So, I dislocated my left shoulder AGAIN.

headrott

This is the 14th time I have dislocated my left shoulder, unfortunately. The right one I've done 11 times.

Unfortunately, my blood sugar dropped to near zero when I was sleeping and I don't remember what happened after that until my girlfriend was putting a weight in my hand and having me hold it with my left arm dangling over the table. The shoulder (of course) did not go in as it never does by itself with only a weight. I was taken to the emergency room where they tried the weight thing for about 35 t0 40 minutes, but nothing. I then asked the doctor to do the "scapula rotation" method of reducing the shoulder which he tried but could not get it to go back in. He then suggested the " (something I don't remember the name) skibowl" method where they had one guy put a sling around my chest and the doctor put all his weight onto my left arm while the other guy pulls away from where the doctor is. Unfortunately, that did not work either.

The next step was to drug me up. They shot my full of 80mg of propafol which is basically an hypnotic agent. It required 200mg more of it plus 5mg of Valium. I don't remember a thing of it consciously, but my girlfriend said I was screaming extrememly loudly as they pulled and twisted my arm until they finally got it to go back into it's socket. Fun........

I hope this this the last time I have to deal with this crap. I've had enough shoulder dislocations in my lifetime.:frown:

Greg

F1nut

All I can say is, OUCH!

WGDB

Yikes!!!! I know pain... but that's out of this world pain....

schwarcw

Greg,

Have you ever heard of Ehler's Danlos Syndrome. It is a connective tissue disorder that many times will present itself as hypermobility of the joints (dislocations, etc.). My wife has it. You may want to do some research and maybe get checked out by a physician who is familiar with this disease. There is no cure but there are things you can do to protect yourself. Look Here

RuSsMaN

How does that happen so many times?

schwarcw

RuSsMaN wrote: »

How does that happen so many times?

A connective tissue disorder is a good possibility. The tendons and ligaments stretch but are weak and don't hold the joint together.

HTguru1982

<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/A3OlFgr4SKA&quot; frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

shawn474

schwarcw wrote: »

Greg,

Have you ever heard of Ehler's Danlos Syndrome. It is a connective tissue disorder that many times will present itself as hypermobility of the joints (dislocations, etc.). My wife has it. You may want to do some research and maybe get checked out by a physician who is familiar with this disease. There is no cure but there are things you can do to protect yourself. Look Here

Carl,
Usually this manifests itself in other ways. Dislocating the same shoulder 14 times would not lead me down the path of a rare disorder. Coversely it makes total sense to me ; a one time dislocation of a shoulder due to an injury is painful. If not rehabbed properly or if the tissues that hold the shoulder in the socket are damaged, it can happen repeatedly. It gets easier and easier to do over time with it sometimes happening in your sleep. I could bet my paycheck that he has a torn labrum and possibly rotator cufftear. After 14 times no amount of rehab will help you. Its time to consult an orthopedic surgeon and consider surgery.

headrott

shawn474 wrote: »

Carl,
Usually this manifests itself in other ways. Dislocating the same shoulder 14 times would not lead me down the path of a rare disorder. Coversely it makes total sense to me ; a one time dislocation of a shoulder due to an injury is painful. If not rehabbed properly or if the tissues that hold the shoulder in the socket are damaged, it can happen repeatedly. It gets easier and easier to do over time with it sometimes happening in your sleep. I could bet my paycheck that he has a torn labrum and possibly rotator cufftear. After 14 times no amount of rehab will help you. Its time to consult an orthopedic surgeon and consider surgery.

Already had orthopedic surgery on both the left and right shoulder. Still dislocated both again since the surgery. But, you are correct that once you dislocate your shoulder once it becomes easier and easier to do over and over again. I have never done it in my sleep though. I did a slight dislocation once when I stood up fast and it slipped out only slightly. I then shifted my shoulder quickly and it went back in.

Yes, the rotator cuff and other muscles and tendons get streached and/or torn when the shoulder is dislocated. Also, the humeral head on my left humerous is dented in an inch (is what the orthopedic surgeon told me) allowing the shoulder to slip out that much easier.

The cause of all of this is not because of Ehler's Danlos Syndrome Carl, but thanks for the suggestion. It is because of my blood sugar getting too low when I am asleep. When my sugar gets low my muscles either are extremely tight or extremely loose. If I hit my elbow (like falling out of bed) when my muscles are extremely loose, my shoulder will pop out of place due to lack of muscle and tendon security.

But, I have also dislocated my shoulder (after the first time of doing both at the same time) while throwing a snowball; lifting a camper off the bed of a truck and it slipping out of my hand; 2 times I did it backpacking 12 miles out in mthe middle of nowhere (once grabbing a friends hand to stop myself from sliding on the snow off a cliff, and once trying to pull myself up a rock face). I am sure there are others, but can't recall them now. Talk about getting premature grey hair. These dislocations are definately doing it. I need to cool it on them.:frown:

Greg

falconcry72

Sounds like a big PITA.:mad:

Shoulder injuries are tough because the shoulder is such a complex joint.

In a motorcycle crash I was in a month ago I fractured my humeral head and did extensive nerve damage, so now I have scapular winging. I couldn't move my arm at all for a couple weeks, but it's a lot better now, and with a few months of PT I think I'll be good to go.

Good luck keepin' your arms in check...or rather, in joint.:biggrin:

Tony M

Wow, sorry to hear of both your shoulder issues. That video puts it into perspective kind-of. I had a frozen shoulder syndrome for 1.5 years and it was NO JOKE!! Didn't sleep much for that period and it just felt like it was out of alignment. The Docs and everybody else said it was where it was supposed to be but man.If your dislocations are anything like what I went through, God help you.

Like I said before, I count my blessings because somebody out there has it worse than I do for sure.

I hope the Docs give you what you need for when you need it.

dorourke07

With all of the medical costs being incurred, you might be able to get your insurance complany to pay for a continuous glucose monitor. This way you would have an alarm that would go off as you past below 80 and again at 60 so that you would wake you up before something like this could happen. Could help with a few issues.

headrott

dorourke07 wrote: »

With all of the medical costs being incurred, you might be able to get your insurance complany to pay for a continuous glucose monitor. This way you would have an alarm that would go off as you past below 80 and again at 60 so that you would wake you up before something like this could happen. Could help with a few issues.

You make an excellent point with the continuous glucose monitor. I would absolutely love one. The last one I really looked into was called the glucowatch. This was about 15 years ago, and it would take your sugar every 10 minutes and set off an alarm if you dropped below a certain level as you were talking about. Unfortunately, it was very sensitive to moisture and took (if I remember correctly) 4 hours to calibrate once you put it on. If/when you took it off you had to replcae the sensor and put it back on with another 4 hour calibration period. As I said, that was 15 years ago though. Maybe they have improved upon the designs of continuous monitors now. I have not looked into lately. I still do the "old style" finger **** adn blood on the test strip in the meter method. I test typically 10 to 15 times a day, but obviously not when I am asleep.

I do not typically have a problem with extremely low sugars when I am asleep, and will wake up if it drops below 65 in most cases. Unfortunately, if my sugar drops too low too fast my body does not have the time to react and wake up for me to do something about it. That's when I run into the problem(s) like I had last Wed.

Anyway, thanks for your encouragement to look into continuous monitoring. Also, thanks for everyones' well wishes.

Greg

agfrost

Good luck Greg; hope you get something worked out. Sounds like no fun!

Jay

dorourke07

headrott wrote: »

As I said, that was 15 years ago though. Maybe they have improved upon the designs of continuous monitors now. I have not looked into lately.

Greg

Its worth a look. My son has one and the technology has really grown. It has a waterproof sensor thats good for 7 days and sends a signal to a pump sized device. The device can be kept in a pocket or clip and if you need to you can leave it at home, the sensor will reconnect when you are back in range. You get a reading every 5 minutes and it tracks 30 days of activity that downloadable to a pc. Good luck and best wishes.