Living with a reattached bicep muscle.

Good evening @ssbionicknee, Your shoulder has really been quite cranky. I am not a medically educated person.....just one who has had 4 shoulder surgeries....3 repairs and then a reverse shoulder replacement. I know we don't really remember pain.....or at least we are not supposed to actually feel it. I may not look even anymore and I struggle to do a yoga push up because my replacement arm is now 2 inches longer than the one with my own shoulder.

As I was reading this, the sentence about the knot in your muscle caught my attention. This just might be improved by Myofascial Release treatment. At least let me introduce you to @jenniferhunter. She has listed all of the conditions for which MFR treatment can be helpful. Take it away Jennifer. Sleep well, everyone. Chris

@artscaping @ssbionicknee Thanks for asking me to join your discussion. Both Chris and I know how much myofascial release has helped us with our own medical issues. All surgeries create scar tissue in the fascia which causes restrictions to normal movement, and over time, it all acts to glue muscle together and form knots and trigger points. All of that impacts muscle function, and as it tightens, muscles effectively get shorter and less able to move. Healthy fascia is a net that contains all the body organs and it even conducts electricity, and it exerts many pounds of force on the body. When your movement is impaired, it will start impairing other parts if the body and just gets worse unless you do something to stretch out the fascia and break scar tissue. There will be scar tissue from a surgical repair that is essential with tendon surgery, but also because of the surgical path, and that can cause restricted movement.

I have had a frozen shoulder, and a SLAP tear in my shoulder capsule, and thoracic outlet syndrome that makes my neck and shoulder muscles too tight and I am in physical therapy working on that with MFR and I have made great progress. When you have an injury, your body is trying to stabilize that to protect itself. I also had an old whiplash injury that caused muscle spasms that have been there for years with hard knots in my neck, and I had spine surgery 3 years ago and have been improving ever since because of MFR and physical therapy. Tight fascia causes pain, and sometimes also working on it in PT. My neck does get tight around my spine surgery incision, and I often stretch that area out. I would recommend asking your specialist if you can do MFR work with your restrictions. Here is the link to our Connect discussion on MFR, and you can find a provider search on the MFR website.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/myofascial-release-therapy-mfr-for-treating-compression-and-pain/

Thank you @artscaping and @jenniferhunter. I have had both knees replaced as well and the shoulder surgery was much more painful. My shoulder locked up a bit and we thought I was going to end up with frozen shoulder, but I managed to escape that.I have made an appointment to see the doctor next week and will ask about MFR. Right now, I can only lift about 10 pounds and am beginning to feel like that may be as much as I will ever be able to lift. And I have 2 partial tears in the other shoulder that he wants repair so that they don't get as bad.

I thought I'd follow up with what the MRI said about my shoulder. I just went back to the doctor. The bicep muscle is completely healed as well as 2 of the tendons. But they found that there was a full thickness re-tear of the suprasinatus tendon, with retraction to the mid humeral head, as well as mild atrophy. The doctor wants to go back in and fix the tendon again. My surgery was awful! They did a nerve block and hit my diaphram. I went into V-tach, woke up in the OR and was over sedated because I needed 3 doses of reversal drugs. A 2 hour recovery turned into 7 hours. I struggled to breathe. Then my shoulder froze and I was in extreme pain. I have also had both knees replaced. All of this withing a 15 month time frame. I do not want to have surgery again. It is a 6 month recovery and I feel like my body needs to recover for a while. I also feel like the tendon may re-tear if they do it again. I am also worried about the side effects of the anesthesia. This is also not a good time for surgery as I am expecting my first grandchild in April and my son is getting married in October. I have agreed to try Physical therapy. Anyone else been through this situation?