UKC

Hey all,
I was on the slate yesterday, pulling a typical "foot onto handrail" rockover with a high left hand. I was halfway up the route pulling this move and heard the tear in my left shoulder as it happened. It was painful but i managed to finish the route without falling.
Now I have a sharp pain when my arm is orientated in certain directions and I'm worried that it's a SLAP tear .
Going to GP tomorrow. I'm a bit fed up as I know how long it usually takes for these things to heal and to go through the NHS system.

In reply to Double Knee Bar: Bad news dude! Sorry to hear that. The best advice I can give is identify a specialist in your area with experience of climbers and shoulder injury. Talk to locals who have been through it and find out who they went with. Tell your GP who you want to be referred to and don't take no for an answer. I went through a similar thing a couple of years ago and the first "specialist" diagnosed a SLAP tear, ordered the wrong scan to diagnose it and was ready to open me up to fix it. Turns out I had nerve damage which the second specialist diagnosed instantly following a chat.

Choosing the right person is often more important than getting seen quickly.

In reply to UppityClimber: Thanks, Let's hope that the GP has experience with it. You'd hope so being based in Llanberis.

In reply to Double Knee Bar: If you live in the northwest there is a specialist private medical group, from memory shoulderdoc.com in Manchester. Worth a chat with them I would have thought. Also in that area, someone I know is getting very good shoulder joint care at Wythenshawe hospital.

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

As a veteran of two shoulder injuries and married to a physio I though I'd give you my tuppence worth.


Probably not a slap tear given there was no trauma, most likely a rotator cuff injury. I.e. You have strained / pulled the tendon in one of the muscles that makes up the rotator cuff. A good physio will be able to tell you which one through various tests, a GP won't and will probably refer you for physio anyway. Tendons take 3 months to heal, more if you keep aggravating things. First time I did it I tried to climb through, second time I took up cycling and drinking beer. There is no shortcut.


Perhaps you need to pay for a private sports physio then. No offence but I think hurting your shoulder on sat and being seen by a GP on a Tuesday is a good service. As I said, tendons take 3 months to heal. If it is a rotator cuff injury, which it sounds like. then you won't get much done in 3 months. Perhaps a steroid injection if things haven't calmed down in a couple of months.

Welcome to being injured , you will climb again but don't rush things.

In reply to altirando: one of the main partners is Leonard Funk who is based at Writington Hospital, who also specialise in upper limb treatment. It was one of his fellows who diagnosed me within minutes. I would agree that it is unlikely to be a SLAP given that you finished the climb and that's pretty unlikely to have happened from what I know of labrum tears.

In reply to Double Knee Bar: shame you don't have a physio friend.........oh wait, you do.....shame he's a southerner now!! :P

In reply to gingerwolf: Coming up this weekend then mate? haha.
It seems that the pain is easing and I've got full motion again so not a slap tear! My new GP seemed to be a muskulo-sketetal specialist, showed me a model of my shjoulder, wiggled my arm about a lot and said it's most likely the tendon that runs over the top of the shoulder is aggrevated but not torn.
feel a lot more positive now.

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

An impingement?

In reply to jon: Cant remember him using that word. Is that what an impingement is? he said the tendon was aggrevated by the sharp bone at the top of the shoulder (sorry for my poor terminology)

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

In essence yes. Don't trust a GP to get the diagnosis right. Also they are likely to be reluctant to send you for an MRI scan due to the cost. I was misdiagnosed as having a frozen shoulder and then has having a rotator cuff muscle tear, in both cases with mobilisation recommended. I didn't believe them, paid for a private MRI and one-off session with a consultant. Turns out the underlying issue was bone spurs which were shredding my tendon and tearing the rotator cuff muscle and the mobilisation only made it much worse. I have recently had an op to sort it out and am on a long road to hopefully full or near full recovery

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

Yes, exactly that. That particular tendon runs through a narrow space under the 'sharp bone' (the acromium). http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/impingement-syndrome/Pages/Impingement-syndrom... If the tendon is damaged it becomes inflamed and is then aggravated by just about any movement as it rubs against the underside of the acromium. You'd be best to investigate every possible treatment for it and to take the climbing very easy. I didn't and in the end it was so bad that I had to have surgery, the recovery from which was also very painful. If you react now at this early stage you should be fine, but take it seriously!

In reply to jon: Thanks guys. It's getting less painful each day and I've got a full range of motion back already. going to lat off climbing totally for the next week or so but I don't think it's as bad as I feared.