The lip of a wave threw out hitting the back of my left shoulder,
dislocated it instantly and also caused a small fracture to the head of the humerus.
I was wondering if anyone has suffered a similar injury in the surf…
Juan
In the surf? No. In front of a tri-axle Peterbilt? Yes.
Wave no, round house kick yes.
Ouch… Not even close, but I smashed my rotary cuff real bad on an indo board about 2 yrs ago, put my right hand straigth out to try and save my head on a see your feet pararell to the wall wipeout and landed on the palm of my hand with my arm straight… After that, I got into mat surfing, you can do that without using your shoulders much…
Hi, had pretty much the same injury from falling off a building. Broke the top of my humerous off and dislocated left shoulder, painful aye?!
Had it relocated and 4 months rehab had me back in the water , think surfing has really been beneficial for rehabilitating it… I reckon its back to 95% now still not totally normal but works fine:)
I didnt need surgery so pretty lucky, was told if your over 18yo they try to avoid surgery as the muscle structure is pretty good at relocating etc, and i think being surfers our shoulders are pretty sturdy anyhow!
Anyway all the best with the recovery, hope its a speedy one
Thanks to all of you for your replies. I will be having an MRI scan today to determine the damage.
Hopefully I will not need surgery and if all is good I can start physiotherapy rehab soon. I plan to recover with better fitness than before.
I will continue to visit my cranial osteopath but I was wondering if you had positive experiences with rehab, which therapies or exercises did you find most beneficial?
Hi, I had it relocated straight away at hospital and was told to start moving fingers etc straight away, the break slowed the rehab down as I had to wait 6 weeks for the bone to knit before really starting rehab.
I found that just doing all the exercises the physio prescribed and just constantly stretching and pushing the shoulder really got it moving again.
I did a combination of Gym work/ strength building which included weights/ cables etc, then extensive work in the pool. The pool was really beneficial, warm water and using a variety of rubber cords for strength and stretching. The Pool sessoin always followed a hard session in the gym so it really helped to relax and stretch the shoulder completely. There is no real magic fix but I was motivated to get back in the water so that helped and I just went to gym 3-4 times per week and did all the extra stuff at home.
I still get occasional pain in the shoulder when i have a couple of hard surfing sessions in a row or lots of lifting at work etc but there are stretches that the physio should show you to help with that for after your main rehab.
If you do all that like you say you will recover with better fitness, key for me was just getting straight back out in the water as soon as I could and paddling, paddling paddling:) book yourself a surf trip or mission be it 3 months away or 6 and work towards being right in time! worked for me to motivate me as Id never done the gym thing before but actually quite enjoyed it.
all the best