Messed up my shoulder...

Messages
2,369
A few weeks ago as you remember, I hit a rock going across that lake on my snowmobile. I thought my sled and I faired well considering how fast and hard the sled hit the rock, and how hard I hit the ice and started doing cartwheels.

Well I knew I landed hard, but I play hard and thus figured it was nothing, just a little pain in my shoulder.

Well after 4 visits to my chiropractor, she said something she has never said in the 4 years that I have been seeing her. "There is nothing I can do for you."

Its odd because I have full range of motion, but my shoulder just hurts. Not like giving birth pain, but a constant, sharp ache that just never goes away. I can do anything with it, it just hurts when I do it.

She suggests I go see my regular doctor and go down the x-ray, MRI path, but we all know that is where you get co-payed to death. The shoulder is a pretty complex joint anyway so I think it just needs time to heal. I'm going to let it buck and see how I feel after snowmobile season is over with.

Its just kind of odd that I can move it around, it just hurts constantly and no amount of manual therapy, muscle stimulant therapy or ultra sound therapy is helping. Any idea what my issue is?
 
I tore a rotator cuff in my shoulder playing softball years ago, and it caused a similar, constant pain for months and months. I had full motion, but it just hurt to do it. (Especially raising my elbow up to or beyond shoulder level.) The doctors said there wasn't much they could do for me other than wait and let it heal. Bad enough to hurt, but not bad enough for surgery.
 
Old age :D

Sorry to hear it hurts, that sucks.

I really, REALLY wrecked my right shoulder when I was about 20 or so, kneeboarding behind a supercharged Big Block jet ski boat:rolleyes:

A VERY long time in rehabilitation and my doctor told me it would be as good as it was ever going to get, about 80%, and every year after 40 I'd loose some of that :doh:

It bothers me everyday, it hurts there is nothing I can do about it, I just got used to it :dunno:

I bet it will improve over time, but you might have done enough damage to it, that you will not get back to where you were.

I have found some decent relief with acupuncture (the Chinese kind with LONG needles, not the Japanese kind with short needles). When I had a lot of pain I'd go and get them to stick needles in me, and it would improve, but it never got "Better". Thing is it is about $50 a visit, so I only do it when I over do it somewhat.

Which shoulder? :wave:
 
... Any idea what my issue is?

Yeah. You ain't 19 anymore. I can't speak for the medical state of your shoulder but you have damaged yourself. When you ain't 19 anymore and you damage yourself it hurts more and takes longer to stop hurting. Sometimes it won't stop hurting until after you stop being able to feel pain. So that gives us all two choices. We can take a point of view that tries to limit our exposure to damage or we can take a point of view that limits the amount by which we allow pain and discomfort to bug us.


Personally I tried to take the former. I can still remember just before my 40th standing at the top of an icy ski slope and thinking "This isn't fun anymore. I am more scared of the risk of damage than I am excited by the prospect of the slope". So I don't ski anymore. (Never did that much but had always enjoyed it when I did).

About 3 years after that decision I slipped on the stairs and broke my ankle so comprehensively that I couldn't walk for nearly 6 months. I still get constant low level pain from the ankle but my surgeon (a leader in his field) says that anything he tries to do is as likely to cause harm as good. So I adjust. Keep it warm. Rest it when I can. Work it as much as makes sense. Stand on one leg and wobble about to exercise it and keep it as strong as possible. But the truth is that it doesn't matter what I do, for the rest of my life I will probably have some pain at some point every day because I once didn't pay proper attention when I walked down the stairs.

Adjust to it.
 
Travis, it sounds like you were lucky to get away from the accident as well as you did. Remember the old saying, if you are going to dance, you have to pay the fiddler. If you are going to play with big toys you have to expect problems that will cost you. So, get your bod to an orthopedic MD. Getting this problem properly handled may save you years of pain down the road.

And do be careful in the future. :thumb:
 
Do go see a good orthopedic surgeon. Preferably one that specializes in shoulders. When I got my ATV, my son, an emergency room doctor, said I would have an accident with it and hurt myself. He was right. Only, my injury happened in the garage and I never got the engine started. The battery was down and I was pull starting. The engine missed a compressions stroke and my arm flew up at full strength and I heard, and felt, all the good things in the shoulder go pop. This was accompanied with considerable pain that lasted for several months. Yes, read that MONTHS. I toughed it out. A couple years later I saw a doctor. A muscle had been torn away from the bone and healed improperly. Now, I have almost no strength in certain positions. I used to be a pretty fair shot with the pistol. Today, I can't hold up a pistol in shooting position. Some days I can't lift a cup of coffee. Surgery cannot repair at this point. Go see the doctor. Pronto. Please.
 
Travis,

You should likely get it looked at. You'll probably have to anyway, and it might save time, pain, emotion, and hassle. Lots of us have had rotator cuff things. I've lived with a less than perfect left arm for the last 30 years, but it's way better than it was before I had it taken care of...

Thanks,

Bill
 
Ok Am I the only one who wants to ask How do you find a big rock in the middle of a lake covered with Ice? I mean it is a lake right? :dunno:

Sorry to hear about the shoulder Travis. Wish that I could give some helpful advice about it other than " Be more careful out there " You do know that god put rocks all over the place and you just happened to find the only one in the middle of a lake. :rofl: So this is a fanatstic stoke of luck. I'd buy a lottery ticket if I was you. :rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
its simple!!!

on the rock story i am not aware of maines lakes but in canda they grow big rocks in the lakes every where plenty of water and dirt below to make biguns,,, the lake had been drained for the landowners!!!! but you can have rocks in the middle of lakes easily...as for your arm there travis i have two co workers who live the way you and i do,, they had there fixed and are doing much better.. if yours is bad enough for surgery the surgeon can make it better usually... fortunatly mine isnt to the point where it is worth it yet!!! but i can tell ya that it wont get better with age!!!! all those littl bumps that we shook off befre will come back later!
 
Ok Am I the only one who wants to ask How do you find a big rock in the middle of a lake covered with Ice? I mean it is a lake right? :dunno:

Sorry to hear about the shoulder Travis. Wish that I could give some helpful advice about it other than " Be more careful out there " You do know that god put rocks all over the place and you just happened to find the only one in the middle of a lake. :rofl: So this is a fanatstic stoke of luck. I'd buy a lottery ticket if I was you. :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Well its along story really...

It all started with a bad decision. You see I had gone out for a snowmobile ride, starting out at 6 Am and had logged over 300 miles of riding when I got into Newport. Now in Newport the trail normally crosses Newport Lake, but this year the ice is thin. That left me with 3 potential choices:

I could take my chances by crossing the lake with thin ice (potential death)

I could drive through the city streets of Newport (potential ticket)

I could drive up the working railroad tracks to reach the trail (potential ticket)

So faced with these three choices, I decided to take my chances with death by crossing the thin ice. Now as some of you know a snowmobile can float on water. If you hit the water fast enough, the skis skipping across the water, and the fast rotation of the track, makes the snowmobile "skim" over open water. The key is to hit the water fast.

So that is what I did. I hit the lake, punch the throttle and rocket across the lake. Just as I neared the other side, there was a big lump of snow. Now I was going a mile a minute and so was my thoughts. For a split second I thought it was a small fir tree or something all covered with snow,then I realize I'm on a lake and there are no trees on lakes. So then I conclude its a pressure ridge. Anyway at the last second I steer, but its too late. I hit whatever it was and get thrown from my sled, start doing cart wheels down the ice. I think I counted 5 tumbles at least.

Now the last speed I saw was 65 mph, so I'm guessing I was doing about that when I went bouncing down the lake. When I come to I see my sled is only 50 feet away. My first reaction is to get off the ice. So I run to my sled, which seems to be in perfect shape and still running. So I jump on it and get off the ice and park it on land. As I do I look back and see what I hit.

They had let more water out of the dam this year which dropped the level of the lake. It I had hit a 4 foot rock that was now exposed. Because the rock was slanted, by right ski had hit the rock, went to full extension then pitched me off. Because my sled is a 4 stroke, it did two things. Since its so heavy, the sled re-righted itself, and since the engine has some engine braking, (unlike a two stroke) it stopped itself after being without a rider in only 50 feet. If I had been on a 2 stroke, it would have kept going until it hit the trees on shore.

Luckily two guys inside a lake side home saw what happened and came running over. They could not believe how hard I hit that rock and how fast, and yet did no damage to me or my sled. Well maybe just my sled. My shoulder hurt, but it was a 300 mile ride,I hurt all over anyway.

After 2 weeks went by I saw my chiropractor but there is not much she can do. So I am where I am. I can live with the pain, but what really hurts (figuratively and literally) is picking up Alyson. Even using my right arm, it hurts to hold her.

Man was I ever lucky though. I was only 45 miles from home, but I was so shook up, it took me 1½ hours to get there. I did find out later the ice was just fine so I did not have to worry about skimming open water.
 
Now go back in time a few years. This is when I hit a tree on a lake. yep a tree.

The boys and I were out for a late night ride and when we got to Unity Pond we decide to head home via Troy. Well this pondis a misnomer because its something like 5 miles square, so they take off and go around the island. They obviously did not where they were going.

So I head off across the lake and go for a mile or two when out of the darkness I see a tree. I steer at the last second, fly into the air, come down in a pile of snow, steam and poo in my pants. The guys see this and come running over and asked what happened. I say...

"I just hit a bleeping tree..."

And they answer back, "but you are on a lake."

So we head back and sure enough there is a tree there. So the next day we go back in daylight and sure enough there is a tree there. The funny thing was you could see this one track going dead-arrow-straight in the snow for well over a mile and it hits this tree. 10 feet to either side and I would have missed it. That is just my luck, so I got this reputation now for hitting things on lakes.

Here are two pictures of that tree. The first shows that its indeed growing out of the lake, and the second shows how isolated the tree is from anything else.

Travis_Closer_Approach_To_Tree.JPG


Tree_All_Alone.JPG
 
Last year we are up to Mattagamon,Maine and again come out onto a lake. I was up there a week before so I knew the lake. So I open up my sled and take off...

My buddy Joe, well he takes his time. So on the further end of the lake he sees these big drifts and plows slowly over all three of them. he crests the first one and sees that I caught a little air because there are no tracks. Then he sees the second one and plows over that. He even did it to the third one before he comes up to me.

"Caught a little air on those three drifts didn't you?"

"Three drifts, there was only one."

Come to find out I had hit the first one so hard and fast I was still airborne when I went over the other two. It was not a pretty landing either, but I survived. It seems snowmobiles and lakes don't mix.I guess its no wonder my insurance company won't insure my make of sled. Its really a nice one, but anything over 800cc's they won't insure. Mines a 1000cc sled so I was close to 100 mph when I hit that drift.
 
Well its along story really...

Because my sled is a 4 stroke, it did two things. Since its so heavy, the sled re-righted itself, and since the engine has some engine braking, (unlike a two stroke) it stopped itself after being without a rider in only 50 feet. If I had been on a 2 stroke, it would have kept going until it hit the trees on shore.

Ok Travis is it time to re think about getting a dead man switch?
 
I just finished an elbow issue in time to go into an issue with the opposite wrist. Both conditions are "cured" by lessening or stopping the use of the joint for MONTHS. The "cure" works but it is a hard pill to swallow. The alternative is surgery which takes just as long to recover from as the injury. The less you use it, the faster it heals. Keep using it "a little bit" and it will keep hurting for a long, long time.
 
Sorry to hear about your shoulder Travis. About 2-1/2 years ago I tore up an aging shoulder goofing around with the kids. I ignored it for months, got an x-ray and cortisone injection from an "assistant", then finally went to an orthopedic surgeon after 7 or 8 months. He ordered an MRI which very clearly revealed a level 9 tear, huge bone spur, and advanced arthritis....he guessed that my tear worsened by several levels during the time I waited (kept trying to work through it! :doh:), and mentioned that it was close to being beyond repair. :eek:

It's been fixed for ~ 18 months now and I can do most of what I need to, including throwing and lifting, though the Olympics aren't in my future anymore :rolleyes:. I can't imagine going thru the rest of my life with 25% use of my dominate arm. It's not worth waiting...you're a young guy. You can probably skip the primary care physician and the x-ray, and head straight for a surgeon and get an MRI....even a second opinion is worth the copay cost. Good luck!
 
Last edited:
I just finished an elbow issue in time to go into an issue with the opposite wrist.

I'm working through the elbow issue now on my left arm. I think it's considered tennis elbow. Seem to loose my grip on things (like a glass of water) in certain positions. I've had it in my right arm before, just wore a velcro arm band on it for months (just below the elbow) when I was working, eventually went away.
 
Travis, I feel your pain.

About two years ago I had a small mishap in the garage with a piece of 3/4" plywood and the overhead track on the garage door. The track was okay and so was the plywood that I saved from being dropped, but my right shoulder an arm did not fair to well. It caused two small tares in my shoulder and rotator cuff tendons. I had an MRI after making 7 trips to the chiropractor which did me no good. He suggested that I get a the MRI since I was not getting any relief from him.
I still have allot of pain if I over do it, which unfortunately limits me to about 2 to 3 three hours a day of doing things. I have been going to a D.O. who does microcurrent therapy on the shoulder. It works fairly well but he is so busy that I can hardly get in to see him for treatment. So I went to another D.O. who does a procedure called Prolotherapy.
I think next month I will try it. The doctor said that the pain was caused from the torn ligaments not healing properly, and since the ligaments were torn the muscles have to work overtime and thus the pain. You might want to look into either one of these therapy's.
 
Travis, like you, I've been through the loops in my younger years, (one with a shoulder that I won't go into, too long), but one thing I did learn, ......finally....:rolleyes:, is that the body is really no different from a machine in some respects. Some things can be fixed, and some can't, but the one thing that is for sure is that after a wreck "Both" a machine, AND a body should be looked at by a competent professional "ASAP". The reason I say this is because you need to know exactly what damage has been done and if a repair is either Needed Or Possible. Many times just waiting to see if it will get better allows things to heal improperly, (causing more problems), and sometimes damage other things around the area of the original damage. If you can get something fixed NOW, you will certainly appreciate that decision later in life, when all the other body parts start malfunctioning and hurting as well.

Just think, if you rolled your car but it would still run, but made noises or wouldn't steer straight, or the brakes caused it to pull to one side, you would get it checked out, RIGHT??? OK, so do yourself a favor and do the same for the ole Bod as you would your car. Get it done by a Dr. specializing in shoulders, after all you wouldn't take a car with a computer problem to the carburator shop.

Good Luck
 
Top