Labral Tear

fmyth

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Mar 14, 2019
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I had surgery to repair a torn labrum, fix a bone inpengment and torn rotator cuff. The surgery was 3 hours long and in the end they couldn't re attach the labrum. The surgery was in early may and by August it was clear I could not draw a bow so I applied for a crossbow permit and bought a $200 Jackal crossbow. When archery season started I was still out of shape so I sat on a water tank. After 5 days I shot a nice raghorn. The next year I was able to go back to hunting with my compound bow reduced to 55lb draw. I am now back to 65lb draw and feel great. Good luck with your surgery and recovery. I am extra careful now and never want to have another shoulder surgery.
 

Tanya Avery

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Shoot2HuntU
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I tore mine over 10 years ago. Opted for rehab over surgery. It was about 6-9 months before it was good. Surgery recovery was projected at 8-12 months.

If you are a surgery candidate, there is a school of thought surrounding pre surgical therapy that you should look into. You May also find that you can delay the surgery u til after season.

I agree, you might be able to delay until after this season depending on the severity...


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ChrisC

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Oct 11, 2016
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Its been a while since I've looked into it, but when I had a SLAP tear about 10 years ago the doctor said that they, at the time, were saying it was best to avoid surgery for long-term recovery. I had a grade 2 tear. I never had surgery and regained enough strength to not feel restricted in activities. some range of motion was lost and the shoulder feels fatigued more quickly when straining it. PT helped. good luck!
 
Joined
Sep 20, 2014
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Consider, if it's shoulder labrum and not hip labrum-
1. X-ray to rule-out AC Joint Arthritis and to look at where the humeral head sits in the shoulder joint. Is the joint space narrowed? Does the Acromion (top of the shoulder joint) show downscoping and/or have a spur that is digging into the labrum/rotator cuff?
2. Get an injection of steroids-make sure your MD/DO has an ultrasound machine and you can actually watch them "thread the needle" to put the anti-inflammatory in the sweet spot.
3. Consider starting PT about a week after the injection, and do it for a month.
4. Followup with your MD, don't just see the Nurse Practitioner/Physician's Asstnt for re-examination.
5. If not at least 75% better, push to get an MRI to see what % tear you have.
6. Make sure you are seeing a Fellowship-trained Sports Medicine Orthopaedic Surgeon, and after the MRI, if it gets to that point, and you're discussing possible surgery...make sure they do all their labral tear repairs/rotator cuff repairs via arthroscopic approach. Ask how many a WEEK that they do of this surgery? Look long-term...how long is the MD going to be practicing...they need to be practicing about 10 more years or more to be able to follow you...as you get older.
7. It will probably take 6-8 months of recovery with surgery or not with surgery, but with increasing activities over the years, you may need to put the bow down and have fun during rifle season.
8. I can't stress enough the importance of a Fellowship-trained, experienced arthroscopic-trained Ortho MD. It's your shoulder.
9. Time to go to work!
10. PS-"There might have been a BEEEGG ROCKY RHAAMM come out of Hell's Canyon Oregon side this week...it will show up soon...a thumper".
Disclaimer-This is not an office visit and I haven't seen the clinic notes of the theoretical patient!

DWD
 
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Had my labrum repaired 7 years ago. Took 7 months before I trusted it enough to do anything major. I can pull 70lb+ bows, but I stick to 60lb to be safe.
 

Yooper

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Jul 18, 2016
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Upper Michigan
I didn't catch it if you mentioned it, but what arm? Draw arm or holding arm? I've had labral tears in both shoulders now. I'm a right hand draw so that was a good six months before I could draw a bow back and it was light weight. April of '18 I had my left shoulder labrum repaired and I was archery hunting in Wyoming in September. Granted I didn't pick up a bow until late July. Lots of different variables there. Keep your chin up, though. In both cases I was extremely happy with the long term outlook after repair.
 

huntineveryday

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Apr 8, 2019
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There's decent evidence that a percentage of acute labrum tears can heal with conservative tx alone. The idea being you strengthen everything around the shoulder to limit stress on the labrum while it scars down and the shoulder heals. If that fails then surgery would be the next option. There are different types of labrum tears, some they can repair by anchoring back in place and some just have to be cleaned up and debrided. Depending on the type of tear and what they can do surgically will impact your outcomes significantly.

Depending on how it's torn you could have anything from 6-8 weeks of strengthening that gets you back to functional strength, up to worse case scenario of loss of function of the long head of the biceps. I know this doesn't help you much, but the short answer is that your plans are going to be "up in the air" until you see how it plays out.
 

targetpanic

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Sep 8, 2016
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Massachusetts
Ugh...I feel for you. Many Labral tears do not require surgery unless there is something else going on. I had a complete tear in my rotator cuff in both the supraspinatous and infraspinatous...the MRI also showed a suspected SLAP tear in the labrum. The labrum was fine according to surgeon. The rotator cuff surgery was on Nov 14th, I was finally able to start shooting a LIGHTWEIGHT bow in July. Recovery was a very slow and painful process with lots of ups and downs...I would start gaining range of motion and strength and then everything would flare up (especially the insertion point of my biceps tendon) and we would have to back down on PT, then it would calm down and we would start making progress and it would flare up again...it was very frustrating. On a positive note it is still getting stronger and less painful. The surgeon said it could be up to a year before everything is as good as it is going to get.
 
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William Hanson (live2hunt)

William Hanson (live2hunt)

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I didn't catch it if you mentioned it, but what arm? Draw arm or holding arm? I've had labral tears in both shoulders now. I'm a right hand draw so that was a good six months before I could draw a bow back and it was light weight. April of '18 I had my left shoulder labrum repaired and I was archery hunting in Wyoming in September. Granted I didn't pick up a bow until late July. Lots of different variables there. Keep your chin up, though. In both cases I was extremely happy with the long term outlook after repair.
It's my bow arm.

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William Hanson (live2hunt)

William Hanson (live2hunt)

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I'm currently waiting to hear back on a date for a MRI. The wait to find out is killing me.

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ohio
Had mine repaired in March, complete tear from 3-9 on a clock. I was in a full pillow sling for 7 weeks, was off of work for 4 months. I can pull my bow back now, but don’t feel like I quite have the accessory muscles to be stable yet. Unfortunately the MRI will only show so much, my tear was completely different from what they suspected based off of the MRI.
 
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William Hanson (live2hunt)

William Hanson (live2hunt)

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Update: I finally got the MRI and followed up with ortho. I do have a SLAP tear according to ortho, though radiologist disagrees. I am going to try pt for a month and see if there's improvement and go from there.

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William Hanson (live2hunt)

William Hanson (live2hunt)

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How's the shoulder?
After a couple months of physical therapy with minimal improvement, the doc still wanted to do surgery. After I told him i wasn't ready for that yet, he said cortisone shots weren't out of the question. A few days after the first shot i started hitting the gym with light weights and began noticing marked improvement. I can finally draw a bow again, though fairly unsteady, after almost 6 months since the initial injury. The pain is mostly gone but the should is looser.

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ncstewart

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Jul 18, 2016
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I just had this surgery 2 weeks ago. My therapist is telling me to plan on not shooting for 12 months. I’m planning all rifle next fall to be safe.
I put my surgery off for 10 years and although I’d like to say it got better it only got worse to the point I finally had it fixed. Not sure it was the right call at the moment but hopefully long term it will be. Hope yours is something shots and therapy can help. Good luck


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William Hanson (live2hunt)

William Hanson (live2hunt)

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I just had this surgery 2 weeks ago. My therapist is telling me to plan on not shooting for 12 months. I’m planning all rifle next fall to be safe.
I put my surgery off for 10 years and although I’d like to say it got better it only got worse to the point I finally had it fixed. Not sure it was the right call at the moment but hopefully long term it will be. Hope yours is something shots and therapy can help. Good luck


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I think I'll end up with surgery eventually, i just want to hold off until a better time

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Marble

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May 29, 2019
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I think 12 months is a little off. But 6 is pretty reasonable. I did no shooting for 5. My issue now is because if a new or repeated injury from a fall.

Had an MRI last week. See the doctor in 2 weeks.

If the shoulder is unstable or comes out of joint or feels like it...you need surgery from everything I've been told by people who aren't surgeons. The surgeons tell me that too. But that's how they make money.
 

Michael54

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Oct 18, 2019
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A labral tear that i refused to have taken care of during football season in my early 20s has ruined me ever hunting with a bow again. Note i didnt listen to the doctor, and managed it all football season with cortizone shots and painkillers from the training staff, no rehab and refused surgery. It was super important for me to stay on the field and not let my teamates down back then. Now in my mid 30s it was probably the dumbest thing i've ever done.
 
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William Hanson (live2hunt)

William Hanson (live2hunt)

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I have been looking into stem cell therapy for it as an alternative but i dont know anyone who has had it personally, so I'm skeptical.

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