Help! Shoulder and neck jacked!

So I know the first suggestion would be to see my primary dr. but if I can narrow down any specialists, I would rather make an appt. with them immediately ( I have PPO)

My question is, do I see an orthopedic specialist?

The top of my shoulder is in pain, but I have full range of movement pretty much...

Also, can someone help me understand what osteopathy is? I keep getting really vague answers from people...I understand they use musculoskelatal manipulation, but..how is it different from chiropractic?

A Chiropractor is not a MD medical doctor, an Osteopath is a bone doctor and is a MD that has gone to medical school. Not all Osteopaths use skeletal manipulation.

No deformity in the shoulder? Sounds like a type-1 AC joint separation injury.

Rest, ice, and range of motion exercises for about three weeks. If your range of motion is OK, you can train but try to wear a shoulder pad to help protect the tender area.

I?ve had that before and it is uncomfortable, but if you are careful it should heal OK.

Thanks guys..

I went to an orthopedic dr. and its totally type 1 AC joint separation.

What shoulder pad are you talking about?

Get a doughnut-shaped pad and tape it on to avoid direct hits on the joint.

How long did you end up taking off from training and was there any discomfort when you went back?

ttt

I took off a month of putting any kind of "pressure" on it. And yes, there was alot of discomfort - there still is a feeling of impingement but deep massage and being smart and taking the time to let it "heal" has been worthwhile. I rarely notice it in my daily activities, even when lifting unless it's something like overhead lifts. I just stay mindful of what I'm doing.

Sleeping on that side is finally ok but it still bothers me sometimes.

thanks, im a little over 2 weeks right now. ill probably wait another week and see how it goes from there.

What did you do to your shoulder? Did you get it checked out?

type 1 seperation. got the xrays and all that. i have full range of motion just a little painful sometimes when sleeping. i haven't really tested it too much and i probably won't try bjj for at least another week depending on how i'm feeling. the reports vary so much on the internet and my doctor didn't help me too much to advise me of how long i should be taking off from bjj and lifting.

TAKE YOUR TIME!!!

seriously. I didn't think I would ever to get the point I'm at now, which is basically "unnoticeable" and it's because I really stayed vigilant on not re-traumatizing it. Even my bump has lessened considerably. Good luck on it!!! shoulder injuries suck ASS!

this is my first "major" injury, if you can call it that, because my friend just had ACL reconstruction so I would be doing him a great injustice by calling mine major. Did you do any strengthening exercises for it? You have been really helpful so far. What was your timeline like for going back to doing things and how did you know you were ready for the next step?

ttt

omg. I just wrote all this stuff and it disappeared...I'm at work, I will re-write :/

alright. thanks

ok, second attempt...

I did NO strengthening exercises while in the resting phase, even though I was itching to do it. You know, you always "feel better" prematurely and jack it up over and over...I was told to let it rest completely, and slowly incorporate range of motion movements after at least 2-3 weeks of just letting it rest. If I did do anything, I was to ice the area, but really my dr. emphasized resting and taking it asy as the best option for the first month to six weeks.

So, I started to feel better after a couple weeks...mind you, I didn't go to the dr. until at least a 3-4 weeks after the initial injury because I'm stupid and like most of us on here, have learned to deal with pain and discomfort and wanted to see if I could just power through it and let it heal on its own.

During this time, I didn't really stop training - I stopped punching and grappling - but I was still doing yoga and cardio and stuff, thinking it was ok...

Yoga was NOT ok apparently, as the class I was in required doing a million downward dogs and push up positions and strange angles that were more than likely, retraumitizing my shoulder over and over again.

So, when I finally got serious about it, I remember feeling resigned and lame for actually resting but it was the best thing I could've done.

There were times where I would do a seemingly nothing movement and I would get the worst sudden shock of pain for no apparent reason or I would do something too fast and I would get a pain in my shoulder.

So I rested it and after a month or so; I did other activities while resting my shoulder because my trainer adjusted my routine.

After about a month, she mainly worked on very light weights to strengthen the areas around the joint and we used alot of cable machines. I am a Free Motion addict now. Basically since it's level 1, you can do as much as you can tolerate but don't be in denial and be stupid about what you're doing. Anything that's going to require you to do sudden, jerky movements is NOT good, neither is anything putting you in unnatural angles where there will be alot of pressure on your shoulder DOWNWARD DOG!

I would not rush into anything like grappling (unless it's slow technique drills and even so, you really have to be careful who you train with...) or hitting a heavy bag with that shoulder and putting undue shock on it until at least a couple-few months.

I mean, you COULD....but you may extend the time it takes for pain and discomfort to disappear a considerable amount.

My trainer had me work on normal things which would slowly introduce range of motion for me with some resistance but really, she had me on very VERY light weight and slowly worked me back to normal. Now I have no issues and my previously noticeable bump has about disappeared. I have no pain at all however I still encounter a bit of tightness that feels like an impinged feeling every ONCE in awhile but nothing really remarkable at all.

I found that massages helped alot, you know, to get some good blood flow to the area and to relieve any sort of tightness in general.

That's about it. It's pretty basic - don't rush into anything and rest and be careful for a few months. Good luck! You may also want to ask the Strength and Conditioning board and see what they have to say :)

Thanks. I played golf yesterday and tried to kill the ball on the first hole. I got a sharp pain, but no lingering effects later on and played pretty easy the rest of the time. I am going to go back to bjj tomorrow, but only light drilling I think with a friend who knows I'm hurt. It feels great right now, but I don't think it's enough time to be able to go back to doing anything hardcore. Thanks again for all your advice.

When you suffer an injury like this, it has an effect of the structure of your entire body. Therefore, in order to fix the problem quickly, you need to repair the entire body. The reason why your recovery is so slow is because you are treating the problem site specific. In addition, when you only do site specific exercises, you are only strengthening the problem you have an making your body more vulnerable to injury in the future.

What do you suggest bolo and have you ever had this happen before?