Dislocated Shoulder and wake boarding

I dislocated my shoulder 2 summers ago and when I fall just right (or wrong), I hurt my shoulder. Basically if I hit the water backwards on my right side and my arm is thrown over my head (like a swimming back stroke but really fast and out of control) it hurts a lot for a few weeks. I have slowed down the boat that helps a little (basically I do not fall but then I can not do many tricks) but I was thinking of getting a shoulder harness that they use for ski jumping to protect my right shoulder. Any thoughts if this will protect my shoulder and how it will impact wakeboarding. I have talked to ski jumpers that told me that they have hyper extended their elbow because of the harness when they fell (but I assume at a lot faster speed). Maybe I should just keep to surfing at 10 mph


BTW, I went to the doctor and had a MRI/XRAY ($1,000 charge, that I only paid 10%) and he said that he could not see any damage. I went to a physical therapy and basically spent $130 to show how to do basic shoulder exercise that you can find in any exercise book.

I am really working on exercising my right shoulder to get ready for this summer. Any suggestions on what to do? Find another doctor that specializes in shoulder problems?

Doug

get used to it, both of my shoulders are completely trashed due to my other hobby, I've raced motocross for several years. My right shoulder hurts all the time, sometimes worse than others. My left shoulder used to fall out of socket whenever it felt like it. It was bad enough to where I had it pop out while brushing my teeth, putting on my seat belt and several other things that you would not think of. It sucks. My brother in law is a Chiropractor and he really helped me out. I was scared to do anything because of my shoulders, but he got me feeling so good that I started racing again. I would suggest going to see a Chiropractor and I'm betting he will get you feeling better. Basically what he told me was that the reason most people dislocate their shoulders is because the muscle on the back, I forget the name, is weak. Everyone that works out does not work out that particular muscle until they dislocate their shoulder so that causes the muscles in the front to pull the soulder forward and the weak one in the rear no longer stabilzes the shoulder. He showed me some excercises to do with weights that really helped me out. I was also taking Vioxx before it was ripped of the market and that was awesome. I've taken glucloseamine in the past and it worked really well for joint pain. It's a one a day seal and in a couple of weeks the pain subsides. Good Luck and go see a Chiropractor.

You have to rest-the shoulder tears very easily and will come back if you move the wrong way doing something simple-I was told to stop everything for 5-6 weeks and then start light-I kept lifting and blew a season because it never healed. Good luck

Doug,

I, too, have some shoulder injuries. Currently I'm dealing with my left shoulder.

Here are my suggestions with regards to getting quality medical care for your shoulder:

1) Find an orthopaedic specialist/sports doctor, preferrably one who specializes in the upper extremities (shoulders namely).

2) During your initial visit with the specialist ask lots of questions about the injury. You might want to ask for another MRI. Get the new MRI with contrast. That might help show an injury that "hides" from a regular MRI.

3) Do some research online using keywords like "wakeboarding shoulder injury", "impingement syndrome", anything to do with some of the symptoms that you're having.

Hope you get better. Keep us updated.

Jeff