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Bicep Tenodesis Recovery?
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8 days post op. no pain. no pain meds taken. typing 1 handed so not much to say. they want me in the sling for 2 more weeks and that sucks, but I understand my surgeon is cautious. I will type more up later on both my old SLAP repair experience (10 years ago) and this tenodesis for others, as the responses above were very helpful to me. |
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Ronnie- Glad to hear you are recovering nicely so far. Keep us updated. |
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I had a bicep tenodesis repair, along with subacromonial decompression and debridement on a partial labrum team. in early May. Only anchor was for the bicep tenodesis. For the record, I am a 49 y/o female. I was out of my sling very quickly, and moved through the first month recovering a decent range of motion rather quickly. But at month 2, it became apparent that I was starting to suffer from adhesive capsulitis (otherwise known as "frozen shoulder.") I can move by arm up to a certain point, but then the humerous simply gets stuck in the shoulder capsule and any further rotation requires cheating with the entire shoulder moving up. Very little pain. Just no true range of motion. Currently I'm 3 months post surgery and definitely cannot climb. My PT can literally haul on it, and it simply goes no where. The ortho surgeon has injected a cortisone shot directly in the capsule to hopefully help and believes that it will simply take "longer than expected". I am beyond frustrated. Has anyone else suffered from this? And did you come through it with full range of motion and strength at the end of the year? |
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Good to read these. I had a full rotator cuff rotorooter surgery in Jan of this year. Bone spur grinding, anchors, etc. That has healed fairly well, but I am still having problems with the bicep tendon, and am scheduled for a bicep tenodesis on the same arm next week. Dreading the sling again, and am hoping that this isn't as mentally taxing as the last one. Being bound in the sling was pretty grim. No real questions, just wondering if there are any other suckers who had to do one after the other? If so, how do they compare? I suppose it is moot, as I am committed at this point. Usually they are all done at once.... Thanks in advance. |
Kim Chrislip wrote: My bf is having the same problem. He is over 3 months post op. How are you doing? |
Jayjay Piston wrote: A bit better, but nowhere near close to normal range of motion. I am 6 months post-op, and it is still 'frozen'. But I continue to push on my PT, do as much of the normal activities as I can. Some good days where it feels like it is sitting in socket correctly, and other days it feels like it is stuck a 1/4" out of socket. I am doing one more round of injection of cortisone and lidocaine, followed by manual manipulation later this week. We'll see if that pushes me over the last of it. I did get out and climb about a month ago. Nothing better than looking for locations with nothing but 5.6 and 5.7s. One full day of climbing resulted in 3 weeks of being unable to even dress myself after due to the shoulder capsule swelling. So...not quite there. The hardest part is taking it on faith when the ortho says it will get better. Just will take a full year. All about patience and looking for the little improvements to keep you going. |
Kim Chrislip wrote: He had the shoulder manipulation under anesthesia. That day everything was loose it was amazing. Woke up the next day a bit stiffer. It has stiffened up since then and the manipulation was 3 weeks ago. He is way looser though but has a lot of shoulder pain still. It’s just been a nightmare. Thanks for sharing your experience! |
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Hello, I had bicep tenodesis done 6 weeks ago, and first 4-5 weeks were great. I had almost no pain and PT thinks I'm recovering well. However all of the sudden, for last week, it hurts every night - I wake up at 4 am and it feels very sore plus sort of "tiny electric shock" kind of a pain. I'm not aware of doing anything to aggrevate it - however I went for a long walk (not hike, just 20miles walk) I wonder if this could cause it (I was in a sling, and had no pain during the activity). Anyone experienced something similar? |
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Inez, While recovering from my biceps tenodesis I definitely had "electric shock" kind of pain but it wasn't tiny (it was SHARP!) and it was only an occasional jolt. If it's happening a lot, that sounds like something to ask the ortho or PT about?! In any case I definitely found recovery from the biceps tenodesis to be non-monotonic (up, down, up again), unfortunately. So that definitely happens. If you're super worried that you did something on the hike that might have been intense enough to hurt the new anchor, hopefully your ortho or PT can lay those fears to rest!! |
Amy Jordan wrote: I'm pain (somehow) free now! After that long hike I was in pain, and few days later I went into mountains (Lake Tahoe - 6,224′) and pain continued. Once driving back this Sunday and decreasing altitude I was literally feeling pain and swelling go away - and the same night I had a first night in a while that I didn't wake up with pain. I managed yesterday somehow (without the sling) to trigger super strong, sharp, but temporary pain (it lasted ~5 minutes and literally made me scream, maybe now I know what giving birth feels like). |
Inez K wrote: I’m guessing that you have scar tissue/adhesions developing, and something was pressing on the nerve. I had a very similar experience, though later in the recovery time. I was having general soreness/aching, and some radiating nerve pain. Then I did for thing totally innocuous, like raiding my arm, which I was totally allowed to do at that point, without any restrictions... and all of a sudden there was severe sharp pain. I thought, shit, I may have ruined everything, somehow! But I don’t even know what I did! Oh, shit! Except, when the pain subsided, the achiness was gone, too, and the shoulder felt so much better. My PT explained it away as some scar adhesion tearing away. I had no problems after that. |
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I'm a 35 year old male. I've been struggling with chronic shoulder pain (biceps tendonitis) on and off for 7 years. The last 2-3 years the pain was constant with no real relief from PT, Cortisone injections, & PRP injections. I was recommended to get a biceps tenodesis. I am now 3 months post procedure and the pain is worse than it was before the surgery. Anyone else receive biceps tenodesis for tendonitis? Insight on recovery timeline? Feeling a bit discouraged that I made the wrong decision in electing to get this surgery + surgeon claimed I would be "fully recovered" by month 3 which is clearly not where I am at. |
Andy K wrote: Hi Andy, I'm sorry to hear that your recovery is not going well. I had the same surgery done in February of 2021, and was also promised to be recovered within 2-3 months. However it actually took closer to a year. Our cases might not be exactly the same, but mentally wise I think I was in the same place as you are now and luckily I recovered, just way later than anticipated. Stay healthy and strong! |
Andy K wrote: I feel you on this one man. I was basically your age as well when I got my surgery and as mentioned up thread, I did not seem to recover as quickly as advertised. I think for me, I did not feel “fully” better for 11 months. I had a lot of similar thoughts and frustration, but I eventually returned to generally full strength and motion. I am pretty in awe and envious at some of the guys on here that bounced back so quickly, tbh. It’s about as cliche advice as one can get, but hang in there, if the surgeon was good and the operation was performed correctly, you will turn that corner. |
Lee Chandler wrote: Well this is more comforting than you can imagine. Thank you. I was essentially told that since I was receiving a biceps tenodesis without any additional repairs to my rotator cuff that my recovery would be FASTER. So when reading about all of these genetically superior people to me being back at climbing in under 6 months I got sad haha. Time to practice one of the hardest virtues in life...patience! |
Andy K wrote: Tendon to bone healing takes 4 months. Absolutely no less. So don't climb on it until after this time. It will take another 2 or so months to build your strength back up. Was there any tendonitis in the shoulder around the rotator cuffs? Bursitis? Anything? Where is your pain now? |
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Hey Andy, Long story short, I (36, M)tore my subscab tendon off the bone (3.1 cm full thickness tear) and subluxation of the bicep tendon back in July (decked 20 feet after a qd unclipped itself from the wall. Followed that up 2 weeks later by falling off my bike like the Gumby i am). After numerous months of Pt and rehab with little results, I finally got insurance to approve an MRI. I had open shoulder surgery 10’days ago and here is how I’ve been doing so far : day of surgery was wild. Don’t remember much and pain was non existent since they had me under nerve block. The day after surgery was the worst. The nerve block wore off and I was taking pain meds every four-six hours but I don’t do well on them so spent much of the day yaking. Reduced pain meds to 3 aspirin and 1 pm Tylenol, 2 days post op and for the first week. For the last 3 days I have been doing 1 200 mg aspirin and 1 Tylenol pm. The pain now feels more like a stiffness / soreness. I’ve been to Pt once so far and they did some assisted ROM exercises. Plan on doing PT twice a week going forward. I’m wearing the sling occasionally now once my shoulder lets me know that it’s “tired.” I started walking (in my sling) about 5 miles everyday, two days post op. After my first Pt sesh which was 4 days ago, I’ve been doing stationary bike and stair master at the gym for an hour each day. I was also cleared to do any leg and core workouts except for squats and using cable machines I can do 1 side back, bicep, chest, tricep shoulder workouts. So far the experience has been a lot better than I expected. I’ve been able to sleep 6.5-8 hours pretty consistently and nutrition / diet is pretty normal as well. I have good and bad days emotionally and physically but there have been more good than bad so far. Let me know if you opt in for surgery and need a recovery buddy! Cheers, Paawan |
Ronnie Miller wrote: The surgery plan was orthoscopic discovery + debridement w/ potential biceps tenodesis if necessary. Out of surgery, i was told they found no tears or issues with the rotator cuff but lots of bicep tendon inflammation so they performed the tenodesis. Pain no is primarily the exact spot that hurt before the surgery on the front top of the shoulder. |
Andy K wrote: I still get some soreness where the bicep is now attached, but not too bad. I bet the pain will slowly subside. As long as there isn't any major issues in the glenohumeral joint you should slowly heal. |
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Andy, I've had a biceps tenodesis on both shoulders now. Same surgeon, about six years apart (ages 33 and 39). Both times I remember being told that the healing time is pretty short (compared to other shoulder surgeries), like 3 months. But the first time it took more like 8 months before I could touch rock on a very easy route again--no way in hell I could have climbed much before that. I remember feeling really discouraged because of what I had been expecting for the recovery timeline. Second biceps tenodesis on the other side, I felt ready to climb easy (and did) by 3 months!! It was striking how different they were despite being the same (very competent, I think) surgeon. Both shoulders healed up nicely, despite one taking way longer. Best of luck in your recovery. |
