4 weeks into slap/bankart repair

[bicential_kid]

I had a nagging front of shoulder pain and back of shoulder pain during and after matches, mostly associated with serving. it made it tough to tuck in a shirt in the back of pants and do anything else that required reaching back. the pain lingered for a long time after playing.

it got bad enough that I went to the ortho. ordered an MRI, MRI showed nothing/inconclusive.

decided to let the surgeon look around via arthroscope, because he said MRIs don't really show much of what's actually going on. (unless they redo it with contrast).

when I woke up, I had a tightened capsule and 5 anchors for the combined SLAP and Bankart repair of the labrum.

4 weeks later, i can button my pants. i'm making progress. it is just surprising how slow and painful it is. when I went in for surgery I had an arm that at least worked. so it's hard to go from a very usable arm that hurt after playing tennis to an arm that is like a dead painful appendage.

my eye is on the prize of returning to the court someday without pain. two more weeks of the immobilizing sling, and maybe a couple weeks of sling with no immobilizer and lots of continued pt and strengthening.

for anybody reading this, what's the likelihood of re-injuring this after it has healed. presumably tennis caused it... will tennis cause it again? I remember a particular overhead that I felt a tear. i'll be afraid to hit overheads, although if I let them bounce my game might actually improve since I hit groundstrokes much better than my overheads on any given day.

 

[floridatennisdude]

If you follow the rehab to a T, full recovery is likely. It's a crappy way to spend 6 months, but it is good that you got it fixed now before it became worse.

I have found that 3 years post op, my ROM will never be the same. I still do the rehab exercises from Throwers 10 3x a week to keep the supporting muscles a strong and limber as possible. I play 3-4 days a week and try not to play more than 2 days in a row or my arm feels very sore.

You'll be able to hit overheads and serves. However, this will give you a chance to take a look at your strokes to see if your motion was off. I have a modified overhand swing now that puts less steeds on the cuff muscles.

 

[bicential_kid]

thanks for the reply. where do you find the ROM limiting?

do you find that your game is impacted by inability to follow-through or extend like you remember being able to? is it strength of serve?

i'm not familiar with the throwers 10 yet.. but I am sure i'll be introduced as I get closer to being able to actually do something meaningful with my arm.

today started the arm bike and the attempts to slide my hand up a wall. good stuff.

 

[floridatennisdude]

thanks for the reply. where do you find the ROM limiting?

do you find that your game is impacted by inability to follow-through or extend like you remember being able to? is it strength of serve?

i'm not familiar with the throwers 10 yet.. but I am sure i'll be introduced as I get closer to being able to actually do something meaningful with my arm.

today started the arm bike and the attempts to slide my hand up a wall. good stuff.

Honestly, yes my game was impacted. I have probably lost 10-15 mph from my first serve. I retooled my mechanics to not put as much stress on the joint. Where I notice ROM is when I am warming up. Warm up used to be a 10 minute hit before a match. Now, I show up early to do a proper warm up. If I don't, it is tough to get the serve and OH early on.

You're on the right path. Toughest thing is to not go too fast through rehab. Your PT knows the plan, follow what they say and don't push it. It won't help it heal faster by pushing it...your body either heals fast or it doesn't.