Advice on surgery

[RandomRaiderTTU]

Hoof, glad to hear the hip surgery went well.

As for the shoulder tear, I can sympathize completely. I had a tear since high school that did not give me any problems whatsoever until I went up to dunk a ball and felt a serious twinge in my shoulder. After that, I had problems for 2 solid years. Constant popping, instability, dull aches, etc.

I went in and had the MRI and indeed it was a labral tear. They went in and repaired it with 3 anchors. It was a labral tear from 10:30-1 (picture the labrum as a round clock. I tore mine mine at the top which is very common).

Anyway, I went in on January 28th of 2009 to have it repaired. The surgery went well. The initial 4 weeks of recovery was pretty rough, but not impossible. I started rehab a week after surgery. At the time, my shoulder felt loose, unstable, and it would "catch" in a lot of places. Most of the beginning exercises were to get passive movement again.

Now, before I go into the rest of this, realize that I followed my therapy to the T. They said do the exercises 3-5 times a day. I would do them in the morning, at lunch, when I got home from work, and before I went to bed. This gets time consuming at the end because they keep adding more and more exercises as you progress.

With that said, I was cleared to chip and putt at 4 weeks. At 7 weeks he told me to go hit some 3/4 wedges and see how it felt. At this point, the thing that hindered me the most was my follow through. I'm right handed and it was my right shoulder. On your follow through, as the arm raises as you clear, mine would catch at the top forcing me to break my elbow instead of having that elongated follow-through. That got better the more I stretched and did my exercises.

At 8 weeks, I played my first round of golf again. Shot a 91. Went a week later and shot 84.

At 10 weeks, I was playing with no pain and full strength on shots. Distance was completely unaffected. Sometimes my scapular muscles would get really tight during a round, but stretching throughout the round kept any issues from flaring up.

I had the surgery at 29 years old and healed quickly.

This is not an indication of how quickly you would heal if you had the surgery, but definitely to let you know that you won't be out of golf for 6 months like was mentioned earlier.

It is now a year later and I've returned to the gym to start lifting weights again. My shoulder has 99% range of motion and strength is back to normal. I still have to stretch the muscles around my shoulder before a round, but that's it as far as limitations go.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

[i-Guy]

Great post RandomRaiderTTU and I have heard simliar stories from people with a labrum tear.

I wish mine was going to be this easy..I was orignally diagnosed with a laberal tear and was given somewhat the same prognosis for recovery but after the MRI they found I also had a rotator cuff tear that was 80-90% torn...they had to sew it and anchor it. My recovery time is going to be quite a bit longer in that my doctor said i probably will not be able to start putting until the end of 3 months. At 7 weeks which will be this coming Monday I am still in the sling and my PT is still passive range of motion and not going as well as I would have thought by 7 weeks...I am 51 years old (this past February) if that has anything to do with it but I am in pretty good shape at 6'4 and 205lbs and not much body fat. Anyway I say all this because I think it depends on what you have done and how bad it is to how your recovery will be...for instance Greg Norman (53) had the same surgery as me (laberal and Rotator) at the end of Sept 2009 and I saw an interview with him in Dec and he said his doctor had told him that he would not be able to practice fully until probably February 2010...so that is 4-5 months which is what my recovery is looking like...maybe it is the rotator cuff tear that makes the recovery worse??? Or maybe Greg and I are just OLD...

[RandomRaiderTTU]

i-Guy,

Just FYI, but my physical therapist said that rotator takes longer to rehab for getting back to golf than strictly labrum.

Keep at it though and you'll be back before you know it.

Honestly, I was dying to get back to ANY kind of golf during my recovery. When I was able to chip and putt, I spent a ton of time working on my chipping stroke. I played some fantastic golf when I came back because my short game got a solid 3 weeks worth of work.

[i-Guy]

i-Guy,

Thanks...at this point it is both a phyiscal and mental struggle as I am dying to do anyhting with a golf club...

Honestly, I was dying to get back to ANY kind of golf during my recovery. When I was able to chip and putt, I spent a ton of time working on my chipping stroke. I played some fantastic golf when I came back because my short game got a solid 3 weeks worth of work.

Exactly what I have been thinking as I will probably have 6-8 week period of nothing but putting and chipping before I can swing a club so it will be a great start to getting my touch back and one of the things I want to work on this year is my short game...it is probably the strongest part of my game but not where I want it to be so this will be a good start for me...

[scott71law]

Hoofreak did you ever end up getting the hip surgery done? I have a torn hip labrum as well and I am having it scoped soon. I am just wondering how long you had to wait to golf again, if you got the procedure done. Thanks for any info. PS, I dislocated my shoulder back in my football playing days about 15 years ago and also tore my shoulder labrum, never got it surgically repaired and haven't had any golfing issues from it since. The fastball on the other hand went from about 80 to 45 mph, so you won't be throwing the heat anymore unless you get it operated on!

Well I had an MRI last week and it did not show a labrum tear in my hip, so I don't know what the hell is going on. Doc was obviously wrong, unless the tear is there but not showing up on the MRI. I have noticed the pain in my lower right back and buttock seems related to this, and may be some sort of sciatic issue. I went out today and took a few swings and almost started crying form the sharp pain in my hip a couple times. All this with about a 60 mph swing when I was swinging 85-90 last year at worst.

Scott

[btownb]

I am a new member and cannot post new threads. However I am suffering from a Rib Injury. X-Rays were fine. Doctor says I have costalchondritis from playing golf. I think it might be a rib fracture that the X-Ray did not pick up. I played to many holes of golf bout 4 weeks ago. Felt sharp pains in my ribs - intercostal muscles. Rested for a week and played again. Pain doubled. Now its been 4 weeks. Two days ago it felt as if the pain was subsiding, then I mowed the yard. Pain increased....... I am going nutz!!! I love to golf, jog, and garden. I am 30 years old. Afraid this "whatever it is" will not get better.......Any suggestions?

Just got over this myself. All I can say is don't rush it. I was off for a month before I could hit a ball, and promptly after hitting that ball, I re injured myself. Took two months after that before I could swing again. Now over 4 months later and I can hit and feel it sometimes, but it doesn't hurt. Good luck and take it slow.