Torn Labrum - 1 yr after surgury

I have seem several posts about labral tears and recovery. I am going to give my update, as I had surgury in October of 2006 to fix a slap tear of my labrum in my right shoulder. I was also wondering if anyone could give their story a year after surgury. Kind of like an update.

I had surgury to repair my torn labrum in the early part of October 2006. The tear was next to my biceps tendon, but my biceps tendon was not torn. I needed three anchors in addition to the suture to fix the mess. To this day I am not sure how I tore my labrum, however, I think it started with an impingement and kind of got worse from there since I continued to lift with no stopping at all.

Anyway, I followed all the protocols of the doctor. Wore my sling for six weeks, even when sleeping. I started PT the week after surgury. It started out without weights or anything, mainly kind of light stretching type exercises other light (really no weight at all) pullng and pushing exercises. After a couple weeks of this I moved into really light biceps curls, lat pulldowns, medicine ball (a light one) throws, arm bicycle, etc. All of the PT stuff that other posters have talked about. 4 months after surgury I was told I was at 100% range of motion and told I no longer needed PT. At this point I did feel 100% at all. I started back the gym really light. I was week and everytime I worked out it felt really strange/uncomfortable.

I slowly have gotten stronger, but during the entire time my shoulder and that area in general had all sorts of different aches and pains. I never got any inflamation like I had prior to surgury, but my shoulder and bicep never felt like it did prior to the tear. Each month that went by I felt stronger, but the aches and pains were still there.

As of today I am at about 85% of the strength I was prior to the tear. My main reason for posting this is I want to know what others feel at this point or later. I still get knots in my back (on the side where I had my surgury) and feel quite sore. I am not in pain, but the soreness lingers. I cannot work out upper body on back to back days. I usually have to take two days off (i.e. do legs and say cardio) between say back and chest exercises. I have a friend who is a medical doctor (not an ortho) who said that my shoulder will probably never be as good as new and to expect lingering effect for about 2 years. This is not what my ortho said prior to surgury. My ortho was a sports guys so I really trusted him. After surgury he was all gung ho and when I got discharged from PT at four months he said someting like it is great that you have 100% range of motion and are good to go. Well, 100% range of motion is completely different than having a shoulder which is as good as new. I am pretty sure some of this is because I was 34 when I had my surgury. I assume that if I was in my 20s it would have healed faster.

I guess I am just at a point where I want to know if I need to go back and get another MRI to make sure it is fixed or if what I am feeling is normal and just have to live with it. I have great health insurance, I just do not want to waste my time and doctors time because perhaps I just have to great of expectations.

I had a 300 degree rip of my right shoulders labrum. It was really bad. My strength was way above where i had it before the surgery after about a month of lifting, likely due to the lay off allowed my muscles to get past that plateau.

The soreness will never go away. It has been a year and a half. The shoulder held up through a lot, but once football season started again. Blech, that arm was sliding out all over the place. I'm at a place in my liffe that I feel I want another surgery on my shoulder, maybe to tighten it or something. I dont know. I hate my shoulders. There seems to be nothing I can do about them.

Sorry I cant be more positive, but I have had nothing but bad experiences after my surgery.

[QUOTE=TaxG8r00;117789591]I have seem several posts about labral tears and recovery. I am going to give my update, as I had surgury in October of 2006 to fix a slap tear of my labrum in my right shoulder. I was also wondering if anyone could give their story a year after surgury. Kind of like an update.

I had surgury to repair my torn labrum in the early part of October 2006. The tear was next to my biceps tendon, but my biceps tendon was not torn. I needed three anchors in addition to the suture to fix the mess. To this day I am not sure how I tore my labrum, however, I think it started with an impingement and kind of got worse from there since I continued to lift with no stopping at all.

Anyway, I followed all the protocols of the doctor. Wore my sling for six weeks, even when sleeping. I started PT the week after surgury. It started out without weights or anything, mainly kind of light stretching type exercises other light (really no weight at all) pullng and pushing exercises. After a couple weeks of this I moved into really light biceps curls, lat pulldowns, medicine ball (a light one) throws, arm bicycle, etc. All of the PT stuff that other posters have talked about. 4 months after surgury I was told I was at 100% range of motion and told I no longer needed PT. At this point I did feel 100% at all. I started back the gym really light. I was week and everytime I worked out it felt really strange/uncomfortable.

I slowly have gotten stronger, but during the entire time my shoulder and that area in general had all sorts of different aches and pains. I never got any inflamation like I had prior to surgury, but my shoulder and bicep never felt like it did prior to the tear. Each month that went by I felt stronger, but the aches and pains were still there.

As of today I am at about 85% of the strength I was prior to the tear. My main reason for posting this is I want to know what others feel at this point or later. I still get knots in my back (on the side where I had my surgury) and feel quite sore. I am not in pain, but the soreness lingers. I cannot work out upper body on back to back days. I usually have to take two days off (i.e. do legs and say cardio) between say back and chest exercises. I have a friend who is a medical doctor (not an ortho) who said that my shoulder will probably never be as good as new and to expect lingering effect for about 2 years. This is not what my ortho said prior to surgury. My ortho was a sports guys so I really trusted him. After surgury he was all gung ho and when I got discharged from PT at four months he said someting like it is great that you have 100% range of motion and are good to go. Well, 100% range of motion is completely different than having a shoulder which is as good as new. I am pretty sure some of this is because I was 34 when I had my surgury. I assume that if I was in my 20s it would have healed faster.

I guess I am just at a point where I want to know if I need to go back and get another MRI to make sure it is fixed or if what I am feeling is normal and just have to live with it. I have great health insurance, I just do not want to waste my time and doctors time because perhaps I just have to great of expectations.[/QUOTE]


Do you still do the exercises you were doing in physical therapy? External rotations, scapular stabilization exercises, etc?

Prior to every workout I do about 10 minutes of the exercises my PT taught me to do as a warm up. I never work out without doing them when I work out any part of my upper body.

As I thought about this post when I was at the gym this afternoon doing back and bi, I guess what I was really trying to express is the lingering soreness and knots in my back that seem to come up the day after I work out. I have been debating getting massages to help with the knots, but I wonder if the massage will really help in the long term or simply make it feel better during the rub down.

It has also been about a year since my surgery (7/2007) and I am experiencing the same issues. In fact, I just made an appointment to see my doc to have another MRI. I can't even bench press or push ups because my arm feels so weak and unstable. Also, I get pain that shoots through my tricep and bicep whenever I try to lift. I am pretty much beside myself at this point.

Sorry to hear its still giving you ****! Your not alone Nov 2017 I too had Labrum surgery ..... to day its been 1 year and like two months or so **** that was rough for me I strained it at 3 months post op trying to left **** around the house and trying to load the leg press at gym trying to get my fix at the gym it was a total head **** for me man lost my mind through the whole process ... I probably have a screws lose but weight lifting is my prozac so it was ruff anyways my problem was just lifting to much to soon but my last big strain was in aug lasted for over a month then i was good got up to db bench 90lbs db s again like 8 to 10 reps and barbell 225 but out of nowhere I just strained the mother ****er again feb 6 2019 maybe I just cant do curtain moves anymore ... Ive always had decent form so ive been told but **** im trying to find the discrepancy here lol It didnt hurt right away just later on so at this point been out of the gym for 20 days just trying to wait it out better to be safe than sorry at this point my plan is too wait tell my shoulder feels normal again than get back slow get a personal trainer just to brush up on form and insight and stay away from heavy pressing see what happens also fyi my shoulder press was db 70 lbs dbs press and barbel military press was 174 8 to 10 reps guess im just a bone head lifter ... lol im over being hurt plus this last oct had hip surgery i raced moto x broke 8 bones so im paying for it now ... remember .. it could always be worse just work with what you got !



peace! Chase R

I'm sure 11 years later the OP was anxiously awaiting your response. There are a number of good recovery threads here that are a lot more current. One, in excess of 30 pages, is very good and has a wide variety of recovery information. At 1 year post op you should just now be finishing your PT and you should have discussed all of your lifting decisions with your Orthopedic Surgeon and your PT. You probably need to be seen by your Orthopedic Surgeon to see if you've damaged his repair, to see where you're at not, and to develop a recovery plan so that you can get back to lifting heavy. Make no mistake, for as long as you plan on being physically active you'll need to do some of your rehab exercises (or variants) as prehab and incorporate those into your warm up. You'll also need to listen to your body, warm up properly, and cool down properly if you wish to lift heavy and without pain.