sperated shoulder

[jmiro 55]

I have a moderate tear havent went to a specialist. Anyone have expeirence and when should i expect to play again?

[flymonty3 0]

If you dont let it heal 100% and do physical therapy I can almost promise you it will never heal right and you will loose range of motion, srength, get arthritis, and seperate it again numerous times in the future.

I got hit from behind and seperated my left shoulder, grade 2 seperation and was out 2 weeks and played again at about 80% (while doing rehab 5 days a week with our school's trainer, getting electro stim. and icing for that time.) Seperated it twice the rest of that season and several times since then.

Long story short, I have to have my shoulder rebuilt because I can't lift it up hardly to a 90 degree angle, and I hear that surgery is one of the most painful you can have done. Go to a specialist also because all the urgent care dr. did was give me lots of pain pills and say I had a seperated shoulder, which was pretty damn obvious. i have a permanent 1, 1.5" "step" from my collar bone to my shoulder where the joint is loose now also. Definitly fix it...

[gman 0]

I had a minor separation in high school. I ran into a wall and stopped myself with my left hand and arm extended out in front of my body and over the height of my head. The joint separated back and down. The humerus popped back in when I lowered my arm. Anyway, it still hanuts me 20 years later and has never gotten 100%. It affects how I sleep, how I can carry stuff and what activities I can do. I would recommend a very conservative and thorough approach to recovery. Don't cut any corners on it.

[shute 4]

i seperated mine almost 5 years ago and i have the same thing flymonty has which is a "step" between my collar bone and shoulder. screwed it up by falling side ways while cutting in and protecting the puck. so i fell on the side of my shoulder while my arms were in pointing forward. for me it was game over for about 3-4 months and it took a few years before i was feeling 100%. i'm sure it could of been sooner but i didn't do any rehab and only went to the doctor once when i first injuryed it.

[indaslot 0]

My son separated his shoulder when he was hit form behind in a Bantam AA tryout (Grade 2).He began rehab within 4 days.He had a few private lessons on the ice (I should mention that he had a broken foot from June-august and had not skated),then practiced with a non-contact midget league a few times and was good to go for the begining of the season.I would saw he was off the ice about 3 weeks and out of contact for about 5,but used the spinning bike and elliptical trainer during that time. Aside from the step deformity, he has had no further pain or complications.I attribute this to his age at that time (13) and his commitment to rehab.

[NTKT10 0]

I seperated my shoulder in January of my senior year of HS 6 years ago. I was going hard into the corner on the forecheck and was hit from behind: the front of my right shoulder hit flush with the boards. I was unable to lift my arm comfortably above shoulder level for a few weeks without slight pain. I missed 1 shift and continued to practice and play regularly. I used a ton of extra strength icy-hot before getting on the ice to loosen my shoulder up. I shoot left-handed, so this happened to my top hand, which is somewhat of a blessing, because there is much less motion required from the top shoulder.

Even when it was painful I forced myself to stretch my shoulder to loosen it up. Once the pain was gone I worked on improving my range of motion with light weights and then gradually built strength back up in my shoulder. By the time spring rolled around I was playing baseball and pitching without any problems. My strength is better than before the original injury and range of motion has not been impaired.

I guess what I'm trying to say is it's different for everybody. Since you went to a specialist you should carefully consider what he had to say. I thought about going to see a doctor, but gave myself a couple days to see if it would improve on its own. My shoulder was tight, but wasn't painful or throbbing when I held my arm just away from my side after the first day or two. As long as I wasn't too hard on my shoulder while I played it was fine: if I had felt more than a slight twinge of pain here or there I would have gone to a doctor without hesitation.

[Abbieshockey20 1]

2 years ago I seperated mine at hockey got hit late, a few feet away from the boards and went in shoulder first (no penalty). It was at a tournament, I missed the rest of the tournament, missed practice on Tuesday but was back for our next game on Friday and I haven't had any problems with mine.

[Medic 0]

I had a partial separation on Apr 16/07. I was cutting away towards the boards from a defender on a one-on-one and he shoved me from behind. I went in head/shoulder first, and heard a crack. I thought my collar bone was broken, but it turned out to be a separated shoulder. In the dressing room, we iced it right away and went to the ER. They gave me a Vietnam Sling, T3's and ordered me not to use it for 7-9 days. I iced it 5 times a day for 20 minutes each time, and kept it immobile for the most part (always in the sling, except to sleep or shower).

For the first 2-3 days it was unbearably sore. All of my shoulder muscles knotted up, and it was super uncomfortable. One thing that helped was placing a folded sock in my armpit to keep skin from touching skin and becoming clammy. It's the little things that help. Also, supporting your arm with a pillow(s) if your sitting (in addition to the sling) is a good idea. I iced the hell out of it over this period.

Days 4-6 were painful, but I started using my hand for more and more things, even though I kept the arm immobile (eg// opening jars, carrying a beer etc). Pain was subsiding, and it hurt like a bastard on occasion if I moved it somewhere it didnt want to go.

Days 7-8 were exponentially better. Pain free essentially, but I stayed in the sling to be safe.

Week 2 (After I took off the sling), it hurt again. Mostly because of atrophy, and the added weight of my arm weighing on the ligament that I damaged. It got sore. Fast. However, the length of time it took to get sore increased as the week went on. I started doing exercises to increase range of motion. No resistance movement of the arm, etc.

Week 3. Still too weak to to any activity, and still hurt when tweaked the wrong way.

I went back to beer league, with bigger shoulder pads on May 8/07. I can still stretch it a little beyond what I should, but it keeps getting better and stronger. I imagine, that it will be back to 90-100% within a month. I through most checks with my other shoulder and play right wing (hurt left shoulder) exclusively now, just to be on the safe side.

Good luck!

[TBLfan 25]

it could be anywhere from a week to a couple months, maybe longer. It all depends on how fast you heal and how bad the tear actually is. Good luck with recovery!!! :)

[BGM 0]

I've separated by right one twice and left one once. All were grade 1. The only thing you can do is rest it--there might be some ultrasound and stuff you can do at physical therapy. If you are grade 2 it will take a few months to really heal.

[jmiro 55]

thanks. not a major rip. got a grade 2. doctor said just ice and sling for a week. no hockey or other sports for three. i aready got a good bit of my range of motion back and can use from my elbow down. it wasnt a dirty hit and i wouldnt have mattered what pads i was wearing. at pratice i lost an edge hit the boards and jammed my shoulder. i heard a nice loud pop. then couldnt get up. i thougt the worse.

[TheSnake22 0]

i tore my mcl in my knee playing midget AAA, missed 6 weeks, and the first game back i separated my shoulder and missed another 6 weeks... definitely depends on a lot of things, i have a family history of bone and joint problems, so i was more susceptible and had to rehab a little longer... that said i dont think i wore the sling for more than 2 or 3 days... no lingering problems though. mri's suck...

[Nick23 0]

When i seperated mine, i was stupid enough to play hockey through it, but it seemed like the only exercise where i wasn't hurting it. I didn't use any weights on it for the last month of the season and now im having a month off. But the best thing i did was see an osteopath. The guy i have is incredible. It turned out that not only have my arm seperated from the joint, but i had knocked my shoulder out of line and put 5 ribs in my back out, it took about 5 sessions to clear it up. The first thing you should do i see a specialist, before you make it worse.

[indaslot 0]

I would get a second opinion about wearing a sling for a full week.I think my son was told to get out of it asap and begin ROM exercises (from a PT)right away to avoid frozen shoulder.Perhaps this was due to his young age, but I would definitely see a PT.

[hip check 0]

I would say my 'pain situation' was very similar to Medic's. I would remove my sling when I was sitting down so I could change the position of my arm and still keep weight off my shoulder. Within a couple of weeks all of the pain was gone but the joint would get fatigued quickly. After a month or so I would only get an ache or twinge of pain if I did something silly with it. A couple of years later, all is well... full range of motion, same strength as other shoulder, etc., but I do have that funny bump on my shoulder now.

The worst part of the whole ordeal was getting my equipment off and driving to the hospital. I had our trainer and the trainer from the other team helping me out of my gear.

I wished for an automatic transmission on the drive home that night!

[hockeyplyr814 0]

2 seasons ago i separated both of my shoulders twice each, i kept trying to play too early. As others have said, make sure you dont come back too early, youll just screw it up again. Also make sure you go to a specialist, I had regular doctors tell me it was everything from a torn rotator cuff, to "just a bruise" but when i went to the specialist he diagnosed it right away. I was out 2 weeks for the first separation on each side, after those first 2, now i usualy only miss one day of practice, sometimes i just go no contact.

[headonaswivel 1]

Tore my labrum in midget, left alone it for close to 5 years of dislocating before I had surgery, 6 weeks in the sling 3 months rehab before normal.

I now have the same thing going on with a lax right shoulder that I popped out for about the 8th time last night.

Don't ignore it and dont push it. Im 27 and my joints are a mess because I had too much pride.

[JR Boucicaut 3804]

:( I still haven't gotten mine fixed...

Hopefully this year. I'm playing less.

[BHSwing_7` 0]

if its a tear i wouldnt mess with it let it heal like everyone else has said but if it was just seperated with streched ligements you could prob come back in a few weeks mabye sooner i mean if it isnt going to get any worse why not play? right

[indaslot 0]

Some people confuse a separated shoulder with a dislocated shoulder.Not the same condition.Return to play with a shoulder separation depends on the extent of the tear.As the last poster stated,in a Grade 1 separartion,there may not even be a tear.Very painful though, initially, in any case.

[Jordan 13]

I had a grade 3 sepration that required surgey (reconnecting 3 severed ligaments..plus a beauty of a screw to hold the clavical in place while the ligaments healed)....all I can say is do as much therapy as they prescribe to avoid frozen shoulder and, don't try a thing, not a single thing, before they let you.

This is not a tough guy injury, you really mess it up if you try to move it along too quickly. Trust me.

[tips09 0]

had a grade 2 seperation in the game before the final series and sucked it up and played the final series. Could barely move my arm so i would always do a 180 every time i had a guy lined up so i wouldnt hit with the bad shoulder. Ended up scoring 2 goals in 3 games.. Hasnt bothered me too much but every once and awhile it feels like i keep tweaking it but this summer im going to try and stay off of it for a bit until it heals completely.