Shoulder Surgery

I will be having shoulder surgery on November 26th. The short story is that I will be in a sling for ~6 weeks. I will be doing PT for ~3 months. I am hoping to be back to 100% by the summer.


UPDATE: My surgery has been postponed until Jan 2.


I have been going through PT for the past 3 months or so and it has gone very well. I also recently had an MRI. After wrapping up PT and getting an MRI, I went back and saw my surgeon. Although the PT went very well, she saw some problems in the MRI that could not be addressed with exercise alone. I have a few tears in my cartilage that is in the shoulder capsule. Fluid is leaking through them and getting into places that it does not belong. This forms cysts. If these cysts continue to grow, they will begin to put pressure on some nerves that are in the area which will cause muscular problems. The tears and cysts will also promote bad arthritis down the road.


I will say that I think I did a good job with my PT (for the first time ever). Going in, both my surgeon and therapist commented that I was pretty weak. Having wrapped things up, I can now do their most advanced strength activities at PT, and my doctor has commented that I now have good strength (they gave me a 5/5). So, I should be in good shape going into the procedure.


So, the plan is to go in (arthroscopically) and repair the cartilage problems. This will be better than cutting me open for multiple reasons, including (1) less damage to the surrounding tissue (which they expect will mean less arthritis down the road) and (2) the ability to repair some cartilage on the back side of the capsule that is hard to get to otherwise. This should help the tears to heal, stopping the flow of liquid and allowing the cysts to drain. It will also help to give me more stability so that I am less likely to dislocate it again in the future. There is of coarse no guarantee about future dislocations, and I will have to continue to "be careful" for the rest of my life, but I should no longer have my shoulder popping out while stretching or putting on a jacket.


I will be out of work for ~1 week, and then probably work from home for a while. Work is pretty chill during December usually, so this will be a good time for me. I will be in a sling for ~6 weeks. During these 6 weeks, I will be doing a lot of PT based around just getting my arm to move again. After this, I will have another 6 weeks of strength PT.


This is a very common surgical procedure. The non-arthroscopic version has been around for a long long time, while the arthroscopic one is ~7 years old. It has shown a lot more success than older non-arthroscopic versions (probably what Danny had). I will likely be a bit more stiff coming out than going in, with somewhat less range of motion, but I don't see this as a big deal. I am already far more loose than the average person (hence the problem) so this is not really a big deal. It sounds like things like swimming and throwing, while possible, will generally not be a good idea going forward. I should be able to "play catch" without a problem, but nothing serious and nothing when I am tired. So, my general outlook is that I will probably continue to "take it easy" when it comes to activities that put me in a vulnerable position. I see the surgery more as a "prevent nasty arthritis" and "prevent dislocations while doing everyday activities" than something to really enable me to play goalie or competitive basketball or something.