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Thread: 25 year old with shoulder arthritis

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2020
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    Default 25 year old with shoulder arthritis

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    Hello. Here's my situation:

    I'm a 25 year old male. I've been experiencing some persistent shoulder pain for the last 5 months or so that has steadily increased to the point where I have a difficult time falling asleep at night, and I can no longer press/bench without lots of pain.
    There is a visible protrusion on top of my shoulder (my acromion, I think) that I've been told by an orthopedic surgeon is an arthritic bone spur (he also says I have a "minor" tear in my labrum).

    After a steroid shot in my shoulder did nothing to help, the options he gave me were, a) "Take it easy and see if the pain subsides"; i.e. stop pressing/benching for an indefinite period (not an option), or b) have him arthroscopically shave down 5-7mm of the bone spur, and if he thinks the tear is bad enough when he's in there, he'll repair that too.

    I'm hoping someone here who has dealt with something similar can red pill me. What should I expect recovery to be like? Doc said it would 3 to 5 months before he'd "let me" lift weights, which immediately made me question whether I should let him operate on me. I guess I'd just like to know what I should expect in terms of results and recovery with a surgery like this.

    I believe I'm leaning toward getting the surgery, because as far as surgery goes, it seems relatively low-risk and minimally invasive. But I'm a 25 year old who's never had surgery, so I don't know anything.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Wichita Falls, Texas
    Posts
    2,414

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by SWR-52 View Post
    Hello. Here's my situation:

    I'm a 25 year old male. I've been experiencing some persistent shoulder pain for the last 5 months or so that has steadily increased to the point where I have a difficult time falling asleep at night, and I can no longer press/bench without lots of pain.
    There is a visible protrusion on top of my shoulder (my acromion, I think) that I've been told by an orthopedic surgeon is an arthritic bone spur (he also says I have a "minor" tear in my labrum).

    After a steroid shot in my shoulder did nothing to help, the options he gave me were, a) "Take it easy and see if the pain subsides"; i.e. stop pressing/benching for an indefinite period (not an option), or b) have him arthroscopically shave down 5-7mm of the bone spur, and if he thinks the tear is bad enough when he's in there, he'll repair that too.

    I'm hoping someone here who has dealt with something similar can red pill me. What should I expect recovery to be like? Doc said it would 3 to 5 months before he'd "let me" lift weights, which immediately made me question whether I should let him operate on me. I guess I'd just like to know what I should expect in terms of results and recovery with a surgery like this.

    I believe I'm leaning toward getting the surgery, because as far as surgery goes, it seems relatively low-risk and minimally invasive. But I'm a 25 year old who's never had surgery, so I don't know anything.
    What else have you tried other than consulting with a surgeon? Have you seen the positive outcome rate with subacromial decompressions compared to conservative treatment? There seems to be a whole lot of "well....maybe....I'll just take a look and see...…". This would certainly not be enough for me to be comfortable letting a surgeon operate on me. Granted, I have a different take on these things based off my profession, but what if all this is simply from you having shitty form or shitty programming?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Posts
    158

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by SWR-52 View Post
    Hello. Here's my situation:

    I'm a 25 year old male. I've been experiencing some persistent shoulder pain for the last 5 months or so that has steadily increased to the point where I have a difficult time falling asleep at night, and I can no longer press/bench without lots of pain.
    There is a visible protrusion on top of my shoulder (my acromion, I think) that I've been told by an orthopedic surgeon is an arthritic bone spur (he also says I have a "minor" tear in my labrum).

    After a steroid shot in my shoulder did nothing to help, the options he gave me were, a) "Take it easy and see if the pain subsides"; i.e. stop pressing/benching for an indefinite period (not an option), or b) have him arthroscopically shave down 5-7mm of the bone spur, and if he thinks the tear is bad enough when he's in there, he'll repair that too.

    I'm hoping someone here who has dealt with something similar can red pill me. What should I expect recovery to be like? Doc said it would 3 to 5 months before he'd "let me" lift weights, which immediately made me question whether I should let him operate on me. I guess I'd just like to know what I should expect in terms of results and recovery with a surgery like this.

    I believe I'm leaning toward getting the surgery, because as far as surgery goes, it seems relatively low-risk and minimally invasive. But I'm a 25 year old who's never had surgery, so I don't know anything.
    Before finding Coach Rippetoe, I had surgery on my shoulder for something similar. It hurt like Hell.

    I can't remember how long it took after surgery but I started lifting but no bench press. Only the press.

    When the same issue cropped up on my other shoulder, instead of surgery, this is what I did:

    1. No sleeping on my side.
    2. Eliminated the bench press.
    3. Started pressing with nothing and then a broom stick and gradually increased weight following the Starr Rehab Protocol.
    4. Took a ton of fish oil and other things to help with inflammation.
    5. Ultimately, I had no surgery on the shoulder I rehabbed this way.

    I would personally eliminate the bench for now and I would do the above things to see what happens.

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