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How Long To Recover From Shoulder Surgery?


The Gill
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I had a Bankart repair repair Dec 23rd. Anyone have this and how long did it take you to get back swinging a club and playing 80%?

Doc said 6 months, physical therapist said 4 months? Any personal stories out there? Any specific exercises that helped you through it?

Thanks!

-PG

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the surgeon is the only person that looked at your lesion and repaired it.
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Can't say specifically from surgery.

A few years ago I subluxated and partially separated my right shoulder pretty badly. After 4 months I was back doing most things regularly. It still wasn't fully healed, just getting there. About a year later, after not continuing to do my PT exercises as religiously as I should've, I separated my shoulder again. The doc thought I tore my labrum, but after a dyed MRI and all that fun crap it was reassessed as just a bad separation. PT on that sucker took another 4-ish months before things started feeling really good again. I have continued to try to strengthen it, but a full year-and-a-half later and I doubt it'll get back to 100% anytime soon.

I'd guess closer to 6 months after surgery. My big advice is not to rush back. Do all your PT and don't half-ass it. Continue a strengthening program after you're done with PT. Above all else, listen to your body and listen to your doctors.

Best of luck to you.
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The March 2009 Golf Digest has an article on various injuries. One of them is talking to Jerry Pate and his numerous shoulder operations. You may want to pick it up and have a look. I checked out the website but couldn't find it, though I didn't look terribly hard. It well be on there.

Good luck with your recovery.

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Best of luck with your recovery.

I'm interested in seeing what stretches and warm up are recomended.
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The thing with surgery is that sometimes you think you recovered enough to start doing the sports you used to , when in fact you could still be at only 60%. I've had surgery myself ( right elbow , 2 metal pins in it now...) and all i can say is take it easy ! Don't use your shoulder at 100% just to ''test'' it! It's tempting , because your itching to play like you used to , but the safest bet is to just take it easy and let it heal like it's supposed to.

If you see a physical therapist , follow everything he tells you to do religiously...you will heal faster and stronger . I can tell you from experience...if you don't do your exercises , you will feel it a couple years later...

Best of luck with recovery!

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I'm not a PT, or doctor, but I am a medical high school student who went to work at Texas Sports Medicine today. I was working with this man who had a torn rotator cuff, the PT said that most recovery times before playing golf again is 6 months, 5 if you are lucky and heal quickly. (for most shoulder injuries)

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You are physically ready to play golf when you have full ROM and about 90%+ in strength compared to your non involved shoulder. In my professional opinion I think this should be achieved within six months.

Progressive resistance training should start between 8-12 weeks depending on your Dr's and PT's plan and your progress. After near full strength is achieved you can begin full swings as tolerated. Before this time you can progress from putting to chipping to pitching etc...

Remember to listen to your ortho and PT staff. Be cautious of external rotation when your arms are lifted above shoulder height as this is a vulnerable position for you. Work hard on your ROM and PM me if you have any questions. Good luck!

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  • 2 months later...
Guest

I am new to this site. I am a golf professional that had the great misfortune of being thrown off the back of a golf cart going 20 mph down a steep hill and taking a hard left hand turn (September 25, 2008). I slammed very hard onto a concrete cart path fracturing my right acromion, partially tearing three rotator cuffs and tearing my labrum. Additionally, I had four skull fractures, a "minor" cervical fracture and what we believe is a fractured left elbow. I had a total of 45 injuries. I even stopped breathing for four minutes. I am the luckiest Irishman you know of.
>
Somehow, I have made what has been called a miraculous recovery. My head and neck injuries have made remarkable progress. On March 27th of this year, my Orthopedic Surgeon operated on my shoulder performing an Open Reduction Internal Fixation to fix the Acromion fracture. He also debridged the rotator cuffs and labrum and performed a subacromion decompression to clean out the infected Bursa and Bone Spurs.
>
Last week I STARTED to rehab my shoulder after being in the sling for six weeks. I plan on rehabbing my shoulder exactly how the PT's and my Orthopedic Surgeon suggest. Unfortunately, they have not given me a plan or estimated time table to work with.
>
My question is can anyone give me some helpful idea of how long it will take to be able to play again... I will not rush my comeback because if I do I probably won't ever play again.

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I had a left shoulder subacromial decompression, rotator cuff debridement and distal clavectomy via arthroscopy on Dec 19th. Those are medical terms for cleaning out bone spurs, smoothing off rough spots on the rotator cuff and hacking off the end of my collarbone. I did not stop playing golf until the week before surgery as the golf swing did not bother me unless I swung way too hard trying to hit a massive hook (I'm right handed) or hitting fat shots. Surgery went well, did not have to take a pain pill, stitches out in a week and pt began at 10 days. I did intense pt 3 times a week for 4 weeks and was back on the course February 1st. At 54 years of age I realize I'm extremely blessed to have only a "minor" downtime from the game. I probably should have taken another 4 weeks off but all is well. At 54 years of age I'm very blessed to only have been out 6 weeks. The bottom line is all injuries are unique and we all have different healing abilities. My advice is similar to others: Become best friends with your therapist, listen to your body and do not wimp out on the exercises.
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I had 2 surgeries in 3 months (dec 12 and march 6) on a rotator cuff and labrum, including having a screw inserted into the shoulder. I'm now swinging again as of about 3 weeks ago, but I'm swinging nice and slow and only trying to create a nice pure stroke, no power and don't care about distance. My physical therapist is also a sports medicine specialist (as is the surgeon) and they both OK'd this before I went out there. In my case, it was the right shoulder so, with the help of an instructor, I'm re-learning a swing where the left arm is extremely dominant and the right just kind of goes along for the ride. Stretching and going easy is the key, and new irons with regular flex graphite shafts were recommended by my instructor and made a big difference. Not only can I feel the club head better with the light shafts, but the shock on mis-hits is amazingly more forgiving on my hands, arms and shoulder.

I got the Cleveland CG7's. Tried several and didn't even have these in mind, but when the fitter handed me the CG7 6 iron it was a night and day difference and they hit wonderful for me.
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I had a labrum tear from 10 to 1:30 with some fraying of the rotator cuff. They went in and anchored the tear with 3 anchors, did the rotator cuff debridement, and the subacromiomial decompression. The surgery was January 28th, 2009.

I started PT one week after surgery. I was very diligent in doing my exercises 3-5 times a day to start and then 2-3 times a day when they started taking up a lot of time (there will be lots of exercises).

I had a faster than average recovery. I was able to start putting and hitting short chip shots around 4 weeks. At 8 weeks I began hitting 3/4 wedge shots. At 10 weeks I played my first round of golf (LOTS of stretching before the round). Currently I'm about 16 weeks out and I have full range of motion, no hitches in my shoulder, good strength, and can play as much golf as I want with no pain.

As of right now, all of my distances are the same as pre-op.

My advice is...stay on top of your PT and also...if there's one thing I can tell you...it's that you're going to have a setback. You may have one, you may have five, you may have more than that. It's little things..where you wake up and one day your shoulder doesn't move like it was the last two weeks. Or you wake up and there is pain doing exercises where you didn't have pain before. Don't stress out about it. It's a hiccup. You'll be back on track in no time. I had two little hiccups where I had some pain and it scared me a little bit...but with some new exercises from the PT, within 3-5 days and some advil (or any anti-inflammatory), I was back on track each time and making progress again.

Good luck!
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  • 1 year later...


Originally Posted by RandomRaiderTTU

I had a labrum tear from 10 to 1:30 with some fraying of the rotator cuff. They went in and anchored the tear with 3 anchors, did the rotator cuff debridement, and the subacromiomial decompression. The surgery was January 28th, 2009.

I started PT one week after surgery. I was very diligent in doing my exercises 3-5 times a day to start and then 2-3 times a day when they started taking up a lot of time (there will be lots of exercises).

I had a faster than average recovery. I was able to start putting and hitting short chip shots around 4 weeks. At 8 weeks I began hitting 3/4 wedge shots. At 10 weeks I played my first round of golf (LOTS of stretching before the round). Currently I'm about 16 weeks out and I have full range of motion, no hitches in my shoulder, good strength, and can play as much golf as I want with no pain.

As of right now, all of my distances are the same as pre-op.

My advice is...stay on top of your PT and also...if there's one thing I can tell you...it's that you're going to have a setback. You may have one, you may have five, you may have more than that. It's little things..where you wake up and one day your shoulder doesn't move like it was the last two weeks. Or you wake up and there is pain doing exercises where you didn't have pain before. Don't stress out about it. It's a hiccup. You'll be back on track in no time. I had two little hiccups where I had some pain and it scared me a little bit...but with some new exercises from the PT, within 3-5 days and some advil (or any anti-inflammatory), I was back on track each time and making progress again.

Good luck!

Howdy all - new to this group and interested in this thread. Perhaps the thread is too old to see any more activity.

I picked up golf 5 years ago (I'm 48 but still a good athlete), and spent the first 4 seasons hitting mostly off of range mats, and unfortunately, hitting it pretty fat.

I went at it like a maniac and ended up with tennis elbow, golfer's elbow, and a type 2 SLAP tear of the left labrum.

I wanted to hear more about whether it was the LEFT shoulder (for right handed golfers) that some posters here injured.

It being my leading arm, I was just bashing away at it like an idiot, with a chicken wing of course - wish to god somebody had corrected me. There's no way to prove definitively that it was hitting balls that did it (I play basketball too) - but it seems likely.

I want to thank RandomRaiderTTU above for the comment about expecting setbacks, because that's my story right now. I am 7 weeks out and mobility is still very restricted . Surgeon called my injury "par for the course" (2 anchors, 4 sutures) and that I was a "great candidate" for the procedure to be very successful. PT guy is fantastic and very positive about my recovery, but I am struggling with the slow pace of progress. This week, the passive pendulum arm swings that were fine before now produce a significant click and almost impingement feeling, so I am just despondent. Am going to report this to my PT guy and just hope this is one of those hiccups.

Anyhow - thanks for the informative posts, and please, if you know anybody just picking up the game, tell them to TAKE IT EASY on the mats and to learn asap to get the bottom of the swing arc FORWARD and hit the damn ball FIRST. You might save them from destroying their arm the way I did.


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Had the same repair done a long time ago, took me a year till it felt right again.  I had problems with "frozen shoulder" after the surgery, it just felt tight all time.  After you get it loosened up it will feel ok.  Mine was a severe case as well, I had torn the tendon completely off the end of the shoulder blade from playing hockey at a fairly young age, and i didn't get it repaired until i was 30, the shoulder dislocations were getting so bad I would dislocate it in my sleep if I rolled over on it.  the sooner you get it fixed the better I think

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Originally Posted by gmcpsgolfer

I had a left shoulder subacromial decompression, rotator cuff debridement and distal clavectomy via arthroscopy on Dec 19th. Those are medical terms for cleaning out bone spurs, smoothing off rough spots on the rotator cuff and hacking off the end of my collarbone. I did not stop playing golf until the week before surgery as the golf swing did not bother me unless I swung way too hard trying to hit a massive hook (I'm right handed) or hitting fat shots. Surgery went well, did not have to take a pain pill, stitches out in a week and pt began at 10 days. I did intense pt 3 times a week for 4 weeks and was back on the course February 1st. At 54 years of age I realize I'm extremely blessed to have only a "minor" downtime from the game. I probably should have taken another 4 weeks off but all is well. At 54 years of age I'm very blessed to only have been out 6 weeks. The bottom line is all injuries are unique and we all have different healing abilities. My advice is similar to others: Become best friends with your therapist, listen to your body and do not wimp out on the exercises.

"shoulder subacromial decompression via arthroscopy"


This is  what I was due to have done December just gone, but for several reasons (not in as much pain, wife being made redundant, parents away in OZ so no child care) I put it off for now.

Doc said though that it would be 6-8 weeks before I could play golf again.

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