Took bad fall shoulder dislocated.....

P

pullin-gs

1 kW
Joined
Jul 31, 2009
Messages
395
The last time I went down over 2 years ago was because of hit/run incident with truck....this time it was totally my own stupid fault.

I have a question about recovery times for others who have experienced this type of dislocation injury.

I flipped trike during right hand turn and went into 6-inch concrete separator between lanes on residential road..... reached out w/left arm to brace for fall and messed up shoulder, broke tooth, and lots of nice red road rash.

Shoulder partially dislocated (humerus ball slid half-way down to lower lip of socket and got stuck there....did not go all way down under the shoulder joint socket lip).

I was able to work it back into position within 10 seconds of getting up.

I went to Urgent Care for x-ray and meds.

Very lucky in that there is no symptoms/pain to suggest ligament damage or broken or compression fractures.

Painful inside joint when range of motion is 50% (I will not try anything more) of range of motion.

No pain 12 hours post-injury when arm rests in sling.

No pain when I press in against exterior soft tissue (ligaments, tendons, muscle) surrounding shoulder joint.

What kind of timeline am I looking at to get back to old self of biking 100 miles week and weight routine?

When I hyperextended elbow and grade-2 torn ligaments (no surgery!), split cartilage in joint, and had hinge compression fracture it took me over a year to get good stability and 80% strength back....3 years to point I feel fully healed.

For this shoulder injury having nothing broken or torn I am hoping that recovery should be much quicker? A week or two?? Risk of recurrence?
Has anyone else had a subluxated dislocation with no major damage?
 
Most time when you have a subluxation compared to a complete dislocation, you actually stretch the ligaments worse. So when the ball of the the joint/humerus is stuck on the edge of the socket, it’s actually stretching the ligaments worse because with a full dislocation, there’s less tension on the ligaments.
As far as recovery, it could take several months or longer to fully recovery depending on age, how much active rehab is being done, rest, etc.
Need to be icing every 30 minutes. So 20 minutes on and 30 minutes off until all of the inflammation is gone. Some doctors will suggest the first 48 hours which is nonsense and then they will suggest to add heat, which makes the inflammation worst if the swelling is not removed completely. Once the inflammation is removed, then heat therapy helps by increasing blood flow which brings healing, although there’s no actual blood flow in the joint, hence why joint injuries take so long to heal.

I’m no a MD, nor is this medical advice. Research BPC-157 peptide. This peptide is known to recover ligament damage. Typically these peptides are injected subcutaneously, but many users report greater result from injecting directly into the joint. Sourcing can be sketch as a lot of these peptides are synthesized in China and repackaged through American companies. There are American companies/compounding pharmacies that actually Synthesize their own peptides with purity higher than 99%
If you ask your doctor about peptides, they typically will look dumbfounded. They don’t learn anything about this in medical school.

I’ve personally dislocated and subluxed both shoulders. The first time I subluxed a shoulder was in a football game, and I had to sit out half the season as it took forever for the ligaments to recover.
There are a few basic exercises you can do for rehab, once the initial inflammation goes down and you’re able to perform without too much pain. The typical timeframe is 2 to 4 weeks before you start rehab. If you start rehab too soon, you cause more damage, if you start rehab too late, this increases the recovery time.
 
Last edited:
Also, you may need a MRI as a x-ray shows nothing but bone and cannot show ligament damage. If you have a torn rotator cuff, you would need surgery. It’s kind of hard to diagnose a ligament tear when you have so much inflammation from the initial injury so a MRI is typically the best method for diagnosing whether there’s a rotator cuff tear or not.

 
I dislocated both shoulders in a motorcycle accident. One popped right back in, the other was messed up, but went back in when I picked up my bike and rolled it to the side of the freeway. A lot of pain and adrenalin at the time. After going to the ER, I had my arm in one of those slings that velcros your forearm to your side to keep it from moving for about 1 1/2 weeks, then went to a regular sling. At that point I could drive, and learned to work the stick shift with my left hand. After 2 weeks I could drive myself to physical therapy to get my range of motion back, but stopped once I could extend my arm over my head, probably 6 weeks later.

I couldn't throw a ball for about a year. I could never get back to shooting a basketball, because my brain got trained by the slight twinge of pain I'd have, thinking I'd throw it out of place, and after that my brain didn't want to let my arms do the right motion, trying to avoid the pain that wasn't even there anymore.
The rotator cuff exercises are good. The ligaments will never be the same since they get permanently stretched, but the exercises strengthen the small muscles around the joint which try to do the job of keeping the socket in place when the ligaments can't.
 
Thanks for the feedback all.
It looks like I'll leave the drop-bar bike hanging on the wall for at least a month. Etrike and Ebike at lease a month and will be reassessing how/where I ride.
Fortunately I already have a nice routine figured out for maintaining fitness through cold months using stationary bike. :) Will hopefully get started with that in about a week?
 
I had this exact type of injury in 2011.
Med world suggested surgeries etc but their case didn't add up so i didn't do it.
Shoulder would frequently misalign early on..

My shoulder was so bad i couldn't drive even a car for almost a year.

I did physical therapy for my legs and noticed that biking helped sort of... regenerate them. Over some years, 10 mins of light biking 5 days a week *really* helped my knees and got them moving again.
So having a gym membership already, i decided to go for the arm bike.

10 mins of arm bike at a light intensity for 4 years basically has my shoulder healed up.
Another note, i've been taking collagen for 8 years so this may be part of my recovery.

Today in 2023, no shoulder problems.
 
Last edited:
Well at least you here to have another fall as you are still alive and moving. Since I'm 60 I have broken my collar bone three different times and broken a back rib. An e-bike has a lot of weight on bicycle tires even good ones. Had a tube failure when braking to avoid a car and the valve stem gave lose on a slime tube and lubricated the tire to spin on a locked wheel by brakes. It's the healing time when getting old with a young heart.
 
Someone that would know how the heal that kind of injury really fast, and not charge very much, would be a Chinese Dr of Dit Da. I know a good one in Dallas, but they're hard to find anywhere except the left and right coast. You might be able to get a lead by contacting local Kung Fu schools.
 
X-ray came back positive for "Acute nondisplaced fracture of greater tuberosity of the humerus".
This explains type/cause/intensity of pain I have.
Will see orthopedic surgeon in one week. He will probably x-ray again and prescribe MRI also.
Two hour drive, so hoping follow-up consult can be done remotely.
I'll know much more after MRI reading. I do not expect surgery will be needed.
Currently only doing very conservative passive "arm swinging" routine.
Keeping arm in sling.
Stationary bike workout works well for me (90 minutes "zone-2" every other day). All anaerobic training is on hold for next few months.
 
I can say from my own experience with multiple dislocations: do the prescribed physio like you brush your teeth, every day, every exercise, every repetition for a loong time. It gets so boring after the point when you start to be halfway functional again but do it anyway!

I didn’t take care of my injuries, had multiple dislocations which i didn’t fix and now I can still partly dislocate my sholder just from opening a door if i don’t remember to couple the muscles before. Shoulders will never be what they were.

I’m not looking forward to getting older because my body will probably make me pay for it.
 
Last edited:
Oh if we're talking about a fracture then my advice is no good here - except for after the surgery.

Good luck!
 
Visited with Orthopedic Surgeon shoulder specialist 3-weeks after accident.
This is a 12-week healing process just to get to point I can start resistance training of atrophied upper body.
Rehab going well, with passive range-of-motion shoulder exercises. No pain at all except if I lift arm from side (accidently reach up for stuff).
I see Dr again at again in 9 days (6 weeks after injury).
Hoping bone healing is progressing well and I get OK to start doing active/resistance rehab.
I took my first short bike ride last week.
Putting in 3 stationary bike workouts a week......I dial in 205-220 watts sustained resistance (HR between 120 and 125) and ride for 1.5 hours.
 
pullin-gs said:
Visited with Orthopedic Surgeon shoulder specialist 3-weeks after accident.
This is a 12-week healing process just to get to point I can start resistance training of atrophied upper body.
Rehab going well, with passive range-of-motion shoulder exercises. No pain at all except if I lift arm from side (accidently reach up for stuff).
I see Dr again at again in 9 days (6 weeks after injury).
Hoping bone healing is progressing well and I get OK to start doing active/resistance rehab.
I took my first short bike ride last week.
Putting in 3 stationary bike workouts a week......I dial in 205-220 watts sustained resistance (HR between 120 and 125) and ride for 1.5 hours.
Click to expand...
Glad it's going well. Hopefully you have the same rehab folks when you go in. I recall that I had a different person almost every time, ranging from the ones that barely pushed you to the ones where torture was their middle name. I like the latter since they seemed to produce more measurable results. Try not to accidentally reach for stuff. That rewired how I'd do things so even after I was healed, I avoided those motions when I didn't need to. Hard to unlearn what you don't consciously learn.
 
pullin-gs said:
Visited with Orthopedic Surgeon shoulder specialist 3-weeks after accident.
This is a 12-week healing process just to get to point I can start resistance training of atrophied upper body.
Rehab going well, with passive range-of-motion shoulder exercises. No pain at all except if I lift arm from side (accidently reach up for stuff).
I see Dr again at again in 9 days (6 weeks after injury).
Hoping bone healing is progressing well and I get OK to start doing active/resistance rehab.
I took my first short bike ride last week.
Putting in 3 stationary bike workouts a week......I dial in 205-220 watts sustained resistance (HR between 120 and 125) and ride for 1.5 hours.
Click to expand...
How’s the shoulder coming? I’m just seeing this, haven’t looked in the biker bar section of the form in a while. I hope you’re still recovering well! What’s your age? Just curious as far as the healing process.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top