I haven't yet been to the orthopedist. From what I've seen online, there are a lot of folks who don't get the surgery and some mixed reviews on it. I found several guys on an English MTB forum and also on a triathalon forum (these guys likely do a lot more paddling than I do) who hadn't gone forward with it, which was surprising considering their healthcare system over there. but I'm leaning towards getting it done, even though I'm not insured...

Was wondering if anybody out there has been through it?

What surgery, if any, they had done?

Or if they didn't have surgery, how's it impacted their paddling? being able to lift heavy stuff or weight lift?

Any other thoughts on your experience?

This was one of the most excruciating things I've ever experienced...

It really stretched out the last bits of tightness in my chest left over from my weight lifting days that I hadn't been able to get rid of. But then, every time I sneeze or cough, I get like a little charley horse in those loose spots.

Now, I feel like parts of my back are tightening up to compensate for the looseness in the joint, which es no bueno...

Wondering about the joint rubbing while paddling, not to mention doing other things over the next (handfull?) of decades...

Thanks for your replies.


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There's no surf on Wall Street!
One man's loss is another man's gold...Operating principal behind Wall Street, and sadly, to a large extent, America

I'm not supposed to lift more than 15 lbs. above my head. They are not joking. I haven't had the surgery on either of my shoulders that both need it. jerking your arm from the car door frame when someone hits the window up button when you don't expect it is enough to pop it. Severe pain on that one. Paddling is not bad, but I can't surf decent waves (that involves a decent amount of paddling) for more than a couple of hours a day.

How did you separate both of them?

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There's no surf on Wall Street!
One man's loss is another man's gold...Operating principal behind Wall Street, and sadly, to a large extent, America

I had a Grade 3 a.c. separation in February. After speaking to an orthopedic doc and reading online opinions decided not to have surgery. The back tightening you have is normal. Get a good sling and support your shoulder as much as possible. It's a long slow recovery ahead.

I was in a sling for almost 6 weeks. Then had a lot of grinding and popping in the shoulder when I started moving it again but it seems to have gotten a lot better. Swimming/paddling helped a lot in the rehab, duck diving is still difficult. My range of motion is back to almost 100% but my strength is only about 75% and I have a pretty big "bump".

I'm back to doing almost everything I did before. Surf, SUP, bike, ultimate frisbee... The only thing I haven't tried is hitting a golf ball. Good luck on which ever option you decide. It's a terrible injury for anyone that's active.

My rugby days are to blame for mine. It was grade three, doc said I could wait and see how well it worked after six weeks. The wait wouldn't affect the possible surgery. I had full range of motion afterward, but a gnarly clavicle sticking up out off my shoulder. Never had the surgery, doc said he could make it look better, but he couldn't make it work any better. It's ugly, but glad I skipped the surgery.

I had a grade 2 seperation. Didn't have surgery. Did rehab for like 3 months. Actually came back stronger. It's still prone to injury and I've seperated it once more, but I just do the exercises I learned in rehab and it mostly doesn't bother me, though I can't sleep on that side anymore.

 

Good luck in your recovery.

I've never separated my AC joint, but I had AC surgery (AcromioClavicular Decompression) on my right shoulder to remove a bone spur and clean out some adhesions.

I've had partial dislocations of both shoulders long ago: one from water skiing and one from snow skiing. There was some scar-like tissue on the right labrum that was also getting in the way.

My two pieces of info on this are:

1) See a good ortho doc / shoulder specialist, and see if immediate physical therapy (probably with lots of ice and anti-inflammatories) will help you.

2) See if you can get an MRI and an X-ray. University Center Imaging in Melbourne will do an MRI on self-pay for $200 without contrast, $350 with. The X-ray is probably about $50 on self-pay.

Background:

The recent injury to my shoulder that put me over the edge happened while doing some rotator cuff exercises in the pool. Apparently I ran a muscle over the bone spur and got a partial tear. But I could never get the inflammation or pain to go away.

The first problem was that I tried resting it on my own, but kept reinjuring it doing minor, piddly stuff. In the end, it was almost 3-months of non-use before I sought treatment.

My GP said Frozen Shoulder Syndrome based on the exam, and later arthritis based on the MRI. No surprise it was frozen, because I basically didn't use it for 3 months!

The GP and my insurance both recommended Physical Therapy. I said screw that because it had been messed up for so long, and I didn't want to put it at further risk w/o getting diagnosed by a specialist first.

In hindsight, both the wait and declining PT were bad decisions. When I did take the MRI to a shoulder specialist, he saw the partial muscle tear, and ordered the extra X-ray which helped him find the bone spurs. But from that point, it was another 6 week wait to get surgery, so my shoulder basically went 4-5 months with no real exercise.

With his arthroscopic camera, the surgeon confirmed no signs of arthritis, and everything else clear.

The 4-5 month period with no exercise contributed to extreme muscle weakness, which made the post-surgery PT and recovery substantially more difficult.

You can go to a PT w/o an Rx for up to 30 days, and they are pretty good about keeping you moving, keeping you strong, keeping you iced, and recognizing what they are not able to fix.

It would be better if you saw a doc first, then went to PT. If your doc is a GP, then take his diagnosis with a grain of salt while you do some basic "maintenance" PT and try to get referred for an appointment with a shoulder specialist.

I also have a bone spur on the left shoulder which has been problematic in the past, but not debilitating yet. I'm weighing the possibility of a preventative surgery to clean that side out while everything else is still healthy, and keeping the left shoulder exercised in hopes that better muscle definition will prevent injury and avoid the need for surgery, or at least give me a better chance for recovery if I do have the surgery.

Oh yeah, I also had lots of upper back pain and spasms from overcompensating for the bad shoulder after surgery, but things are a good bit better now. One PT noticed neck alignment issues, and working on those helped relieve some of the back pain.

So think twice about the surgery, but definitely see a real doc, get diagnosed, and give some PT a chance.

Good luck!

mine is a rheumatic condition where the bones in a few of my heavy use joints are closing due to calcium growth. Not spurs, not pulled tendons nor ripped muscles yet. Just a constriction of the ACJ that limits mobility and when the surrounding muscles are overworked, they swell and compound the condition due to their inflammation in that joint. I've been told I Just need to have a three hole surgery and a "dremel" tool to ease my pain. Only issue for me is my mother has full blown RA, and has had over three dozen surgeries to "fix" things until she called it quits a dozen years ago. I'm holding off for as long as I can.

If you are going to have surgery, just make sure orthopedic surgeon

uses Arthrex products( located in Naples )... We do a bunch of these 

up here in Jax (Heekin Orthopedics)...solid products, reps, etc...

i not saying to run to surgery, just don't fear it.

So the doc said that it's a borderline case. The consensus is that it's not necessary, and that the risks of complications ( or unsatisfactory results make it unwise to do at this point). He said to give it time and see if it bothers me. Here's what it looks like for those that are wondering. Type 3 is all the lugs amend that don't go to the arm. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_joint


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There's no surf on Wall Street!
One man's loss is another man's gold...Operating principal behind Wall Street, and sadly, to a large extent, America

I had a grade 3 separation, looked like i had a coat hanger in my shoulder. I opted for surgery just because of how bad it looked. They took ligaments out of my leg to put in the shoulder, the pain after the operation was 10 times worse than when i separated it. And after about 2 weeks of it looking normal, the clavical raised up again, not as bad as before the operation, but it is still not normal. This was also 12 years ago, so there might be some advancements in the surgery now. It still bothers me every once in a while, but as far as heavy lifting over my head, i dont have a problem, and i dont have a problem paddling. You should do a lot of shoulder exercises after giving it time to rest. It will take time, but you will eventually be able to use it pretty much normally.

Not quite on topic (not a surfing injury), but good for a laugh.  Men's Health Center at the New Yorker.  

My own clavicle is fine, but I did have trapezius muscle spasms last fall from a neck injury.  Couldn't  raise my left arm past horizontal, except by lifting it with the other arm, or by grabbing onto something and using the left hand to creep up a branch, or edge of a door, or whatever.  Felt odd.  Felt really good when it healed, as expected.

Joe,

Good suggestions about the PT. My doc basically said to do what ever didn't cause pain. I didn't even think of that. Even though I'm not surfing and really haven't been much the last few seasons, Having my body out of alignment is driving me nuts... my Tensegrity is all out of whack... Of course, the over tightening in areas sucks, but I don't really see that going away... I'm thinking of applying for a job with insurance. Just lucked into finding an opportunity that I'm qualified for that pays surprisingly better than I'd seen in the past...

-------------------------
There's no surf on Wall Street!
One man's loss is another man's gold...Operating principal behind Wall Street, and sadly, to a large extent, America