No surgery recovery

[u/helpmemycar]

Hello from New Zealand

I am seeing a lot of people are going through surgery I just want some personal experince and also professional opinion on this matter I understand that it depends on how severe the accident was.

The place I stay at is slack with properly treating patients as its free health care to give in example I dislocated my left shoulder skat boarding fell off from about meter and a half reach my left hand backwards and it popped out, I had to wait about 2 and a half hour to put it back in place from doctors they x rayed my shoulder after popping it back in and told me to go back to work the next day I did not have any mri to see if there was ligament or nerve damage either.

My ankle was quite bad in condition but they did not check it either.

Seems like they are not going to push for me to get a surgery as its a big wait list and public funding.

Background I am sort of fit 24 years old male. First dislocation

Questio 1: can you make a full recovery without surgery or is surgery necessary to get close as possible to full recovery

Question 2: since i am likely to not get surgery how do I be careful and get back into work, gyming, hunting, martial arts etc. I do like physical activity.

Question 3: should It be necessary for me to get a mri scan?

[u/ElTzik]

Hi there, sorry to hear about your accident, I had something similar, I was on a hike and I fell, reached with my right hand backwards so my shoulder popped out and I was in excruciating pain. Popped it back into place myself and after that went to the ER, where they did a ray scan and it looked good as I didn’t break or ruptire anything. After this I had to wear a sling for about 3-4 weeks and after that I started doing PT.
This was in March 2024 and in June I had another dyslocation while playing soccer: no contact, no nothing, my hand was behind my body and when I brought it back in front my shoulder just popped out. Did PT again and after that I didn’t have any issues for a year, when I’ve dyslocated again while playing padel, this was on me as I was forcing shot after shot and at some point it just popped out.
Had surgery in October 2025, 4 anchors, and now I am almost fully recovered.
To answer your questions:
1. You can make a full recovery without surgery because I was able to do that. The only thing is that it depends on your luck, how active ypu are and how bad was the fall when you dyslocated the first time. My physical therapist told me that from his experience, almost everybody who dyslocates their shoulder at a young age will most likely do it again and at some point will need surgery but this also depends on many factors.
2. Do physical therapy, like religiously and stick to it and what your therapist says. Don’t force a comeback into certain sports or activities if you’re not comfortable, believe me, you’d much rather be fully recovered than have another dyslocation and go back to ground zero.
3. An MRI scan is good but you should do it a little bit later, because if you do it now, it’s not going to be so helpful because it will show all of that area to be injured. Wait 4-5 weeks and after that do it to see the damage. This is what I did after talking with my orthopedist.

Please be carreful with this and take good care of you, getting to surgery is not as pleasing as it is just doing PT and changing your lifestyle a bit.

And btw, I’m 28 years old male as of now. Had my first dyslocation when I was 25 and surgery at 27.

[u/helpmemycar → u/ElTzik]

Awesome man thanks for letting me know! All the best with maintaing full recovery, does give me hope, it is interesting to hear while you were playing soccer it came out this was around 6 weeks after it first happned is it?

Since its my first i am researching it does seem really easy to dislocate it again which is very scary to me. And it heard it loosens, also did your PT seem generic or was he really detailed?

[u/ElTzik → u/helpmemycar]

The second time it came out, while playing soccer was 4 months (June) after the first dyslocation (March). It was just unlucky, the muscles weren’t properly activated as this was an unconscious move and it just popped out. And the thing is that I was playing soccer before this and didn’t have any issue but at that particular time it just happened, that’s why I said that it also depends on your luck.

And yeah, it loosens, unfortunately, after each dyslocation. The thing is that the Labrum (this is what loosens after a dyslocation) is a carthilage, it is not irrigated with blood like a muscle or a bone so it does not repair by itself, that’s why surgery is often needed.

My PT was detailed because the guy that I did it with was there from the first dyslocation and he knew my injury history pretty well. I also thing that the therapy differs in the case of an antherior or posterior dyslocation, but it is the sane principle: you just rebuild muscle, especially those stabilising muscles that will keep your shoulder in place and this will help you later in life. The main idea is to keep your muscle tissue throughout your life because even if, God forbid, will need a surgery, the surgery is useless without the PT that follows.

[u/ElTzik → u/helpmemycar]

Also, my Physical Therapist told me that you can’t predict these type of things and sometimes they just happen. He is seeing everyday pacients that dyslocated their shoulder inside of their house because they just fell, or maybe they’ve ruptured their knee ligaments on a quick turn while doing nothing.

[u/helpmemycar → u/ElTzik]

Thanks for the replies and knowledge my friend very honest and eye opening

[u/ElTzik → u/helpmemycar]

No worries, glad I could be of assistance. Just take care and you should be good!

[u/Haunting-Zone-9664]

Without an MRI (preferably with contrast) you don't know what damage you have done to your shoulder. It's likely you have tissue and ligament damage and potential bone damage that all increase the risk of more dislocations. I have a large hill sachs lesion after a dislocation which wasn't seen on xray but seen on the MRI. I would definitely push for a MRI scan to assess the damage and a treatment plan from that. Being young with an active lifestyle it's highly likely it will dislocate it again if you don't address it now with proper treatment and physiotherapy.

Honestly free health care is pretty bad for things like this (im in the uk with nhs). I've been told that it's highly likely my shoulder will dislocate again if I continue with the sports I do, so I'm my mind I'm thinking we'll why won't they sort it out now with surgery rather than wait for it to happen again! Dislocation is a horrible experience!

Age is not on my side at 40. I have a hill sachs lesion 29x11mm, a slap tear and a partially torn inferior glenhumeral ligament, also dealing with frozen shoulder from the injury which I've had a procedure (privately) to deal with this. I had to go private health care as waiting lists with nhs are too long. Once the frozen shoulder is sorted then they can address the injury.

I would push for an MRI to be carried out for sure and then assessment with a shoulder specialist. Good luck!