Raymond

Big Sur, CA

I know it’s been a while since my initial post about dislocating my shoulder. The whole month of December was crunch-time as I was finishing up my very last semester at San Francisco State. (YES!) Here’s how my progress has been so far:

Overall: Good.

Obviously the first week and a half after the injury was spending time in an old sling I had from way back from the hospital. 

About 3 days after the dislocation, I began isometric exercises: First, by facing a wall, making a fist and then pressing against the wall. Like so:

Held that for about 10-15 seconds. Then followed it by isometric abduction (while in a sling): 

Again, 10-15 seconds. Then flexion and extension:

The last two required me being out of the sling. All of these exercises were done in consideration to any pain. All dislocations can be slightly different so if you’re trying this by day 3 and it hurts like hell, STOP. Pretty common sense. 

The exercises and advice came from Coach Ray, who I called early one morning. He let me know that it’s important to keep the muscles “turned on” so that my left doesn’t go in to atrophy. Even something as simple as holding a tight fist can help. 

By mid-December I was out of the sling and can do daily activities to go about my day. Exercises in the gym consisted of all the isometric exercises above, plus slowly incorporating isometric external/internal rotations.

This will probably be my longest post in this series since I will include some background.

My first shoulder dislocation 

happened in high school. I was playing tackle football at Cataldi Park in San Jose. As I was attempting to tackle the ball carrier, my left arm was caught reaching and the runner made a cut inside. He took my arm with him. I hit the ground, instantly feeling the pain and it was excruciating. 

Long story short, I dislocated the same shoulder about 4 times before surgery, all while playing football. It was a combination of being young and negligent, and never properly rehabbing my shoulder after the first instance. By now you’re probably thinking, “Well no wonder, you dummy.” Trust me, I know. I finally had surgery in 2014 and spent about a year rehabbing and getting back into the swing of things.

November 26th, 2016

After I was doing some snatch warm ups with a barbell, I was bring it back down behind my neck and the slightest momentum of the bar falling backwards caused a sharp pain in my left shoulder. My initial thought was “Damn, maybe I just tweaked it.” But as that familiar pain continued and lingered, I knew right then. My shoulder had dislocated again. 

I rushed to the back and luckily one of the last trainers was still there. I told him what happened and he gave his best attempt in putting my shoulder back in. Maybe not the best medical approach, but damn it, I was hurting. He was able to gentle slide the shoulder back into place. Instant relief followed by pure devastation. 

I sat alone at my desk with a frozen bag of meat placed on my shoulder. I just sat there. Since no one was around I allowed myself a few screams of “FUCK!!” I thought about all the work I had done to recover from surgery and the gains I had made in my lifts. Gone. I was so angry. Thoughts of “Why couldn’t I just leave work? Why did I have to pick up the barbell? How could this have happened?” So many questions that made me wish I could jump in a time machine. 

The shit-icing that was on top of the already shit-cake is that I have no insurance. Since I am finishing up my last semester in school, I work part-time. So I can’t get an MRI without paying a lot. Even if I got one and it showed I had a tear, I DEFINITELY can’t afford surgery. Thinking about all that made me even more depressed. 

Since then, I’ve been getting the best support from coaches and friends. I’m slowly accepting what happened. Although unfortunate, I try to remain positive. I had thoughts of just giving up training due to me feeling completely futile, but I know there are ways to overcome injuries. Really, giving up can’t be an option. I just have to be more creative in staying active and remaining relatively strong.