I knew I'd find a kindred spirit at some point. I had 3 minor tears in my Rotator cuff, but I think you got me beat. I had to wait 10 days before PT eval, I can't imagine 8 weeks woo. I know my surgeon was really worried about protecting the bicep, as the biggest worry. My PT guy says my Range of motion is really good and 3 weeks ahead of where he thought I would be. My almost 6 week follow-up x-ray is tomorrow. My PT guy thought I could start strength training the Rotator cuff now and maybe bicep, if the Surgeon approves. They said up to 12 weeks of PT, glad I'm off work for 12 weeks.
I have to get my left shoulder repaired as well, it's in worse shape than the right one. But we felt it being my dominant arm and the bicep anchor was way worse on this arm, we should do right one 1st. I definitely feel I'm starting to get dividends from the peps, taking lots of Collagen too. How long did they say for total time back to normal? Happy healing😉
You did find a kindred spirit! And happy healing to you as well!!! I am fighting with myself over just doing the GHK or doing a GLOW/KLOW stack instead. If it does any good to help me heal, on top of the skin benefits, it might be worth it.
So, he tells me 6 months to full recovery. Since this wasn't a standard repair, I was in the sling for the full 8 weeks which I knew about in advance, and the PT is restricted to ONLY range of motion front to back til at least 12 weeks out. I see him again in like 3 weeks (May 12th I think?), and then he will determine if it's healed enough internally to do more with that arm. His protocol for me right now allows NO strengthening on that arm or shoulder at all, heaviest I am supposed to hold in that hand is a bottle of water or can of soda, or my phone but my phone feels like a gazillion pounds in that hand so that's usually limited. The surgeon had to call the PT place the other day and tell them not to do half of what the keep telling me to do, because they want to follow their usual shoulder protocol and this isn't the usual repair. Moving back is going ok, moving forward is HILARIOUSLY bad. It is SO tight with all those anchor points. I am generally quite compliant with these things, but I am not going to do an exercise I was explicitly told not to do.
I have to keep my arm tucked to my body most of the time, and wear the sling in crowded situations or at the gym. I went there for the first time yesterday and that was interesting. I'd been doing some amended lower body stuff at home, just to do SOMETHING along the way, and while I was delighted I could get closer to my usual loads on most of the leg machines, on others I just didn't try or had to do some creative adjustment with positioning. When I confirmed I was able to do the hip thrust with one hand I almost cried, I know the hack squat is months away, as are barbell squats, but that one I was really missing. I only loaded about 1/3 of my usual weight though bec I didn't want to push it on my first time in like 9 weeks. Cardio I was allowed pretty much from the second day, though no bouncing or heavy sweating til the nerve block was out of my neck and the staples and stitches came out. I was allowed to jog as tolerated, walk, stepper, etc, as long as there's no pain and I can control the jostling, which I can if I make sure the arm is tucked in. I do swing when I walk a little more now, but not like I was before. The range forward is sooo bad.
My left thankfully is my less damaged, my right was reeeally bad and way overdue. I fully tore the rotator like 25 years ago, and at the time, that surgeon was like, you're young and it will likely regenerate itself in time if you do your pt exercises, but the worse tears were from catching myself on the bannisters when I slipped on the carpeted steps. Once I really got into lifting, it was driving me nuts. The last year or so I just had no function to the side. He was actually shocked I didn't detach the muscles entirely at the gym the morning before surgery because the bicep was barely hanging by a thread. I was
really stupid doing that presurgery last ditch murder all the muscles thing because 1) that could've happened and that would've been like a 9 month recovery, and 2) I could barely get on the dang gurney my legs and core were so sore. 🫣
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