Anyone with shoulder dislocation/sublexing problems have any luck wearing a shoulder brace of?
Wood
i’m mr. shoulder …
trust me on this … braces are not the answer. strengthen your shoulder(s) with specific shoulder exersizes and do NOT elevate your arm (as in high brace) without bending your elbow and keeping the hand below the shoulder at ALL times.
My shoulder problem
was diagnosed as supraspinatus and resulted from improper form practicing a roll (trying to power myself up). Very painful at first, it improved after several months of shoulder-specific exercises. I went to physical therapy several times, learned the appropriate exercises for my condition, then proceeded on my own exercise regimen. Now 2 years have passed and I only feel it if I do something that hyper-extends the shoulder.
Mr Shoulder eh?
whats your credentials eh?
If you have had your shoulder
dislocated you should consult an orthopedic surgeon for the proper care. It may need surgery and if it does, that is what will give you a dependable shoulder you can count on. My shoulder was dislocated a few times paddling in rivers and playing hockey and I waited 20 years before they recommended surgery. Since the surgery it hasn’t dislocated again and I can do what I want with confidence. The last place I wanted it to dislocate on me was while I am out paddling in open water. Go see a doctor.
credentials ?
several dislocations of both shoulders, rehab, surgury on both shoulders after all the damage. howz that?
yep
Just what I expected, see I am in the same boat. I dislocated my left last october and had it surgically repaired, then last week I dislocated my right the day before my last therapy appointment for the left. My interest in braces rises from 1: the fact that I am ridiculously predisposed to this injury (I had just spent the last 6 months strengthening my shoulders but I managed to dislocate it in a pool while rolling a C1) and 2: while I plan on having it surgically repaired as well, I am delaying the operation till after the summer so I can work on the water. I am also training myself to paddle on my off side (I paddle Canoes) to further guard my right shoulder.
Any other suggestions?
shoulder dislocation
– Last Updated: Apr-13-07 6:21 AM EST –
there's been a quite medical breakthrough on this front, and it is something all kayakers should know about because our sport is just about at the top for shoulder dislocations.
A Japanese doc named Itoi in recent years has had great initial success keeping patients in 45 degress external rotation with the elbow bent, for six weeks. Great initial success means he had not one in the treatment group redislocate.
The theory is that the postion keeps the busted up bits of bone and torn up tendons and ligaments in the right place to heal properly. using a sling or doing nothing keeps the messed up bits out of alignmnet, and so they don't heal properly, Hence, the huge redislocation risk faced by people treated in these two traditional fashions.
So, the japenese doctor's success is being replicated now by orhthopods in the U.S. So, this is big news for all us kayakers and something we should knwo about.
How do I know all this? An excrutiating shoulder dislocation last july kayaking. My U.S. doc, thank god, was up on the japanese research.
I went through the immobilization for almost two months, then strengthening and stretching, which involved some serious work.
Flexibility and strength are both 100% now, or better. The shoulder doesn't fell lose, though I feel a very mild click in one position due to the dent in my humeral head from when it slippped off the cup it's supposed to sit in last July and rebounded back onto the edge of that cup.
The orthopod took an xray in nov, showed me how things had fused back together correctly, and said "congradulations. you avoided surgery."
other suggestions …
you’re not gonna like this suggestion but … get it repaired by an ‘expert’ in shoulder surgury NOW. not tomorrow. not next week. not after the summer. i kept paddling with my torn up shoulder … it kept getting usable again with rehab, but then i’d tear it up again … and and then i’d rehab it again and on, and on. finally, it just gave up the ghost and this time it’s not repairable. i had surgury on it 2 years ago and still can’t paddle worth a damn. i can’t lift that arm to 45 degrees holding a can of coke. i can’t lift it over my head. oh how i wish i had it worked on earlier in the process before it was too late.
Hey John
I just now saw this thread. Sorry to hear of your additional shoulder troubles. I don’t have any sage-like advice – just wanted you to know I’m wishing you well my friend. – Randall
thanks
Thanks Randall
this one is not as bad, or at least the initial recovory is faster due to a speedy deduction. We put it back in about 2 minutes after it came out, right there on the pool deck no drugs or anything. Then three days latter I had full range of motion.
hope your recovery is going good as well
John
Dislocated mine in Feb
while ww kayaking. They reduced in the ER where I worked and the docs sent me off to an Orthopod because it kept slipping in and out. I started paddling a week later ( with the orthopods ok) on flat water using a Greenland paddle. I lost a lot of strength and movement but the paddling helped and still helps it feel better.
might not be hopeless–shoulder rehab
I remember when I got my brace off (read post below), I was shocked because I couldn’t move my arm out of the position it had been immobilized in for weeks. It hurt too much–my flexibility was gone and my range of motion as well. Also, i was shocked how weak my arm was. Any time I’d move my arm, try to reach for anything, etc., my arm would sieze up with cramps.
I got it all back though–with the flexibility, I actualy looked for the pain, put the arm in the position where the muscles all siezed up and cramped, and kept it there, pushing it a bit to make it hurt even more, until, magically, the muscles suddenly let go and relaxed. This was an inch, by inch process for months, but I finally got it all back. I just went after the pain aggressively to beat it.
Same with the strength. I would move my arm into the weak postion, leave it there for a minute. And then do it again and again, gradually adding weight about a pound or two everweeks. This worked too.
This was all about a 6 months procees, and involved pain and determiniation not to be crippled at my age.
Did see a rehabber a few times, but stopped. He’d still have me stretchign rubber bands at this point, and never quite getting everything back. I chose to go at it much harder myself, after reading a medical text (Netter’s anatomy book, the medical students bible) to learn shoulder anatomy in order to understand what i could do, and the danger positions to keep my shoulder out of.
Anyway, hope this helps. Just when you said you couldn’t lift up your arm, it really struck home, cause I was there too.
i’ve tried it all …
believe me … i’ve been ‘working’ this arm for over two years now. it’s just not coming back and i’m pretty much resigned to the fact that it never will.
mine wasn’t your basic rotator cuff and such; essentially i tore everything in there that attached anything to anything. if it’s in the shoulder, i tore it. the doc said he’d never seen such ‘profound’ (his word) damage and was surprised that up until it finally gave out, i could move my arm at all.
you can hear the grinding and popping and snapping (scar tissue) from across the room when i move my arm.
i can still kayak about 8 miles before pain sets in, and canoe on the left side and a little on the right so all is not lost. and … i saved a bunch of money on my car insurance. 
sorry to hear this n/m