I've been trying to get as much information on this as possible over the last few months, so I figured I may as well ask here to see if anyone has ever had surgery to repair an AC Joint Separation.
I was in a car accident last March where the injury occurred. I've been seeing an orthopedic surgeon who came highly recommended by friends and family. At the beginning, he told me he was confident it wouldn't need surgery as most AC Joint Separations like mine heal on their own within six months or so.
I started out going to about two months or so of PT twice a week (while continuing the exercises at home and after PT ended). I was given a cortisone shot around June. When I went back in September I was able to tell the doctor that I was feeling mostly fine. I still couldn't put a lot of weight on it with certain movements, but I wasn't experiencing the pain of doing every day stuff or when I woke up in the morning. I thought all was on the path to healing.
He warned me that if the pain came back once the shot wore off, and the weather got colder, then I would most likely need surgery to have it fixed or else I'd just be getting a new shot every six months.
Well, around Thanksgiving it started up again. Now just doing things like brushing my teeth, turning a steering wheel, putting on a jacket/shirt, or even putting my damn arm up on the couch causes significant sharp pain with lingering aches. It isn't debilitating or anything, but I'm really damn sick of being bothered and held back by it.
So, after my TL;DR story there, my question is that I am going in for my appointment Wednesday afternoon to either schedule the surgery or wait longer...should I go ahead and knock this out? I am sick, extremely sick, of dealing with this and don't want it to go on forever...or worse...get even worse later in life, but I also don't want to have unnecessary shoulder surgery if I don't have to.
Advice?
I was in a car accident last March where the injury occurred. I've been seeing an orthopedic surgeon who came highly recommended by friends and family. At the beginning, he told me he was confident it wouldn't need surgery as most AC Joint Separations like mine heal on their own within six months or so.
I started out going to about two months or so of PT twice a week (while continuing the exercises at home and after PT ended). I was given a cortisone shot around June. When I went back in September I was able to tell the doctor that I was feeling mostly fine. I still couldn't put a lot of weight on it with certain movements, but I wasn't experiencing the pain of doing every day stuff or when I woke up in the morning. I thought all was on the path to healing.
He warned me that if the pain came back once the shot wore off, and the weather got colder, then I would most likely need surgery to have it fixed or else I'd just be getting a new shot every six months.
Well, around Thanksgiving it started up again. Now just doing things like brushing my teeth, turning a steering wheel, putting on a jacket/shirt, or even putting my damn arm up on the couch causes significant sharp pain with lingering aches. It isn't debilitating or anything, but I'm really damn sick of being bothered and held back by it.
So, after my TL;DR story there, my question is that I am going in for my appointment Wednesday afternoon to either schedule the surgery or wait longer...should I go ahead and knock this out? I am sick, extremely sick, of dealing with this and don't want it to go on forever...or worse...get even worse later in life, but I also don't want to have unnecessary shoulder surgery if I don't have to.
Advice?
