I am officially 12 weeks post surgery today. I had my follow up with my surgeon this morning. This is the first appointment I've had with him since my shoulder repairs. PLURAL: REPAIRS. Because I hadn't seen him since the actual day of surgery, I wasn't aware of all things that had been done to my shoulder. I had a general idea, but I didn't know what half of it meant. Today he pulled up my x-rays and did some much needed explaining, 90% of which I still didn't understand but...
My shoulder was in worse shape than we thought. He said for a standard labral repair, recovery time is about 4 months from the date of surgery, meaning patients can generally begin doing normal sports stuff (in my case, crossfit). If that were the case, I'd be almost done with physical therapy. But I didn't have a standard labral repair, I had a reverse "hagl" repair. I don't know why that's worse, but has something to do with where the tear actually is and what it tore from. Or something like that. I think.
Then of course I had a dislocated shoulder, so he had to put anchors in there to stabilize the rotator cuff. I have anchors in the front, the back, and on top. Eventually these will "disappear" and my body will naturally fill in those spots with bone. This is why my shoulder feels SO TIGHT. Because he tightened it. Makes sense.
Aside from that was the "divot" that had formed in my shoulder joint (He made a lot of golf references today--something of which I know nothing! HA). Because my shoulder had been dislocating repeatedly for so long (3 years), it had created a "pocket" in the joint. So not only was my shoulder dislocating, it would sometimes get caught in that "divot." So he had to fill in that divot with my own bone. I don't know where that extra "bone" came from; I'm not a doctor.
He ended up making 3 repairs to my shoulder in different locations. He said that kind of extensive shoulder repair doesn't happen very often. I'm so lucky! ???
The good news is that I am recovering as expected. He said he was not surprised that I still have a lot of pain and that I can't raise my arm on my own past eye level. He wasn't surprised that I feel like I'm not progressing very quickly. So I guess it's good that all that stuff is expected and I'm where I should be. He also said I should progress more in the next few weeks and if I don't, he'll want to put me under again and.... I didn't hear the rest of what he said because I was shaking my head no PLEASE NO.
The bad news (in my eyes...): I CAN'T DO CROSSFIT FOR ANOTHER 3 TO 6 MONTHS, possibly even more! When he told me that I felt like I was going to fall over. I THOUGHT I WAS ALMOST THERE! He said to work on core. I can run. I can do body-weight leg related stuff. BUT I CANNOT DO ANYTHING WITH MY SHOULDER other than what I do for physical therapy. He recommends I continue physical therapy for at least another 3 months.
So that's where I'm at right now. I am going to refrain from posting any more updates until I hit the 16 week mark. I'll continue to train for my half marathon, and I will continue going to the gym and doing ridiculous amounts of double unders and box jumps.
Recovery: I'M COMING FOR YOU.
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