Separated Shoulder

Thomas Banker

Registered User
Mar 2, 2020
1
0
So.... I was playing in a tournament in Maine back in December. I got crunched against the boards and heard some cracking and was in immediate pain. I had labrum surgery after a dislocation on the same shoulder back in September of 2018 so I know exactly what a dislocation feels like and this was different.

I saw an athletic trainer immediately after the hit and she told me to sit the rest of the game out and see how it felt the next day after showing her that I could barely lift my arm above my head. Long story short I didn’t play the next day.

Headed home back to RI on the bus with the team after missing that game and every bump would cause excruciating pain. Saw my athletic trainer when we got back and he said it looked like I had barely suffered a grade 1 separation. I was skeptical but he seemed pretty positive and had been an athletic trainer for a very long time. He told me to sit out a week or so and see how it felt. So I sat out a week and had very little improvement so I decided to head to an orthopedist to get another opinion.

Saw the orthopedist he ran some tests and felt both shoulders. I do not have a visible bump but if you feel both shoulders at the same time, there is a significant difference. The x-rays did not show anything but he said it was a grade 2 separation. He told me to sit out 3-4 weeks and once I had regained full range of motion I could return to playing.

I sat out for 4 weeks without doing anything. I definitely felt way better but still not 100%. Because of this I decided to sit out another week. After 5 weeks from the injury I was still not at 100% but I had full range of motion and got sick of watching my team play from the stands every weekend. So at the beginning of week 6 I started practicing (Non contact) to be ready For the following weekend. Shortly after, I started to do contact and felt pretty good. The last practice before our game, I took a backhand shot and tweaked my shoulder. This sidelined me for another weekend of hockey and I began to grow extremely frustrated after now sitting out for 6 full weeks. I decided to see the orthopedist who did my shoulder surgery back in 2018. He did another x-ray and said everything appeared normal. I explained where my pain was coming from and what motions were causing it. He told me that I had suffered a grade 2 separation. Because I was already at the 6 week mark, he told me to just rest it until I felt good to go again. So, the following Monday I found myself back out on the ice doing full contact. I have been playing since then but have been dealing with some issues.

I am at the 3 month mark now (about 12 weeks) and I still experience aches and pain almost daily. I pretty much have full range of motion. The biggest thing is I still feel like I don’t have full strength. I work at a hockey shop and I experience pain and feel like I don’t have full strength when I tie skates on customers. It is excruciating pain on the top of my shoulder.

To get to my point, I was wondering if this is normal for a grade 2 separation. If anyone has any advice I am open to that too. Thanks!
 

JMCx4

Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
Sep 3, 2017
13,476
8,328
St. Louis, MO
Presuming you were diagnosed with an Acromioclavicular (AC) joint separation, 6 weeks seems to be the general consensus for recovery time to full motion for a Grade II separation. The lingering pain would make me wonder whether you suffered additional injury within your shoulder structure. Your description only mentioned X-rays; you might need an MRI to find other damage and/or some possibly unrelated cause of your pain.

As for advice (beyond: "Return to your orthopedist and/or seek another opinion."), I can't help but think what your pee-wee coach would have told you: "Rub some ice on it, and get back out there!" Don't listen to that coach. :nono:
 

Outl4w

Registered User
Dec 16, 2011
3,110
1,523
FL
I had a grade 3 separation on the ac joint and 8 years later I still get pain arthritic and when I am using it. Some games I can shoot all day without pain and some days a hard shoot will cause pain to shoot all in my shoulder blade. Contact works the same way. The best relief i found was to strengthen my body through working out.I found the deadlifts and over head presses over time have helped . As you age the pain never goes away.
 

Rebels57

Former Flyers fan
Sponsor
Sep 28, 2014
76,383
122,699
Did they check for tendonitis too? I suffered a similar hockey injury and they discovered that the reason the pain was lingering for as long as it was is that I had some calcified tendonitis in there. They sucked it out doing something called ultrasound guided aspiration and my strength returned. Shoulder still gets sore after games but no loss of strength or trouble getting comfortable sleeping like before.
 
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