Anyone had arthroscopic surgery on their shoulder? What's that like?

I’m seeing an orthopedist on Tuesday, and I’m expecting that arthroscopic surgery on one or both shoulders is in my near future (I’ve seen the analysis of the MRIs, and then read up some online). Tears in the labrum and in the bicep area, to be specific about what will probably be operated on.

So what is recovery like? The surgery is described as an outpatient procedure. Will my shoulder need to be immobilized? If so for how long?

I know I will know more on Tuesday, but I am trying to make plans for the next three or four months involving several projects, and anyway I just want to hear your experiences.

Thanks,
Roddy

Imma-nota-docta but…

I just had surgery on my right shoulder on March 19th. X-rays and MRI showed arthritis and bone spurs causing rotator cuff impedment (sp?). So I was scheduled for surgery to have this all cleaned up. When performing the surgery they also found some small tears on the rotator cuff and bicep tendon which they cleaned up.

For the surgery itself, it was three small incisions that didn’t even require stitches. They use some kind of tape to keep the incisions closed that came off a couple weeks later. There was a lot of discoloration and bruising, mostly on my bicep and chest. Now, almost 3 months after surgery, you can barely see the incision marks.

As for pain, I felt nothing for 24 hours. Literally not-a-single-thing on my arm or shoulder. Nerve blocks are wonderful things! As the nerve block wore off I started on pain medication. I had to keep my arm in a sling for the first 72 hours, after that it was not required. The pain level was significant but not overwhelming or what I’d consider “bad” - staying on top of the pain medication schedule helps a lot in this regard. I was back to normal day-to-day activities within a couple days.

The bruising took about 3 weeks to completely go away, part of that is probably my age (41). Seems recovery takes longer the older you get, who knew?!? I’m not entirely pain free at this point but that is mostly my fault as I started back up playing volleyball two weeks after surgery and I think I may have inflammed something. Of course I may have torn something as well. I’m scheduled for a 2nd MRI next week to check it out and make sure nothing got messed up when throwing down wicked spikes in v-ball.

I did not have to do physical therapy post-surgery, just at home exercises for mobility of the shoulder/arm. Due to my continued discomfort, I am now starting PT and TENs for pain management and we shall see was the above mentioned MRI shows.

Overall, it was a pretty easy process (so far) but then again I think I had one of the easier shoulder surgeries. My father just had major surgery for a blown rotator cuff and his recovery is much longer and more involved.

Edited to Add: I’m back to most activity without any problem. I’ve done outdoor landscaping projects including tearing up concrete, digging new flowerbeds, and planting a lot of perennials. I’m playing volleyball weekly now, after taking a few more weeks off after tweaking my shoulder after surgery. I am NOT lifting heavy weights or doing really intensive activity, more out of concern of a set-back than anything else.

MeanJoe

My husband had the anterior section of his labrum rebuilt on his left shoulder a couple of years ago.

It was outpatient and required one two inch incision. His shoulder was completely immobilized for about 4 weeks, then mostly immobilized for another 2 - 3 weeks. He went to PT three times a week for the first month, then twice a week for the second month, and then in to maintenance. He has about 95% of his mobility back now.

Not sure how different the surgeries are, but that’s all I’ve got! Good luck.

Thanks, EmAn. May I ask how his shoulder was immobilized, with a sling or some other way? If he had an office job that required typing and mousing on a computer, would he have been able to do that during this immobility period?
Roddy

Thanks MeanJoe, for the very thorough answer. I’m nearly 20 years older than you, so I guess I can look forward to even longer recovery time. I guess I’m just wondering if I’ll be able to do my desk job while this is going on, or if I will have to go on disability for a few weeks. Time will tell.
Roddy

My wife had surgery to repair a torn labrum 2 years ago. She spent about a week icing her shoulder every 2-4 hours, using some kind of cold water pumping device. Another week icing it a few times a day. She was out of work on disability for 3-4 weeks, and had limited duties (desk work only, no lifting) for another 2-3 months. It was pretty painful for the first 2 weeks as well, and she pretty much lived in a recliner - slept there at night too.

So for her - 2 weeks unable to do anything with the arm and frequent icing, another 2-3 months with limited use.

I had arthroscopic surgery for bone spurs when I was 50, about 10 years ago. I had a nerve block at the time of surgery, of course. After that wore off it was quite painful, but not at all unbearable, but any movement of the arm was all but impossible. I kept it iced for several days, and took Vicodin for about 2-3 days, after which I switched to aspirin.

The arm was quite sore for several weeks. I did some physical therapy, but didn’t need more than 4 or 5 visits, plus I also did some exercises at home. I was essentially healed in about 2 months, but my surgeon told me my recovery was atypically rapid.

My only problem has been that ever since then, certain movements have caused a bone-on-bone grating, or the feeling that something is being caught and sprung. It’s generally not painful, but it is uncomfortable, and keeps me from doing some exercises, like flies or push-ups (the same movements with no resistance cause no problem). The joint has been x-rayed, and everything looks normal; it just doesn’t work quite right.

I had surgery a year ago for a torn rotator cuff - this was a fairly large tear and very painful. It was supposed to anthroscopic, but, the surgeon found bone spurs, and had to make a fairly long incision. I’d say about 8 inches.

Six weeks with the shoulder immobilized. This was done by having my arm in a sling. I was off work on disability for all six weeks. Luckily, with my job this was with full pay!

Physical therapy exercises, done at home, several times a day for some four months afterwards.

It took just about a year, but now I am pain free -

Update:

Yay! No surgery! I got a cortizone shot in the really bad shoulder for the pain, and in a couple of days I start physical therapy. So I don’t have a torn labrum after all, nor a torn bicep tendon. What I have is “adhesive capsulitis” in both shoulders, but much worse in one of them. I guess this is just inflammation of some tissues around the shoulder. He also called it “frozen shoulder”.

Apparently, all that verbiage attached to the MRI analysis just describes conditions that just about everyone my age would have, and it can exist without even being noticed.

At least this is what the fancy orthopaedist says. I hope he’s right!

I also have to say that my chiropractor made basically the same diagnosis (inflammation) three months ago, but she wasn’t able to help it improve, or keep it from getting worse. It will be interesting to see what the physical therapy does that the chiropractor did not do.
Roddy

Glad to hear you had no surgery! But the minimally invasive surgery isn’t too bad.

Good luck on your healing!

Whoops, missed the follow up!

It was in a traditional sling that had a large pad (6") on the forearm so it held the arm away from the body at the correct healing angle. For the first few weeks he was very uncomfortable because he had to sleep in it. When he was able to remove it at night, he could only sleep certain ways to protect his arm.

He’s a firefighter who specializes in water rescue, so he was obviously not able to work. He was off for 6 weeks then went back on light duty. His light duty was essentially administrative for the dive team so he was using a keyboard and mouse daily. He never complained about it.

Here is a picture of the type of sling he had: Shoulder Sling

Aaaand, I should read the entire thread before I post! Glad you don’t need the surgery!