Kinda Dislocated Shoulder

Context- I was climbing Drop, Fly or Die at the Spider's Web in the Adirondacks. The second crux of the route is a short, boulder traverse, on a face just slightly past vertical, left to reach an awesome crack. Its very well protected and I had cruised it as my first 5.11 trad send a few weeks back. I wound up at the Web again this past weekend, and thought I could see how a repeat would go.

Long story short, I was making a gaston move with my right hand to start the traverse left. Got my left hand on a good edge. I poke my left foot way out to reach a crack, got it settled in there, but it felt awkward - maybe my beta was fudged up from last time. But I know that its just a single move to a secure hold, so I decide to commit to the edge with my left hand and reach across my body with my right to the secure hold. Just as I shift my hips a bit to make the move left, I feel my right shoulder shift in its socket - felt like a "ker-chunk" as the joint went "out" and back in within half a second. I think that my joint just started to dislocate but my back/shoulder muscles, being in tension, just popped it back in place as soon as I instinctively eased off that arm. I don't think it came close to a full dislocation, but maybe a partial dislocation, but it was just a half a second as I said.

Luckily there was no fall, I called for take and then bailed. The shoulder felt fine the rest of the day but I didn't climb. Next day muscles were just stiff around the shoulder but still mobile. I took some casual dips in cool water and started icing. Now its today, two days later, still stiff but less so. There's some slight discomfort in the ligaments when I test my arm in tension but I have full muscular mobility with very little discomfort in my muscles or ligaments.

I'd consider myself more flexible than average and I work out regularly, though I do not go very hard at the weight room, usually just for strengthening muscles I have and not building new ones. I think that all helped prevent the injury from being more serious.

I'm planning on icing and resting for a week or two or six or whatever, we'll see. I'm gonna see someone about it shortly. If I could be back for September than I'll be very happy but we'll see how it goes! Gonna send my shoes away to get resoled and start learning obscure knots for self/partner rescue.

Anyway, I was just curious if anyone has had a similar experience with a very-short-lived dislocation

You most likely experienced shoulder subluxation. The first time it happened to me I couldn't climb for a few weeks without pain. Rest a few a week and start rehabilitating it with light shoulder workouts, refrain from climbing until your PT exercises do not hurt.

I've had this happen many times in both shoulders over the last several years. I experienced the same symptoms as you describe; a pop in and out, full mobility but still very sore for several days, then everything back to normal.

After this began to happen with increasing frequency I saw a specialist about it, had an MRI, and was told that I had a partially torn labrum in both shoulders. The labrum is the ring of cartilage around the shoulder socket that helps provide stability to the joint. Tearing the labrum effectively removes the localized ridge on that section of the joint making a full or partial dislocation more likely. I was still able to climb at a high level, but there were particular shoulder moves and angles that lined up the joint with the torn section of labrum just perfectly enough to create that instability and cause a partial dislocation.
 
Ultimately, I underwent surgery to repair both shoulders. The rehab and time off from climbing was tough, but both my shoulders now feel stronger than ever. I was back climbing hard six months post op. I'm not pretending to diagnose you, just sharing my own experience with something similar. That being said, I still have times when I feel that little twinge of instability in one shoulder, and I've found that using Rock Tape or KT Tape to isolate and stabilize the area helps substantially. The tape is cheap and there are plenty of videos online that show optimal tape configurations for shoulder stability. I keep a roll of Rock Tape in my crag bag at all times, especially if I know I'm going to be working shoulder intensive problems close to my limit.

Hope you feel better soon!