Is it time to pay the piper and get surgery?
Looking for a little advice from anyone who’s been through something similar.
About 10 years ago, I had a gym accident that, in hindsight, I probably should have gotten checked out. I got a little too ambitious with a warm-up dumbbell bench press, lost control, and my arm got pulled across my chest and down toward the floor. My shoulder swelled up like a balloon, but I was 19-20 years old and convinced I was invincible, so I just rested, iced it for a couple of weeks, and eventually it felt “good enough.”
Fast forward to 2024. I took a nasty fall skiing (the end of my freestyle skiing career lol) and landed full force on the same arm while it was fully extended. The pain the next day was unbelievable—honestly some of the worst physical pain I can remember. I had daily pain for months and significant weakness. At one point I couldn’t lift a plate out of the dishwasher. I couldn’t exercise normally and couldn’t even run without aggravating it.
Insurance required PT before imaging, so I went through that process first. Eventually I got an MRI that showed:
Tearing of the superior, posterosuperior, posterior, and posteroinferior labrum with a large paralabral cyst.
The orthopedic surgeon told me the cyst was one of the largest he’d seen and that it was causing mass effect on the suprascapular nerve. I had the cyst removed and received a steroid injection, which helped quite a bit for a while. He also mentioned that while the labrum was clearly torn, some people live with labral tears indefinitely and never require surgery.
Fast forward to today, and I’m still dealing with daily pain.
I haven’t been able to properly train chest or shoulders since the ski injury. My sleep is disrupted. I’ll get sudden jolts of pain doing random everyday things -- closing a car door, reaching behind me, walking down stairs, grabbing something off a shelf, etc. On the flip side, I can still golf, stay active, and work around the injury in the gym. I still do my PT exercises/stretching for about 10 minutes a day, but I don’t feel like I’m making meaningful progress. Super limited ROM, clicking/grinding feeling, etc.
I recently moved and just got established with a new shoulder specialist. I’m seeing them next week.
For anyone who’s dealt with a similar labrum injury:
- Did you ultimately choose surgery?
- Was it worth it?
- How was the recovery?
- Did you get back to lifting and sports?
- Any regrets either way?
I’m only 30, and while I don’t love the idea of being out of commission for 4 to 6+ months, it also doesn’t seem realistic to live with daily pain forever. I’ve never had surgery before and, like everyone else, I’ve heard plenty of stories about people ending up worse afterward.
Just looking for perspective from people who’ve been down this road. Thanks in advance.