Shoulder injuries inspiration sought!

I've a chronic shoulder dislocation/subluxation. It recently came out after about 8 years of trouble free operation. (Note to self: Stay off the overhanging 5.10s!)

I'd love to hear any stories of other climbers who live with this injury, especially after multiple surgeries.

The history of my right shoulder:
dislocated in grade school.

no problems for roughly 15 years.

Dislocated rolling a kayak in college. It was out for about 2 hours before it self-reduced in the ER waiting room. Some temporary nerve damage that led to temporary paralysis of my right arm and hand.

Since then, 5-6 self reducing dislocations doing everything from jumping on a pool floaty to climbing to sneezing too hard(not really but feels like it sometimes)

I've had it evaluated, and surgery is an option, but I'm not too excited about it. I'm just living with it and trying to avoid motions that I know give me problems. My shoulder is super loose, which is good and bad. Bad because it dislocates easily and good because it goes back in easily and doesn't hurt so much.

I'm waiting as long as possible to get the surgery because of the recovery time. My doc doesn't feel that I'm damaging the joint at this point, but, if it comes to that, I'm going to go under the blade.

Evan

I’ve only dislocated once but my wife works in Physical Therapy and says that doing the exercises regularly will greatly reduce the chances of dislocating. When you get to the point where it’s popping out regularly it’s time for surgery. I stopped doing the exercises a few months ago when I started Kayaking, I figured the paddling was enough (it was mostly lake practice and easy rivers) and my shoulder felt fine. As it’s getting colder and I’m not paddling as much I can feel it loosening so I’ve started the exercises again, I’ll let you know how it goes.

B-
I work w/ climbers specifically, I've dealt w/ many shoulder problems and rehabed two shoulders post surgery after the people decided to have the capsule tightened back up following multiple dislocations.

There's pretty much two ways the situation goes. After you've dislocated the first one or two times you've damaged the tissue supporting the glenohumeral joint to some extent.
1)A lot of times w/ aggressive rehabilitation you can get enough strength back to keep the shoulder stable, but you'll run a risk of future dislocation in some situations simply because you don't (and never will, the tissue once stretched/damaged will not shrink back to it's pre-injury condition)have the stability provided by an uninjured joint capsule/ligament system.
The rehabilitation is going to be the regular PT stuff of getting back to having full use of your shoulder during ADL's and some moderate strength, but then you'll need to find someone who knows enough of shoulder mechanics and what you want to be able to do w/ your shoulder during climbing. The second part is crucial when it comes to not re-injuring the shoulder and in my experience the best way to do this is by spending a lot of time in the weight room to relearn proper shoulder biomechanics and maybe some modifications of climbing style.

2) The second option is to go in for a capsular reduction to tighten the GH joint back up and get some of the passive stability back. However, you'll still need to go through the rehab and if you're climbing goals include pushing your physical limits and continuing to pursue the more physically demanding challenges associated w/ climbing you'll still need to go through the part two of the rehab described above.

Really it comes down to what you're goals are and how hard you want to be able to push your shoulder. This is simply my experience and there's nothing to prove that you couldn't be an exception, but I have yet to see someone that has dislocated their shoulder and then tried to continue to push their climbing performance successfully. Typically the shoulder is simply too unstable and at some point it will be re-injured to some extent and then the whole thing goes into a downward spiral of increasing problems... and then the visit to the surgeon.

I also want you to know that my view holds that surgery is almost always a last option, especially when it comes to shoulders. The surgery may not be too bad but the road back to climbing at your previous limit is horrendous, so if you can get by w/ doing some therapy and consistently strength training keeps you healthy and happy w/ your climbing, that would be my suggestion.
good luck,
BA

Brent,

Thanks for the well-informed reply.

I've dislocated my left shoulder, and had multiple subluxations in both left and right. After my dislocation I did the rehab and got back to near 100%. I'm climbing as hard as I ever did now, though I'm more careful in general and in particular on difficult gaston and cross-through moves.

Recently I started doing a slightly modified version of the Athletik Spesifik shoulder workout for climbers (note: website has changed, not sure if he's still selling workout plans). This has been helpful, though it's not foolproof. I figure that as long as I'm aware and treat my shoulders well off the rock, I can keep climbing hard.

j

J-
I'm glad to hear your successfully keeping your shoulder up to snuff. Thanks for the link, I'll check out the site and see what's been working for you.
It's always good to add to the bag of tricks if I can,
BA

Thanks for the thoughtful responses!

i didnt read through the whole thread and i havent had surgery, i do have shoulder issues though... i have tendinitis which has stopped me from climbing for extended periods of time over the last 10 years...

what i do to get my climb fix when the shoulders are flaring up is CLIMB SLABS! i have grown to love slabs, you can climb 5.10 5.11 5.12 or what ever with very little arms involved... its also great stress relief cause they can be really scary which is a grounding experience...

also, so much emphasis is put on difficulty in climbing... i can climb hard sport routes in good health, but if im working through an injury im not above climbing super-moderates till im feeling better...