Question about Right Shoulder Dislocations

Hi everyone,
This is my first post on T forums. To give you all a quick, quick background so I don’t bore everyone…I dislocated my right shoulder in 2005 playing dodgeball. I dislocated it later that year for a second time. In 2006, I dislocated my shoulder a 3rd and 4th time. I never saw a doctor, didn’t get an MRI or x-ray because I’m a dumbass. But I went to PT and strengthened it in the gym and never dislocated it since. I did have one sublaxation like 6 years ago. I recently saw an orthopedic surgeon about it because I’m pretty pissed at myself that I didn’t have surgery on it back In 2005-2006. He said I don’t need surgery that I should continue to do strengthening exercises and PT.

I know some people have great results with labrum/bankart repairs and some don’t, It depends on multiple factors I think. What I’m always wondering is, would my shoulder better if I had the surgery back then? Are the outcomes way better? My shoulder hurts and aches and I should mention that I haven’t been able to lift in 4 years, I have chronic lyme disease and that’s affected my ability to lift…another story for another time.

I would love to be able to swim, play tennis, rock climb, lift heavy etc. but I don’t know if not having the surgery back then f’ed up my shoulder for life. I should mention that between 2005-2013 I was lifting heavy, with weighted dips, deadlifts, squats etc, with no shoulder dislocations (although I was always worried about it).

I can’t really comment much on the surgery but I dealt with chronic Lyme disease and it caused some nagging pain type feelings in old injuries, even though I was not doing anything specific to aggravate them. Maybe continuing to treat and overcome your chronic Lyme disease issues will help so that you can do those things again pain free, or without worry. Though I must admit I am impressed you can be that active while dealing with the symptoms of chronic Lyme disease. Of course it is important to rehab your injury and do corrective exercises first, but I just wanted to chime in to let you know sometimes the Lyme disease at least in my case made me feel like I was accumulating all these new injuries out of nowhere. However it ended up being partly a symptom of the Lyme disease itself. Which has been a fairly common symptom of others with Lyme disease I spoke with as well.

I had fairly regular subluxations of my right shoulder in the early 2000’s. I ignored them because they never affected my performance until, of course, I arrived at Wichita State on a pitching scholarship.

I had surgery to tighten everything up in 2004 and everything was good…until now. I’ve recently noticed that it’s loosened up again and I’m starting to have some pain.

I can’t say that I regret having surgery. It improved things for 10+ years.

I’d only suggest surgery if you have debris or the labrum is torn and catching. Otherwise you’re fine.

I’ve also experienced subluxations in both kneecaps. I had one surgically repaired but not the other. I’d say it’s a toss up about which one is better. They both still hurt occasionally; just in different ways.