The cocktail for the arthogram is you inject a little bit of optiray ( or equivalent) contrast just a lil bit and then check to make sure you are in the joint under fluoro. Once you know your in by the way its spreads you take off the optiray and hook up a combo of gad + lido. Generally somewhere in the ballpark of 10-12ccs. Im not 100% sure of the needle size as its not a normal needle is a metal hubbed type needle but id guess its about a 22g that comes in the kit.
They will inject the fluid and your shoulder may hurt when they do that as they are distending the capsule. You cant workout for about 2 days after because its prone to injury until it resorbs.
I wouldnt advocate for corticosteroids into a tendon which some people do who have a tear already BUT if you have bad bursitis I would suggest that before it gets worse and is more difficult to treat. But only if its bad.
Make sure you get a copy of your MRI images for future reference. I mean its "good" that your getting it just for fun and i mean sometimes you just wanna know. I mean as with all aspects of life sometimes you just wanna know even if its not gonna change anything but its not needed unless your gonna act on it. Make sure you post up the results and DO NOT just let them go in there and look around. The MRI will show it. Get the shoulder done on a 3T magnet if you can.
Hi Gotgame
I am posting this terribly late. Sincere apologies. I have been kind of avoiding doing this and just carried on as this is not good news. Perhaps did not want to talk about it. Been depressed with loads of other shit going on in life and this kind of did not take priority. I just carried on training as best as I could as if all is normal sort of thinking of it as a minor glitch.
Sooo here it is kindly advice what u think..
First thing first u asked me to get the shoulder done on a 3T magnet so I asked them but they said we only have 1.5 T . They said it will do the job just fine and apparantly 3T is mostly used in research facilities not much in clinical. May be thats how it is in UK. When I entered the MRI room I saw it in big bold letters on the entrance it said '1.5 T Magnet'.
Anyway so we now have something in common mate ! Its a SLAP LESION TYPE 2. Surgeon asked me what you would like to do and remembering what u had advised me 'dont let them go in and avoid surgery if u can' as u have done personally so I told him i am feeling better ( which I was btw so i didnt just said it to avoid surgery) so he said ok great we leave it at that , we wont do surgery if it gets worse then come back and we will reconsider the management. He did show me on the MRI screen the torn / deattached bit and that this will not heal/attach by itself without surgical intervention ( I knew that bit anyway) .
He was sort of against surgery for me personally. He said rehabbing is a pain especially considering you would like to get back to serious training again. You have to have your arm in a sling , PT etc etc. So he said if you feeling better and can manage, do it without it. So he was not a 'scalpel happy' surgeon I must say which is good. He genuinely advised me to hold off if I could by doing my own rehab and may be not killing myself doing counter productive stuff in the gym.
I have modified my delt training strategy anyway waaaaaaaaay before all this happened. Shame it happened after I had stopped overhead presses. But my right shoulder already had the damage set into it as every year or so it will play up, little pain here and there, crackling ( surgeon btw confirmed that all the cracking /poppoing sound I get even while doing a simple triceps pushdown with a straight cable is because of the labrum tear) .
It has been good 8-10 months since I touched any over heard press movement of any kind
(dumbell, machine, barbell) . I started pairing front and side delts after chest work and rear after back, sometimes doing side twice a week after chest and after back , sometimes doing whole delt by all kind of non overhead presses exe after back. so vareity has not been an issue and iI feel quite fresh and happy with this routine. I am able to train very very hard and hit delt to max without further compromising the injured structures inside the shoulder joint i believe. No pain to speak of. very rarely I have had little episodes of tendeness deep inside but they went away with rehab.
Last 3 weeks I have been doing delts on their own fresh and biceps after them but I am needing to do a lot of weight on my 2-3 modified presses ( These movements are a pure shoudler press for front delts but NOT an overhead press) etc etc to fatigue them to the level I would like to before I call it quits . So I will probably go back to my previous routine of pairing them after chest and back. Dont feel necessary to wake up delts second time in the week other then chest day and put them through the whole ordeal of 1 hour or so of punishment to get the job done.
Kindly see ortho consultants reports (2 reports in total which I have combined into 1) after ultrasound and after MRI arhtrogram and the radiologists finding of the scan and advice what you think of the findings. I will attach them next to this post.
Many thanks for your help as always mate. cheers.
Anyone else please feel free to provide your input. Thank u.
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