Anyone torn a meniscus in their knee.

[Redgully]

Yeah. My RCs were just GONE; nothing left to try to sew back together.
Last one... I was unloading sacks of mineral out of the back of the Suburban. Something went POW!... I screamed like a little schoolgirl... and could no longer lift my arm at all.
I now have pieces of cadaver dermal tissue in both shoulders, which my own fibroblasts have infiltrated, taking the place of some of the original RC.

I could definitely drag and gut... but would have to take a break or two during the skinning/gutting process. Just can't lift and hold a heavy rifle any more.

Your situation sounds similar to my father. He has had both shoulders done but they are both stuffed. Can lift with arms down but can't lift arms above shoulder at all. The doctor reckons his right shoulder is the worst he's ever seen, ended up just cutting out half the tendons and tried grafting the other ones in bone and joining but think they failed. I've never seen my dad in so much pain for weeks after the surgery. Even now years later he struggles to sleep. His left should wasn't too bad after a couple of years so dad decided to fall off truck and do the job properly. He won't go back for more surgery because of the pain. Guy next door had 17 surgeries on his shoulders and has recently had them replaced. He told me they are still useless but don't hurt much now.

I'm now 5 days post surgery and feel great, the range of movement in my knee is nearly back to normal after a couple of years being not able to bend it fully. I think It's going to be great. I guess the trick now is to not over do it. Lucky my shoulders are still 100%, my dad had already had years of problems and surgery by my age.

 

[Lucky_P]

The orthopedist told me from the outset that this new technique... supracapsular reconstruction (animation here: ) would mainly reduce/relieve pain, as it would stop my humeral head from riding up. No guarantees of returned function.
To be honest, the pain is certainly a lot better... I can sleep at night without opioids.

 

[Redgully]

The orthopedist told me from the outset that this new technique... supracapsular reconstruction (animation here: ) would mainly reduce/relieve pain, as it would stop my humeral head from riding up. No guarantees of returned function.
To be honest, the pain is certainly a lot better... I can sleep at night without opioids.

The procedures they are coming up with now are incredible. And all by key hole can't be understated in the recovery process. Like your knee, when my dad had his first shoulder operation they basically cut right across his shoulder and opened it right up. Second was just a few dots.

A bit late for you now but there is some new treatments now that are for early stage degeneration to prevent getting to the point where radical surgery is required. This technique looks really promising if there is no calcification grinding the tendons.



The company behind this just had it's first fda approval for another product. The ati is currently being trialled by Johnson and Johnson and if they are happy should be rolled out across the states in the coming years. I know three people who have had ati and they swear by it, one guy couldn't lift his arm above his head for a couple of years and struggled to sleep, just six months later and he had taken up boxing again!

 

[Lucky_P]

I've been the route of prolotherapy on knee and shoulders, and even did one round of PRP (platelet-rich plasma) injections in the knee - and I strongly advocate prolotherapy for some conditions...by all means, stay away from doctors who want to inject corticosteroids IN your joints! But..
Prolotherapy can't fix 40 yrs of bone on bone or catastrophic tendon/ligament rupture

 

[Redgully]

That's the problem with working people, we keep going until we can't work anymore and by then it's to late for a simple fix.

My aunty who works in regional hospitals said men come in with terrible problems, especially uncircumcised and prostate issues, because they are too embarrassed and don't like asking for help. We're our own worse enemy at times.