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rokshoxbkr19
Jan 23, 2011, 9:01 PM
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Hey all. I took a bad fall snowboarding yesterday and was diagnosed with a grade 3 AC separation. I am going to see some specialists but I'm wondering if anyone has experience with this injury? My main concern is the long term stability of my shoulder. For example, ability to climb hard trad with a full rack and trust my arm if a full dyno needs to be made! Thoughts, advice, etc... welcome!
-Eric
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theartboy
Jan 23, 2011, 9:42 PM
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Good luck on your recovery. I received the same injury on my first day snowboarding. Two weeks later I was back on the slopes because it was so fun, riding not crashing anyway. More than ten years later I am still riding and climbing.
Climbing is one of the activities that I rely on to keep my shoulder holding together without pain. Throwing a baseball overhand and doing push ups and bench pressing are now out. The push action hurts while pulling (climbing, waterskiing, etc) keep the joint tight and strong. If I don't climb regularly the joint gets weak and aches.
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ubu
Jan 23, 2011, 10:37 PM
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I received a grade 3 AC separation many years ago from a body surfing injury. It healed up just fine, back to 100% within maybe 3 months with conservative treatment and without any PT. No long term stability issues in my case. Good luck with your recovery.
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rightarmbad
Jan 24, 2011, 11:39 AM
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I can't imagine that anybody with a grade 3 injury would be back doing anything like skiing or climbing in a couple of weeks.
A simple grade 1 or 2 maybe, but 3 is much more serious in that the ligament is totally torn.
I was happy to be able to pick up my car keys, let alone go climbing.
Mine was treated conservatively and so now have no connection between my collar bone and my shoulder.
There is a significant loss of power in that shoulder.
Some movements such as pinching a hold and trying to hold myself on the rock at anything steeper than vertical are simply impossible.
Get it fixed.
They will plate it at first and if that doesn't take, they will operate to reattach the ligament.
But get it done early.
I was treated conservatively and it was pretty much the end of my competitive years. I had horrible pain for 2 years until it settled down.
The loss of power is obvious in swimming and climbing is just a bitch.
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jape
Jan 25, 2011, 1:40 PM
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rokshoxbkr19 wrote: Hey all. I took a bad fall snowboarding yesterday and was diagnosed with a grade 3 AC separation. I am going to see some specialists but I'm wondering if anyone has experience with this injury? My main concern is the long term stability of my shoulder. For example, ability to climb hard trad with a full rack and trust my arm if a full dyno needs to be made! Thoughts, advice, etc... welcome! -Eric
Tough injury, took me forever to recover and still, 12 years later I feel it after certain moves/routes. Took a long time for me to get functional and even back to 5.11, about 4 years. For a year or two I couldn't even pull easy moves with the arm extended...
But there is hope, 12 years later I just did my 3rd 5.13 @ 40+ years old--even though the shoulder still bugs...
I do:
-lots of rehab exercises (still)
-lots of bodyweight/gymnastic exercises
-no overhead/military presses
I would recommend not trad climbing hard stuff for a while, it can really mess your shoulders up more than sport or bouldering imo, gastoning the edges of cracks, etc, with a full rack seemed to me to be a quick path to messing up my shoulder (again).
Good luck!
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rokshoxbkr19
Jan 27, 2011, 4:57 PM
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thanks for the replies everyone. Seems like a mixed bag on treatment and recovery. Can anyone give me a sense of how long before they were able to start their rehab and light climbing training again?
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ubu
Jan 27, 2011, 5:34 PM
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rokshoxbkr19 wrote: thanks for the replies everyone. Seems like a mixed bag on treatment and recovery. Can anyone give me a sense of how long before they were able to start their rehab and light climbing training again?
It sounds like my experience may have been anomalous, but after ~3 months of being very, very careful in a sling, it look only a week or two of gradually-increasing normal daily activity and self-guided shoulder exercises to feel close to 100% again. I wasn't climbing at the time but was able to get back to whitewater kayaking (a reasonably shoulder-intensive activity) by the 4 month mark.
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rokshoxbkr19
Jan 27, 2011, 5:49 PM
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Ubu, you had a grade III AC Separation? Complete rupture of all 3 ligaments and connection points?
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ubu
Jan 27, 2011, 5:51 PM
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rokshoxbkr19 wrote: Ubu, you had a grade III AC Separation? Complete rupture of all 3 ligaments and connection points?
Yes, that was the diagnosis.
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jape
Jan 28, 2011, 1:40 PM
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Work your "good arm" like the drill in SCC until you feel like you can use the lightest possible pressure (??)
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rokshoxbkr19
Jan 28, 2011, 10:24 PM
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jape wrote: Work your "good arm" like the drill in SCC until you feel like you can use the lightest possible pressure (??)
Sorry Jape, I don't think I understand what you're describing. Can you elaborate? Thanks!
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jape
Feb 9, 2011, 2:07 PM
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Registered: Oct 22, 2009
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The one armed drill in self coached climber, beneficial to my climbing after I injured my AC....kept me psyched and strong (at least on the uninjured side), also helps your balance and movement.
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