I’m scheduled for a shoulder arthroscopy on April 21 for (hopefully) relief from impingement syndrome. There is some arthritis and a bone spur involved. Said spur will be shaved down and any damaged tissue repaired or removed. There is no tear, so that should improve the recovery time, with any luck.
Has anybody here had this type of surgery? If so, did your condition improve later?
I did a few months ago. I had a tear as well as a bone spur and a lesion. I can answer more questions when I’m back on a computer. But here’s my thread starting right from the injury.
Ask me again after next Tuesday.
I had one done on my knee. My doc removed some bone spurs and smoothed out the rough edges of the bones.
Post-surgery, things hurt for a day or two, but the pain went away pretty quickly after that.
my grandpa had it done and he said that it hurt like hell almost as bad as the time he was shot in the chest during the war
Thanks! Good reading and info.
I’ve been fighting with this thing for about a year and it is only getting worse. I tried everything else and am sick of being fatigued and uncomfortable as well as somewhat debilitated.
My ortho surgeon did my elderly mom’s knee replacement in 2012 and she is doing fantastic, so I’m going to trust him with this one too.
Oooh, I want pics too! Do you just ask the surgeon to save them for you or what?
I didn’t ask for the pictures, I had an email on my phone when I woke up from surgery and was already looking at them when the PA walked in. Trying to copy and paste one of those temporary username/passwords to a website, one handed and still half under anesthesia wasn’t that easy.
As for the impingement, is in the AC joint? I know it’s too late for physical therapy, but I remember hearing that surgery for impingement only opens the AC joint by 1mm* and PT can widen it by 4 to 5mm. I’m probably off on the amounts, I just remember hearing that PT is the way to go on that. Before my surgery I did some PT and it did reduce the impingement symptoms. I’m sure you’ll be doing PT post surgery so maybe they’ll work on that as well. Even things like working on better posture can help with that.
The thing about impingement is that it’s self worsening. That area is inflamed so it rubs in things which makes the inflammation worse which makes everything rub more.
I had one in 2006 to investigate arthritis and flush out bits of decayed cartilage. Once I recovered the effects were good, I had much less pain walking and the sudden pain spikes went away. Unfortunately this didn’t last long and I had a knee replacement in 2009 (which is still going great incidentally).
Immediately post op it hurt like hell, especially when doing my physio. I was advised to start the physio pretty much straight away and did so. I think I supposed to do it four times a day and as soon as I could I increased the number of repetitions. I can’t remember exactly how long it took but it was a short number of weeks before I was back to better than normal.
So, short term pain for significant improvement and do your damn physio 
Eta I had an epidural and opted to have the screen showing what the camera could see placed where I could see it. I rather enjoyed it but that’s probably just me
Ask me after next Thursday.
You, too, huh?
Torn meniscus, but I made it through ski season and want to get it cleaned up and be pain free for hiking and trail running season.
Are you me?
Looks like your team won the Superbowl this year, and you might be getting excited about the Red Sox home opener. Unless you’re one of those folks “from away.” I’m a flatlander but I went to school in NH so we’re kinda similar. Not clones, or identical twins, but you could be my cousin’s hairdresser’s nephew by marriage. 
The recover plan sounds fairly quick (outpatient surgery, stitches out in 4 days, riding the bike in a week, elliptical in two weeks, running in three weeks, sports in four) so I might be able to get a late season trip up the MtW Auto Road for Memorial Day on the East Snowfields. 
Any late season ski plans for you?
No, but we did hike the Toll Road the weekend before my surgery.
So I had it done last Tuesday, and now (Sunday evening) I am reasonably mobile and largely pain-free without meds. I used my trekking pole as a cane for a few days, more as a backup for safety than as a prop. Took two days off of work (as planned), went in on Thursday, and took Friday off after overdoing it on Thursday.
We hope to get the canoe in the water in a month or so. I should be fully back in business by then, so we’ll start with some gentle hikes.
Skied today as well (closing day at Cannon). Knee is on ice right now, but it was worth it.
In 2006 I had a torn labrum repaired through shoulder arthroscopy. It went well, and I have almost 100% function. I’ve got four, ~1/3 inch scars - two in the front of my shoulder and two in the back.
It sounds like your procedure will be quite a bit different than mine. The post-surgery rehab I had to do was related to the fact that I had screws and sutures in my joint and less to do with the small incisions made for the arthroscope. I’m grateful that my shoulder was able to be fixed with arthroscopy vs. open surgery.
Here’s a discussion with a surgeon explaining some of the benefits of arthroscopy vs. open surgery.
OK, I had surgery this morning and walked out of the hospital without crutches. I’m on the couch now, but no pain clear headed. So far so good.
3 days post op. Still a lot of pain, fatigue. Got cd rom of surgery, 35 minutes long.
arthroscopy with debridement and bone spur smoothing.
Took the dressing off today. Very unattractive underneath. 
Still very tired, and the Norco gives me blurred vision sometimes.