I crashed quite hard at the end of July, over the bars and landing on my left shoulder / upper arm and face. The doctors at the event gave me the once over (checked mobility, prodded and poked) and said I’d damaged the ligaments and not broken it and it would take eight to twelve weeks to recover. They said hit the ibuprofen and try to move it. It’s now mid-November and my shoulder is still fairly borked. Movement such as raising a straight arm is very impaired, the arm’s fairly weak, I can’t sleep on my left side without ending up in pain and it feels a bit grindy when I move it. So my questions are; is this length of time for a shoulder injury normal and should I get it looked at again? any thoughts?

Get it looked at. Then do the physio. I repeat do the physio.

Last thing you want if you haven’t already is end up with a frozen shoulder.

I’ve torn both my rotator cuffs. I didn’t do enough physio both still give me grief years later.

Do the physio.

(To clarify I mean the exercises not the person…)

I couldn’t lift my left hand above my head for 2 years and was in near constant pain following an OTB superman. Fixed it over a period of months by doing very light weights and it’s pretty much normal now. Had a flare up for an evening a couple of weeks ago, but it soon passed.

Good luck with yours.

Edit: Yeah what he said^ – don’t let it stagnate it can get much worse if left alone

So slight thread regeneration. Been to see a physio and her initial diagnosis is tenderness on tendons on both shoulders and a very lax ac joint on one side. The phrase significant trauma has been used:( Appointment with a shoulder consultant booked for next week, it’s not looking like a quick fix.

Sounds like AC separation injury. I did mine Grade 3 in 2012 and rode the Passportes du Soleil three weeks later with it very heavily strapped up and after some intensive and painful physio. Had a permanent lump there but it was fine until I had a fairly innocuous off this summer since when it seemed to become ‘unstable’. More physio and it is now gradually recovering. You do need to do a range of exercises to build the strength back up and help the tendons hold it all together. Resistance bands and very light weights/high reps are the way to go. The crunching and grinding effect seems to be a permanent outcome…

It can take ages to heal (badly) if you just leave it.

A&E will just make sure you don’t die, proper Physio will attempt to make you better again.

But it can take many visits and lots of exercise to get to that point. I’ve had similar and it probably took about a year and 8-10 visits to the Physio.

Physio is the only reason I have private medical, its paid for itself every year so far.

As there are a couple of shoulder injury threads floating around a quick up date on mine.
The consultant diagnosed post traumatic frozen shoulder on the left and an impingment and a cyst on the right.
Today I had hydrodilation on the left. Started of with two injections of steroids with the aid of ultra sound into the shoulder and then an injection of a solution into the shoulder. The first bit was fine couple of “Sharp scratch coming up”‘s and you get to see the injection on ultasound,the second a bit more weird. Felt like a weight was being pushed down on my left side – the radiologist doing the procedure did say it seemed like quite a severe case. Before this procedure the movement and strength of my left arm was severely restricted, icouldn’t lift it above 90 degrees putting on a shirt could be a struggle, within ten minutes almost all of the mobility seemed to have come back. Have to rest it for a few days and it’s a bit sore from the procedure, but keep moving it and it should be ok. Right shoulder next week, tea, watching biathlons on tv and jaffa cakes this afternoon

Movement such as raising a straight arm is very impaired,

Yep that’s me, after a novice Snow Boarder wiped me out from behind whilst I was minding my own business.

Over 3 weeks now and still can’t raise my arm above my head.

Assisted exercises are helping, use a broom / mop so that the good arm can push the bad arm into positions it can’t go on its own. Sounds a bit odd, just hold the pole with both hands spread apart and the good arm pushes the bad arm upwards in a sweeping motion. Does seem to be helping increase my range of unassisted movement.

I had a hydrodilation this week as well, kilo. I’d had a previous injection into the tendon that did nowt, but this was right into the joint under local anaesthetic / X-ray, like yours. Given me more movement straight off.

Mine isn’t as severe – it wasn’t caused by any obvious trauma (a couple of heavy crashes but not onto the shoulder directly). I have the text book frozen shoulder which comes on with a lot of pain over months, then the pain subsides but movement is restricted, and then (apparently) it gets better on its own. This can take years, though, so I plan on going to town with the physio to get things on the right track.

I had a manipulation and steroid injection under general anaesthetic for my frozen shoulder.

Orthopod said it made some great popping noises.

Took a few months to regain decent movement – hand behind back and up to shoulder blade was the slowest to return.

Orthopod said it made some great popping noises.

Mine does that when I forget it doesn’t like moving and reach for something too high. Only problem is the popping noise is accompanied by excruciating pain at the same time…

just reminded me that I was overdue an update on my shoulder injury thread!

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/separated-shoulder-grade-34-surgery

Likewise. Slightly different injury for me by the sounds of it.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/shoulder-injury-recovery

I’ve knackered both shoulders, dislocated right in a collapsed rugby scrum and dislocated left, snapping head of humerus off and requiring pinning as back wheel collapsed riding down the Road of Death in Bolivia! For 2 years the muscles around the left should were half the size of the right after 4 months in a sling

From personal experience, NHS physio are great, but tend to just give you exercises, a private physio will have more time for you and will actually treat the injury.

Give it mobile, even if it is painful, don’t let it stiffen up and “frozen”.

Shoulders are funny things, you may find that first you get the “big” movements controlled by the main muscles come back first, it is the “fine control” that takes time to come back, physio had me writing number 1-10 in the air with my finger to aid this.

Every time i’ve broken, ripped or stretched something, i’ve also upped my calcium and protein intake (i figure you need the building blocks for repair), which has seemed to have helped.

Sounds like my shoulder injury which happened skiing, but much like going over the bars and not managing to roll out… so landing heavily on my head and shoulder. Jeez it hurt so much! 😥

anyway, Specialist said nothing broken so just had to wait for it to heal. its now been just over 2 years and I’d say its back to 97.5% healed. First few months involved agonising pain when putting on a coat for example. Now able to do press ups with no pain.