rotator cuff/shoulder injury and skating

[Patey]

yeah so i slipped out on a quarter pipe the other day and fell backwards catching myself with my right elbow, forcing my arm to move up my back further than it should have. now i feel pain in the front of my shoulder every time i lift my arm up to the side or behind me.

from what i have read online, i believe it may be a rotator cuff sprain or possibly tear. im going to the doc tomorrow to get it checked out and confirm exactly what it is i have done.

anyone else ever have a similar injury from skating, or tried to skate/get back into skating while dealing with this injury?

sucks to have an arm injury when skateboarding only really requires good legs... its just every time i pop for a trick my arms raise and i get pain.

looks like i am going to have to resort to faking my arm steez, but not to fit in, rather to stop it from hurting...

[Seamus_McShamebag]

I had both a rotator cuff sprain/mild tear (right shoulder)a few years ago and the x-ray below is from last spring when I took a dive off the coping of a concrete bowl straight onto the flat and landed in a pile driver wrestling move with my elbow taking the impact and popping my left shoulder out of the socket.



The sprain took around 4-5 weeks to heal with range of motion exercises every day and light weight training.  With the dislocation I got it popped back in and didn't have any breaks or tears and my recovery was about 6 weeks.  I could have skated a lot sooner but the risk was that if I took a hit to the same shoulder and popped it back out then it would be unstable down the road so I decided to be as patient as I could.  It was my strong arm and I didn't want to fuck it up and end up swinging like a ginger the rest of my life.

Ice and Ibuprofen help minimize damage from swelling in the first 48 hours.  See what your doc says but what worked for me was to do a lot of range of motion exercises and some real light weight training to rehab and build the strength of the joint back up.  Actually, shooting a basketball was really helpful because the range of motion and light resistance.  I went all eccentric and shit and tried a TENS unit and it may have helped a little.   Be patient with your shoulder and do whatever rehab you need to and you'll avoid being plagued with a chronic issue.  You don't wan't an unstable shoulder socket.  I am a year out on the dislocation and I don't have any instability at all today but it still felt a little tweaked as far as 7 or so months out. Neither injury affected my skating in the least but I reluctantly took some weeks off to make sure that I healed right in both cases.  

[j....soy.....]

I did it just waving my arms around....you do a bunch of excercises using soup cans.....

[happenstance]

About 3 years ago there was a 4 month period where I couldn't move my shoulder to put my right hand behind my head without being in absolute agonizing pain. It went away eventually so it wasn't too bad but my shoulder still pops and clicks and hurts when lifting heavy stuff. Not sure of your situation but take care of it!

[Patey]

thanks for the replys, guys.

luckily my shoulder didnt actually come out of the socket, but i will definitely still be careful to get it back to 100% before i do anything to risk fucking it up more.

going to see the doc in an hour. should be fun.

[LIVEfromthe3one5]

My right rotator cuff is jacked, they suggested PT for it, it makes skating a pain in the ass sometimes. Not to happy with the PT idea because when I blew out my left shoulder they popped it back in and went to PT almost daily when it was healed and worked it out non stop, then like a year and 3 days later I slipped out of a front nose and snapped my left shoulder out again, broke the humurous bone and stretched out the muscles, now I don't have to worry about it too much because its got 3 metal anchors holding it in place. Hopefully righty won't need the same treatment. Just watch how you fall, and hope you're not like me and were birthed with glass bones. Good luck with the shoulder though bro, injuries blow

[SwiftFootedBird]

I know that feel bro. my shoulder pops out of its place every now and then. just waiting for the 2nd visit to the traumatologist. most probably ends in surgery.

[carbonite]

I am recovering from a "frayed" shoulder muscle tear right now. It's kind of a mindfuck, because you think "oh i don't use my arms to skate," but for a while just the impact from skating flat or those arm movements you do (like when b/s tailsliding and shit like that) would cause pain. I got an MRI and the doctor told me to do some PT:

www.shomir.org/SMA/026.pdf

and if it's not better, maybe get a cortizone shot. I'd say stick you your PT religiously and don't skate until it's almost 100%...cause if you feel like you can't fall on one side of your body it's not a good time...

[ThirtyYearsYoung]

I messed mine up in a similar way to what happened to the OP. I didn't go to a doctor and I basically couldn't move my arm for a month. For about a year after that, I couldn't raise my right arm above my head without extreme pain. I didn't think it would ever recover and just figured I'd live with it. But then I started doing yoga, and gradually I regained flexibility in that shoulder. I guess it worked kind of like the PT in that PDF above.