C-Forum

I dislocated my shoulder almost 6 weeks ago. The shoulder was out for about 5 hours. Well I still can't lift arm past shoulder height.
I own and run a canoe school in the Yukon so it is a big drag. Anyone have experience in how long it really takes to heal. This was the first time and I don't want to do it again. i t sounds like the first 6 months is critical for healing. I think I could paddle soon but it may be very hard to not play hard. Should I ust take the season off? when I am teaching I have much more to worry about, pulling in swimmers and boats and so on.

Any advice would sure be appreciated as i haven't found many canoers that have had similar injury. i do have a friend who has done his 6 or 7 times so his shoulder is $?!!ed. But he still paddles tons.

I didn't even pull mine out all the way and it took 3 months til I was paddling confidently. At the end of a hard day of paddling I still feel it aching, and its been a year and three months
Good luck, take care of it!

Wow. 6 weeks after dislocation and you have your arm shoulder high. That is impressive. Continue taking your time with it and let it heal, but definitely get involved with physical therapy if you have not already started. Increasing your range of motion helps with the healing process, but these movements need to be done with, and by, a physical terrorist.

Many years ago, I slept on my arm wrong, causing it to slip out of joint, so when I woke up, the arm was essentially paralyzed and the shoulder was VERY painful for many days afterward . For several months, I would try and push a swinging door open only to walk right into it--I just had no strength to push with it (no jokes about pushing on a door marked "PULL" please ). Now, both of my shoulders have subluxed (slipped out of socket) enough times that it does not hurt, just a little uncomfortable. It does help with reaching WAY back behind for a high brace, but this particular move is not recommended anyways (something about risking a shoulder injury !).

Anyways, it could not hurt to take the summer off and attend to your work needs, but who knows, you could be back in shape before the summer completely leaves us.

KNeal

thanks for the advice- This is my work- my main income of the year