i got hurt in august, my shoulder , land-boarding /jumping ,trying to find who hurt theres, i though someone who was down at wildwood did the same. what did you do to get better .help me guys ,wildwood is coming up and i had a wicked good time in the spring,don't want to be a spectator.

What, exactly, did you hurt in your shoulder? Several years ago I slipped on some ice and fell while walking the dog. I landed on my right elbow, but the force shoved my upper arm bone(humerus) upward with enough force to tear a part of my rotator cuff. The doctor said it would never heal without surgery, but the surrounding muscle would get stronger to take up the strain. I know it is still sore most of the time, but I live with it. I felt that the minor gain (doc estimated 5-10%) I could realize through surgery, was not worth the risk of the surgery itself.(infection, and the fact that the doc said it could stay the same or get even worse) Probably not what you wanted to hear, but unless you have a great deal of confidence in your doc, and the facility where the work would be done, then you are in the same boat I was. On a side note this all happened before I took up powerkites, and though there have been a few days where I had to quit due to the pain, for the most part I think kiting has helped to strengthen the surrounding muscles.
I think van came to Wildwood with a bad shoulder last spring.

No that was me,I wasn't cleared by the doctor from my shoulder surgery!
DS360 get well soon, you gotta buggy!

I hurt my shoulder at NABX. I hit it hard right into that compact playa. It rip a few ligament in my shoulder, no broken bone. When I was at WWBB, it was still hurting so I didn't fly. I was able to fly about 2 months after I hurt it so just give it some rest if it's torn ligaments. It will heal but you have to rest it. It has been 5 months since I hurt it so the pain is gone and I'm fully recovered. Best thing I found was to rest and lots of back massage

I stand corrected. It was van and me!

Besides selling that board and sitting your ass down , get into a Pysical therapist at least once and get an exercise plan. Do full "range of motion" movements several times a day, take things to the edge of pain but without knowing whats going to snap crackle pop dont go any farther. Paul if you do get into a PT ask about heating and cooling the injury and if taking motrin/NSAID prior to exersizing/stretching is a good idea.

Quote:

Originally posted by snowspider Besides selling that board and sitting your ass down , get into a Pysical therapist at least once and get an exercise plan. Do full "range of motion" movements several times a day, take things to the edge of pain but without knowing whats going to snap crackle pop dont go any farther. Paul if you do get into a PT ask about heating and cooling the injury and if taking motrin/NSAID prior to exersizing/stretching is a good idea.

Second that.

I've had the misfortune of suffering neck (disk) , pectoral, tricep, knee and rotator cuff injuries (non kite related). Shoulder probably should've had surgery, pectoral could not be surgically corrected, tricep was not determined to require surgery, neck was my choice (choose not to have surgery). Shoulder took about 2 years to heal and swimming was the recommended reconditioning therapy and worked great!. Pectoral took 1 year and I only have 80% strength. Tricep took several months and I also only have about 80% strength. Neck causes problems intermitantly (injured it 3 years ago yesterday).

For all the injuries, the best thing I ever did was work with a physical therapist. They were more responsive then the surgeons and docs and many times more helfpul and informative. They can teach you exercises to focus on specific muscles and muscle movements and reconditioning. Little miracle workers IMO but your doc needs to refer you to them (or at least mine did).

I'll call you when I get some time. Hope to be getting back to Nahant as early as this weekend. And remember, though you jump higher and spin 360s around us... you're no kid anymore.

Shoulders are a tricky joint when injured. The term "rotator cuff injury" is sort of a blanket term used to describe various types of injury in the shoulder. It can mean a lot of things as it could be damage to some of the muscle group that acts to stabilize the shoulder or the connective tissue.

Either way it usually opens you up to further injury if not dealt with correctly. Once the stabilty is reduced you run the risk of partial or total dislocation. Which can really turn into a problem if not treated correctly.

My question here is what kind of crash was it or in other words how did you hit?

If it was in impact with just the shoulder (especially at the top of the shoulder) I would suspect that you have some level of AC separation. Basically the clavical becomes detached or partially detached from the scapula.

We see it pretty often in biking (almost as often as broken clavicals) and if it's a stage 1 (minor AC ligament tear or 2 separation (total tear of one part of the ligament)it's gonna hurt for a while, probably pop or grind a little but will eventually feel better. Stage 1 you usually can't see any difference from the outside, stage 2 you may see a little bit more of a rise in the clavical compared to the healthy one and stage 3 will usually be totally obvious. A 3rd stage separation (i think) is when the clavical has completly torn free. You will totally see this from the outside and feel it on the inside.

I have a stage 2 separation from a few years ago on one shoulder. Hurt for a little while but now just grinds and feels a bit floaty. I could have it fixed but it hasn't posed a problem so we decided to leave it. My wife has AC separation on both sides but she was born that way.

My other shoulder has been reconstructed twice. This time she seems to be holding but I work to keep the joint strong and mobile or as mobile as it can be with hardware in place to keep it from rotating enough to dislocate. I had chronic dislocation issues after a few shoulder accidents and wore a 1/2 dollar size hole in the head of the humerous. The result was any time I would rotate the joint and the hole hit the socket the shoulder would just dislocate. Sooooooo, no more climbing or WW kayaking for me anymore.

Anyway I don't know if that helps. I will say that you should get it checked out by an Ortho, one that specializes in shoulders if you can and not your regular doctor. Regular ER or primary care guys only know so much about these kinds of injuries. A sport medicine guy is what you should look for. An inaccurate diagnosis can screw you for life.

If you see an Ortho they'll know the best PT person for your injury as well.

I don't have a regular doctor. I don't get sick, all my stuff is activity related so all my guys are sports doctors and I'm lucky to have some of the best in the world.

I understand wanting to get back to flying ASAP. If it was me I would stick to land sailing till you are fully healed. The last thing you need to do is make it worse.

thanks guys ,i remember van out at nabx,i think a gust got you, i dont want to sell my board , i got new trucks now i can jump higher, it my landings and it was just one.i think what van said i might have . my friends were trying to get me on the water but stubborn me i was doing great up to that point showing off.

i know the feeling paul. i slammed my head hard yesterday. really rattled my world for the last 24hours. came down from about 8 feet up..........video to follow soon

It wasn't easy staying away from my kites after I tore my shoulder but I had to let it heal. Just keep exercising that shoulder with light weight and move up slowly. I also massage my shoulder a lot to improve blood movement in the area. This what I did since my physical therapist would suggest the same. If you don't like weights, use a bungee to strenghthen the shoulder back, just don't over do it. Good luck.

I was going to say a bunch but nobody listen until after they get hurt.......
So, talk to the doctor and go to PT, stay away from the kite until you get the OK from the Doc. If you don't you will end up on pain meds the rest of your life. Don't listen to me because I have been there and done that. Listen to me because I spend $570.00 a month on PT and meds. I'm on disability for the rest of my crapy life and have to have my liver, kidneys, and heart checked every other month cause morphine does wonderful Sh*tty things to the body besides take away the pain.
But what do I know

I feel better now I got that off my never to be the same chest.

Good advice from BK. And Van as well. The last thing you want is internal scar tissue gumming up the works. A wrecked shoulder is more or less a "use it or lose it" situation. Like Van said keep it moving and work it with light duty and work your way up.

But see a shoulder doctor before you do anything. Since you've posed the question in the forum I can only assume you haven't see a specialist yet. Not to sound overly dramatic but if you mess around with this you could screw yourself for keeps.

You don't want to end up like BK or like me looking at more surgeries in the future. I have a few joints repaired and shoulders were by far the worst.

Good luck.

I have found that I don't bounce back from injuries as fast as I did when I was younger.
Anyone who knows me knows I have my share of them for 50+ .
Add a week or 2 on to the recovery over what the young whipper loopers are saying. What used to take 6 weeks takes 8 for us.
It's sad but true !