Has anybody ever had a dislocated shoulder?I fell on 2/15 & the hospital said I have to wear this shoulder?

Question

immobilizer for 2 wks.I go to a specialist Monday,I had to wait because this Dr. was on vacation.Will I most likely need pysical therapy? How long is the recovery?I'm 54 will I have problems from now on?Are my sports days over?Thanks

Answer 1

Continue to wear the immobilizer until you see the specialist. Is the specialist an orthopaedic surgeon? It should be. I am an athletic trainer and would recommend that you insist on therapy with an athletic trainer or physical therapist if you plan on being physically active. The recovery depends on the exent of the damage to the soft tissue in the shoulder, probably 4-6 weeks before getting back to physical activity. Your sports days do not have to be over, but the surgeon or rehab specialist who sees you will have the best anwer for you as they can assess your specific condition. Don't worry and work hard in therapy and you shouldn't have much of a problem. Many, if not all, athletes return to high level competition after suffering a shoulder dislocation. But they put in many hours in the athletic training room to get back. Good luck and work hard. God bless

Answer 2

Don't miss your appointment on Monday. My husband is 53 and did the same thing last memorial day and it took 6 weeks to get into the specialist, who then said that it was too late to do anything for it as they said it should have been repaired in the first 2 weeks after injury. It has progressively gotten worse and he is not able to do much of anything now and can not even sleep at night due to the sever pain he is having. We did not have insurance at the time and I believe this is why they said nothing could be done for him. They did not even let him see a doctor, it was a physicians assistant and they charged almost $200 to tell him that it was too late to treat it! We paid cash for the visit, but several of the doctors refuse to even make you an appointment if you don't have insurance these days. I am now back to work and have insurance, and now they are willing to see him again and are talking about surgery to help correct it, but it will never be very good after waiting this long. Good luck to you.

Answer 3

Not my shoulder but I have dislocated my wrist. I was leaning on it and turned funny and it moved out of socket. Since then, I have dislocated it twice (all three times within the last year). So I would say that once you dislocate it, it is more prone to being injured again but I never had it set. Be careful and hope you feel better soon.

Answer 4

it mainly just depends on how well it will heal by itself, make sure not to move it and damage the healing that has already started...you might need to go to PT a few times, it will just take time and then you should be ok...just take extra care of it now!