Dislocated Shoulder again, but speedy recovery

[Jefferson Steelflex]

I could wait until I see the specialist in 6 days time but I’m impatient....

Last week I dislocated my left shoulder again, second time in 30 months albeit this time it was an anterior dislocation as opposed to the rather less common inferior dislocation I had last time. Sadly (and embarrassingly) both were the result of fking about in the gym.

Anyway, after the initial and obvious pain and discomfort, 3 days in and I had no obvious issues and as advised by the A&E doc I had discarded the sling after 2 days anyway. The weird thing is, I have almost full movement in the shoulder already and pretty much zero pain after 5 days.

This is a massive contrast to last time, when I was out of a sling after 3 days but spent the next 2 weeks slowly building up movement and strength and everything was an effort.

As advised, I haven’t and won’t be doing any overhead stuff yet, but lateral, forward, back movements are all fine as is interior and exterior rotation. My question is, what do I do with this and why is it so much better than last time?

I’m thinking of doing some early physio stuff, I still have the guides from last time, and working up to REALLY strengthening my rotator cuff this time. I am assuming that on this occasion I haven’t caused nearly as much damage to the joint and therefore I’m seeing much better recovery time but I’d like to be very careful not to overdo it, but of course I’m massively impatient to not be a one-arm burden on my family.

[spikeyhead]

Find a decent physio, one who is capable of working out which muscles need most improving in your cuff family. Otherwise it's likely that you'll strengthen the ones that are already strong more than the weaker ones, leaving another dislocation more likely.

[Shappers24]

I first dislocated my shoulder ten years ago after a fall on ice (hand my hands in my pockets...) subsequently dislocated three or four times, once in the gym doing overhead work which was embarrassing.

Eventually had surgery on it, but it’s never been right and I’ve had movement where it feels like it’s going to dislocate but not a full dislocation since the surgery. For me I have to be very careful with ‘push’ exercises as my damage is all at the front of the shoulder. I’ve got limited rotational movement which restricts certain exercises, which a physio has told me is down to a combination of the joint being ruined and me being overly protective of it so not using a full range of motion.

Would recommend physio, but from my experience and discussions with the surgeon; if you’ve done it once, you’ll do it again. Once the damage is done to the shoulder it can’t just heal it needs a repair building up muscle can help stabilise it, and minimise the risk of it happening again, and mine feels much better if I get some good gym time in and build some mass on my shoulders.

Have to say that I don’t find dislocations painful, it’s more like a dull ache than anything, and afterwards it just feels a bit ‘loose’ rather than hurting. It’s. Weird feeling injury for sure.