Carrying after Rotator cuff surgery

CCW007

CCW007

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I am likely going to need surgery on my dominant arm and I am guessing I will not be carrying my normal guns. I am thinking about getting something in a 380 I can pocket carry with a laser for my non dominant arm

Has anyone had the surgery on a dominant arm and how did you cope with shooting and carrying?
 
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CCW007 said:
I am likely going to need surgery on my dominant arm and I am guessing I will not be carrying my normal guns. I am thinking about getting something in a 380 I can pocket carry with a laser.

Has anyone had the surgery on a dominant arm and how did you cope with shooting and carrying?
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Had it December 3rd.

Just now out of a sling no shooting.

Probably for at least another 4 weeks


Good luck. Get the cold water circulator. Take the pain meds.
 
Yeah man honestly I wouldn't even worry about carrying during your recovery. I know it's important to you obviously, but the first 1-2 weeks you will probably be on drugs. Past that you will still feel really bad. It's not unusual to not be able to really contort and move your upper body very well. Pocket carry would be your only realistic way to carry but remember you will only have One pocket for everything. I'd suggest just relaxing as much as possible.
 
Oh and one little tip. Shave your arm pit on surgery arm before surgery. Otherwise you will still have to shave it after surgery like 3 weeks later once you can move it a little without pain. By that time you will basically have dread locks named Dre and Ice tea fighting for space.
 
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Second the cold water circulator, makes it a little more bearable, I'm semi ambidextrous so I carried weak side, as soon as I got out of the sling I switched to a cross draw for my dominat hand because i couldn't get my arm back to a regular holster.
 
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JohnFreeman said:
Especially if you're female! Otherwise unless you're a skinny jean wearing millennial , you're probably AOK as is.
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I've had both shoulders done at different times. From experiance they stink and its like you get bubble gum stuck in your arm pit. It took me at least 4-5 days before I felt like a shower the last time. But that said I'm very hairy. I could braid my arm pit hair.
 
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Oh yeah! Tub baths... I remember those!

I went in being told my surgery would be "arthroscopic" . When I came to, I had a 4" cut on my shoulder where they did some tendon repositioning involving staples and some dremel work on the joint. No showers for a couple weeks.

It was super weird to stand, with my arm out of the sling, and be unable to will it to move more than an inch or so.

PT was challenging....
 
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JohnFreeman said:
I went in being told my surgery would be "arthroscopic" . When I came to, I had a 4" cut on my shoulder where they did some tendon repositioning involving staples and some dremel work on the joint
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My deal Exactly!!! Since then I practice about once a week wiping my behind weak handed.
 
JohnFreeman said:
Oh yeah! Tub baths... I remember those!

I went in being told my surgery would be "arthroscopic" . When I came to, I had a 4" cut on my shoulder where they did some tendon repositioning involving staples and some dremel work on the joint. No showers for a couple weeks.

It was super weird to stand, with my arm out of the sling, and be unable to will it to move more than an inch or so.

PT was challenging....
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my surgeon told me and my wife 45 minutes tops just thought it was a minor clean up. 4 1/2 hours later I came out of surgery. I had to have a special sling and all.
 
I had a complete strong side shoulder replacement.

It took awhile fro the Doc to let me shoot any guns. (he is a shooter himself) When I did start back I used smaller calibers at first. I don’t remember the exact amount of time but it was probably almost 8 months or more.
I still can’t draw a bow of any significant poundage but am able to shoot my 45/70 without much ado.

Pistols and revolvers were not a problem but the long guns took awhile.

Best thing to do is just ask the Doc.
 
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ps ... I don’t remember pain at all. Simplest operation I ever had. They cut the arm bone in half and insert a ball with a spike into the lower part of the cut bone. Through the old shoulder ball away. They screw and glue a new socket to the other end and bingo a new shoulder.
The Doc said it was more like a knee replacement because of the size of my arms but everything went smooth.
I was slinged for awhile but it didn’t slow me down at all. Minimal pain. The therapy was pretty straight forward.
 
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Tailhunter said:
ps ... I don’t remember pain at all. Simplest operation I ever had. They cut the arm bone in half and insert a ball with a spike into the lower part of the cut bone. Through the old shoulder ball away. They screw and glue a new socket to the other end and bingo a new shoulder.
The Doc said it was more like a knee replacement because of the size of my arms but everything went smooth.
I was slinged for awhile but it didn’t slow me down at all. Minimal pain. The therapy was pretty straight forward.
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My brother had the same surgery and about the same results. My guess is the marijuana made it better for him though.
 
Your shoulder will have minimal movement for a while, with your PT increasing range of motion VERY gradually over time. If I was you, I wouldn't carry. You will have weight and ROM limits for several months. Besides, God forbid you actually have to shoot, the other attorney will have a ton of ammo (every pun intended) to use against you.
 
Damn, I need my strong side shoulder done (after repeated injuries) but after reading all these tales of woe, I'm inclined to just live with what I've got! I can choot rifles and hold up a pistol if I use both hands...
 
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Dang!
You guys are scaring the crap out of me! I'm almost 64 and I've never had anything but cancer and fibroid and wisdom tooth surgeries! So 6 surgeries in my life!

I've had quite a few instances of rotator cuff pain, going back to the first "attack" around age 26....excruciating pain!
Everyone I know is getting new "parts" and all that good stuff....I'm freaking out! lol.

I need a drink, and I need to get off this thread! lol.
Edit: I realize how very lucky I am...trust me.....
 
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Red Marley said:
Damn, I need my strong side shoulder done (after repeated injuries) but after reading all these tales of woe, I'm inclined to just live with what I've got! I can choot rifles and hold up a pistol if I use both hands...
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If I were you I would get it diagnosed and find out what you're going to be facing. I waited 4 years from injury to last surgery and the dr said it wouldn't have been that bad. But the instability combined with an active lifestyle(in my 20's) made it a lot worse.
 
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Red Marley said:
Damn, I need my strong side shoulder done (after repeated injuries) but after reading all these tales of woe, I'm inclined to just live with what I've got! I can choot rifles and hold up a pistol if I use both hands...
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If you are anywhere close to the west side of Charlotte. I can reccomend an ortho to do it

Awesome surgeon
 
Red Marley said:
Damn, I need my strong side shoulder done (after repeated injuries) but after reading all these tales of woe, I'm inclined to just live with what I've got! I can choot rifles and hold up a pistol if I use both hands...
Click to expand...

I’ve had two surgeries on my right shoulder and tore it again about 15 yrs ago. Other than having to be careful how I move it on occasion, I am not limited in what I can realistically do, so I skipped the third surgery.
 
I injured my shoulder and the doctors that I went to which was a workers comp claim said that I had a sprain and they told me that I needed some physical therapy so I went through 13 weeks of physical therapy then I was getting so much pain in my shoulder that I couldn't sleep at night so finally they decided oh maybe we need to do an MRI they did and they found a hole in my rotator cuff big enough to put a golf ball through. surgery was done tissue reconnected with stainless steel toggle bolts. Then I went through another 13 weeks of physical therapy but after 8 days I was able to take my arm out of the sling raise it up and the doctor was freaking. he took me to the therapist to said look at this and she said how are you able to do that? you shouldn't be able to do that for at least four or five weeks well I said because I've been through 13 weeks of physical therapy I went home and after this surgery and did the same stuff I've been doing before and wallah there it is.my point is if you're able to do some kind of physical therapy on your shoulder before you have the surgery Build those muscles up and it will reduce the amount of time that you will be able to shoot your gun proficiently again without pain. maybe I was just a lucky one but I went through 13 weeks the second time with the therapy but was funtioning fine after 3 weeks. .
 
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concepthomes1 said:
Nope. I do have my nose hairs and ear hairs waxed though.
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Dude I've always thought about having that done. How bad does it hurt, and when the nose hair grows back in so you get ingrown hairs? Every time I trim the hair around the tip of my nose I always get one or two ingrown hairs and man they hurt.
 
So I had the MRI and have been to the orthopedic. I have tears in two tendons and need surgery to repair. This is something that will keep getting worse.
 
CCW007 said:
So I had the MRI and have been to the orthopedic. I have tears in two tendons and need surgery to repair. This is something that will keep getting worse.
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Yep make your plans and get it done. I waited 4 years and it just totally screwed up my shoulder making recovery a lot worse.
 
Everyone's rotator cuff repair is different. You can look back on a thread in November where I posted that I had fallen off a roof. I completely ruptured my rotator cuff and the doctor had to make me a new one out of cadaver skin. I had absolutely zero pain after the surgery. I woke up with ice machine already attached to me and went home within a couple of hours.
I had the surgery on December 23rd and I get out of my sling/brace this coming Monday. I've already started physical therapy but it's just to move my arm around a bit so the shoulder doesn't freeze up. After this week we will start range of motion exercises.
 
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