10 weeks!

To my dozens of fans and committed readers, I thank you for making it with me through TEN WEEKS(!) of rehab. At this point, I'm ready to start throwing a Frisbee 10 yards with a partner (call me!), and I'm hoping to be climbing by February.

Lita and I decided that because of my rapid progress and most especially my diligent attitude toward my rehab, it is ok to move to one PT session per week. This lightens the load on my wallet, opens up more time at work (I'm back to kicking ass full time without any issues as I do my lab work), and saves my precious insurance-paid PT visits just in case I need them down the line in 2015.

Upon reading the literature on these shoulder recoveries (see earlier posts for these papers) and knowing how my body feels relative to those reports, I believe I am in the final phase of my rehab, which normally is considered to be the 12-16 week period, so again, a bit ahead of schedule. Certainly, I will continue to work hard during the 4-6 month post-op period to build more strength, but I am very close (~1 month?) to reaching the end of my traditional rehab including visits to the therapist's office.

Lita is still holding me back from working my biceps/triceps even though this is typically acceptable at this point in the process, simply because she doesn't want me building any bad habits as far as my motion is concerned. A reminder, the surgery happened 10 weeks ago, but the injury and bad compensatory habits, started years before. We want to rebuild my arm better than ever, and I love Lita's mix of I'm-gonna-kick-your-ass-and-work-you-hard balanced with a be-safe-here approach.

I am just nearly squatting my body weight again, starting light deadlifts, and adding weight to my shoulder lifts (i.e. 8lb prone rear raises, 3lb prone side raises, 2.5lb standing 45 degree raises). A note about my 45 degree raises, Lita started a new manual technique this past Friday do get my shoulder to slide down into the glenohumeral joint, which has helped me with this exercise. No longer does my right shoulder pop/stay up when I lift my arms to the side. The motion is still a little disjointed, certainly not smooth, but the form is there. I should include a picture of this, but it may be too late to capture the previous poor ROM/form.

Just one fully new activity, this week, prone overhead lifts. They are challenging and I can't quite get my arm straight out above my head; as I straighten it, the arm slides out to the side a bit.

Prone overhead lifts

I did advance some of the other motions a little further. My hand is just about getting to the wall in the standing posture exercise. Also, I'm now doing my side plank from a "standing" position instead of from my knees.

"Standing" side plank

You get the idea.

Can't wait to post the next update which will be 12 weeks post-surgery, and leading up to my 3-month follow-up appointment with Dr. Berdia!