 3 x 8
Arnold Press - 3 x 8
Lateral Raise - 3 x 8
Triceps
Close Grip Bench - 4 x 8
Tricep Extensions - 3 x 8
Dips - Failure
A few notes: Both incline and flat bench were painful if I held my hands where I previously held them (with my ring finger on the smooth ring of the barbell). I had to move inward so that my whole hand was inside that ring. Any heavy curling was out of the question. I was told that this was because of the labral and biceps tendon tear. Everytime I was curling, I was basically forcing the bone out of the back of my shoulder (maybe similar to what is going on with you?) Squats were painful to hold the bar behind my head unless I warmed up my shoulder for a significant amount of time beforehand.
Thinking about it now... working out with the injury and making everything stronger BUT the affected area probably wasn't the wisest decision. But, I went the PT route and it didn't make a difference anyway, so I don't know. I will say this, though... I was much stronger before the injury happened and it was a struggle to add any strength to my lifts since. So, hopefully I made the right decision."The wise know too well their weakness to assume infallibility; he who knows most, knows best how little he knows."
-Thomas Jefferson
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01-26-2009, 07:46 PM #14
@ trek_6k, good info. Thx. I read on t-nation, that shoulders are vulnerable when racking and unracking weights. I've started noticing this at the gym on bench. Lift-off is at an odd angle, and many people push heavy weight with no spot.
question: does anyone know if a labrum tear results in ligament inflammation? Or is the symptoms mainly instability?Last edited by paul0616; 01-26-2009 at 10:02 PM.
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01-26-2009, 09:37 PM #15
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01-26-2009, 10:04 PM #16
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02-03-2009, 08:41 AM #17
I'm now in the second week of rehab.
While my shoulder isn't anywhere where I'd like it to be, I'm making decent progress considering it hasn't even been 2 weeks since the surgery. I still have a lot of restrictions, but I'm getting to move it around more and its already feeling stronger compared to 1 week ago.
paul0616: I can't answer your question about ligament inflammation, but my ortho told me that the ligaments in my shoulder were slightly stretched. I would assume that it could result in inflammation, but I'm speaking only on my limited knowledge."The wise know too well their weakness to assume infallibility; he who knows most, knows best how little he knows."
-Thomas Jefferson
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02-03-2009, 08:48 AM #18
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02-07-2009, 07:52 PM #19
Hey Trek,
I wish you the best of luck on your recovery I just got the results of my MRI the other day and I have a labral tear too in my right/dominant arm. Funny thing is that I didn't do it while lifting. I went snowboarding for the weekend and it was all ice. Took one nasty fall, heard two loud gun shots go off in my shoulder, and here I am. However, I'm sure the wear and tear I put on my shoulders from all the heavy benching, overhead pressing, and dead lifting certainly contributed to it too.
I will be seeing a shoulder specialist this week and will opt for the surgery myself to repair it. I'll be following your recovery, and wish you all the best.
And if you need some inspiration, here is a video that always inspires me to recover and get back to doing what I love most.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nEh-U6ld0I
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02-11-2009, 01:00 PM #20
Hey guys. I too have labral issues.
Happened in a jet skiing accident in August 2008. Did PT but no substantial improvement. Got an MRI two weeks ago, and saw the ortho today. MRI shows the suggestion of a:
"very subtle posterior labral tear, and a focal incomplete tear of the anterior labrum"
It wasn't getting better on its own so I'm gonna have to opt for the surgery. Any benching or chest or shoulder work in the gym is out of the question. I've been out of lifting for 6 months and it's killing me. Probably 1-2 months for the surgery, then sling for 4-6 weeks, then PT for more months.
Good luck with your recovery and hope to hear some good news soon! Shoulder problems suck and I would suggest we keep this thread going to help each other out.
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02-20-2009, 02:44 PM #21
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02-22-2009, 05:21 PM #22
Sorry I haven't posted in awhile.
On Feb. 16th, I had a followup appointment with my doctor. My shoulder is actually ahead of where its supposed to be at this point. Physical therapy is going well and I no longer have any restrictions (prior to the 16th, I wasn't allowed to move my arm above my head unless I was laying down and working with my therapist). Starting March 1st, I'm allowed to start doing light cardio so long as it doesn't involve my shoulder considerably (i.e. - elliptical w/o arms).
I'll be honest, for the first week after surgery I was actually regretting having it done. Now, only a month later, I'm glad that I had it done when I did. I think strictly following the doctor's and therapist's orders has helped a lot. I still have pain in it occasionally when I do certain movements, but it's still not completely healed either. I'm actually surprised at how well things have gone thus far, especially considering how disappointing the first week of physical therapy was."The wise know too well their weakness to assume infallibility; he who knows most, knows best how little he knows."
-Thomas Jefferson
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02-22-2009, 08:29 PM #23
Bro, your story is so close to mine it's unreal. The fist issues with my shoulder came around march '06 after some military dumbbell press. I went through all the same BS you did. My family doctor was worthless and said nothing was wrong that he could see. Did some static therapy, no improvements.
First MRI I had showed "Nothing" except for bicep tendinitis. Had a second MRI a year later and same results. Finally got an arthrogram and showed a small labrum tear.
This past thursday i met with my orthopedic surgeon and he scheduled my surgery for march 20th.
I don't know why in god's name i couldnt have gone that route in the beginning and saved alot of time/money. Anyways good luck with your surgery. I hope all goes well for both of us.
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02-23-2009, 01:14 PM #24
I was diagnosed with a labrum tear a couple weeks ago. It absolutely kills me not being able to lift in over 2 months! I feel like such a waste. The doc had me start PT and said he wants to avoid surgery bc going under the knife is always a big deal.
My problem is that I want to get back to lifting heavy and doing my normal workout routine?
I still experience the occasional sharp and dull pain. The most annoying thing isn the clicking/grinding/popping sensation.
Do you still experience that feeling? What was your pain (1-10 scale) at? The reason I ask this is bc I feel like at times I feel nothing and at other times I do have pain.
I just am scared to have surgery, is surgery a must if I want to get back to lifting the way I was ?
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02-23-2009, 05:02 PM #25
It's a frustrating feeling, but at least you finally know that something is wrong and that it's just been missed this entire time. Good luck with your surgery... let me know how it goes.
Prior to the surgery, my range of motion was limited and I constantly had that clicking/grinding/popping within the shoulder. Post-surgery - no problems at all. My range of motion still isn't as great as my right shoulder, but its only been one month since I had the surgery done. As far as pain before the surgery... if I was just chilling out not doing anything, I had no pain at all. My pain only occurred during certain activities (see post #11 at the bottom). Post-surgery - I still have some pain, but this (I'm told) is because my shoulder isn't fully healed. It won't be another 3-4 weeks until it completely healed.
As far as having surgery, I can only provide insight to my isolated experience. Before having it done, I could still do the majority of my lifts pain free. However, some exercises were affected. That being said, in the 15 months since I was injured to the day I had surgery, I had a difficult time adding size/strength.
Physical therapy may work great for you, though. Strengthening the rotator cuff and shoulder blade muscles will help keep the humerus in the glenoid and (hopefully) take away the pain and clicking/grinding/popping. Good luck!"The wise know too well their weakness to assume infallibility; he who knows most, knows best how little he knows."
-Thomas Jefferson
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02-24-2009, 01:15 PM #26
[QUOTE=trek_6k;279472391]
How bad was yours prior to surgery? What was wrong? How bad is the pain now? Any instability issues?
QUOTE]
I actually had a slap repair. It never hurt unless I was working out or using it too much. After surgery, I was fine after 2 days. Didn't have any pain until I went to PT...haha. That part was no fun. I have my full ROM back. It has been a year now, and when I lift heavy, it still hurts. Same pain as before. I do not have any instability issues. I've bee working at strengthing the rotator cuff to try to take as much strain off the should as I can. I can't seem to find anything online with anyone else with any problems after a year, so I'm not sure if mine healed correctly or not. Before surgery, when I held my arm out, rotated wrist so that my thumb was down, just slight pressure would cause my arm to fall down. I couldn't put any kind of resistance on it. Now, doing the same thing, my surgery arm is about the same as my other arm. So it fixed that and I have no pain, until I workout. Which is 4-5 times a week. Just started getting serious on joint recovery pills though, so we'll see if that helps any
Supposedly, 85 % of the surgeries fix the problem the first time. I hope i'm not one of the 15%!! Let me know if you find anything out about 1+ years and still having pain while lifting.
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02-24-2009, 10:16 PM #27
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02-25-2009, 07:35 AM #28
[QUOTE=ridinonair;293506711] what sort of heavy lifts cause pain? All of them?
Also, I think there is some cases where the capsule ligaments may be inflammed, scarred, or both. The resulting loss of ROM may not be obvious except with very specialized stretches, comparing the problem arm with the good one. But such a capsule problem shouldn't manifest itself unless the shoulder is approaching an endpoint, which is what you might find with a baseball pitcher. Just normal heavy lifts will work the rotators and the heavy shoulder muscles / deltoid mostly.
generalized shoulder pain through all range of motion might be impingement.Last edited by paul0616; 02-25-2009 at 07:40 AM.
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02-25-2009, 08:30 AM #29
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02-27-2009, 04:06 PM #30
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