Chrysler Sailors Forum

My disclaimer, I am not a doctor.

I attended a medical talk yesterday given by a colleague I've worked with for the past 14 years. I designed and built most of the hardware she has used in her medical research never really seeing the "whole" picture of her work but I found the talk to be very enlightening. "Rotator cuff repair", now I've got your attention.

In short, rotator cuff injury is more prevalent after the age of 40. There are many risk factors but mainly, repetitive motion of the arms, especially overhead (bottom sanding). The injury is common in the building trades with carpenters and painters and in sports like baseball and tennis. Younger folks heal better, period. If torn, it can be repaired but often times the repair does not take. The shoulder does not have a great blood supply and the current methods do not have great success rate for us older folks. Posture and exercise can help to strengthen the muscle around the shoulder and shoulder blade. Check with your doctor regarding exercise.

So, as the weather starts to warm up for many of us, and we want to dive into all the repairs and fixes for the upcoming sailing season, take some time to exercise, stretch, and possibly have someone younger do some of the heavy overhead work. I would like to see all us enjoy this activity as long as possible.

Sauerleigh

So I guess I'm not the only one Who's shoulder (in my case the right one) is at times a real pain while I'm working on my C26. My first mate is a R.N. and she has told me to take it slow when working in odd overhead angles or rotator cuff repair is assured in my future. What a Bummer...

Terrence
Wilmington N.C.
Chrysler 26' 1980
Pandora (for now)

Great post for us elder folk.

Funny that you would post on this subject.
3 years ago my season was cut short. I slipped on the boat ramp, trying to keep from going under water. I tried to catch myself.. Serious Dislocated shoulder.. my wife just went thru rotator cuff surgery and doing therapy right now. She should be good to go for the new season.

Good stuff eveybody.

sauerleigh wrote:... and possibly have someone younger do some of the heavy overhead work.

I'm so lucky, my daughter is already asking me when I'm going to bring the boat home so she can wash and wax her

Oh NOW you tell me.

Yup too late for me but I did it in my mid 20's. Why wait till your old to mess up your shoulder and have your right rotator cuff rebuilt was my motto... I guess. I did it in the 1980's.

You nailed it Sauerleigh, repetitive motion caused it. I was a Grocery Night Stalker in College. Yea we really liked that title but it really meant we stocked grocery store shelves at night when the stores were closed. Remember when Grocery stores closed at night back in the pre scanner cash register checkout days. That would be BS, Before Scanners.

Anyway I would cut all the freight in the store every night we had freight. Well, I did not cut 100% of it, maybe 85% of it every other night. This meant cutting open 1400 boxes, very precisely so as not to gut the goods inside, very quickly. Then the crew would follow along behind me and put the goods on the shelves and clean up.

I was in solid pain for 1 full year before the surgery was done. It felt like having your arm cut off at the shoulder and then re-attached. Then 5 months of physical therapy. The first 3 months your arm is strapped to your chest. Try wiping your aft section with the wrong hand. (Too much info, sorry.) I'd put it about the 4th level of hell, basing waking up from surgery being the 9th level of Hell of course. Did I mention Morphine was given in very large doses once I woke from anesthesia. This pain was not phased by Morphine. Messed up my head real bad, talikg to people no one answering (Seems I was not really talking after all I'm told) and did not touch the pain... at all.

Well once the surgery and the months of PT were done, I'd lost 16% of the mobility and most a lot of the strength in that arm. My Night Stocking days were over.

Again as Sauerleigh said, the young heal much faster and better. I took up bowling of all things to keep working that right shoulder. Nothing works quite so well as swinging a 16 lbs rock with your right arm to bust up adhesions (Scar tissue in your muscles). Yea my arm would swell like a blankity, blank and I'd have just a little more movement in that arm after the swelling went down. I figure my loss of mobility is maybe 1 to 2 % missing in forward and sweeping motions to the sides and over head. Behind my back, still missing at least that 16%.

When it's cold or worse when a low front is coming in, I hurt. The rest of the time I good.

Also by the way, I'm a success story big time. I don't know anyone who came out better then me in the end. I think I was about 24 years old when I messed it up and about 25 when it was fixed. Plus 2 years of bowling. My Doctor was the surgeon for the Sea Hawks back in the day. The man did an outstanding job putting my arm back together. Very tiny scar showing.

If I had to go through it again with my left arm at my new and improved age. Man, just shoot me, I don't think I could do that again, not now.

So take it easy okay. We're in this sailing thing for the long haul. You know sailing when we're real old, not just waking up in the morning stiff and soar because we over did getting that thing just right on the boat in an hour when it would have been just as good, maybe better if you'd stepped back and taken a couple photo's an posted them on the Chrysler Web site for you fellow Chrysler Sailors before going back at it so whole hog.

See there I did it! I managed to get in a plee for more stories and photos as a do what I say, not what I did story. True story though.

So take breaks, step back and look at what you did, get an Ice Cold beverage in the Summer or a warm beverage in the Winter. This is the good life, enjoy it, your a sailor, you don't have to get there fast or you'd be a power boater.

Thanks
Alan

I tore mine up when I was 45, training with my riot control team. Was sore and losing mobility and strength for over a year until one day I was fighting an inmate and completed the job. Took almost six months to get Worker's Comp to fix it. Funny coincidence Alan, my surgeon was the ortho for the Eagles.

Wouldn't you know it, I caught this massive chest cold the week before surgery. I could not lay down on a table without succumbing to horrible coughing spells and choking on phlegm. The doc didn't want to do it, but when I explained all the crap I had to go through with WC to reschedule he agreed to try it under a spinal block. So I was able to sit up. I was conscious, but immobile from the middle of my back up. MRI had shown a medium level tear in the anterior ligament and a minor tear in the medial ligament. It was really weird laying there and listening to them talk.

"Scalpel", and I know he's slicing me, but I can't feel a thing. There is one thing you do not ever want to hear your surgeon say, and that is "Oh poopy!" Trust me on this. It was almost 12 hours before I could talk and tell him that it wasn't good bedside manner to use language like that. "Chisel", and yes I could feel the pressure of the taps, but again no pain.

So what caused the exclamation? Well, the MRI lied. My anterior ligament was barely attached. The tear was 95% or more. The medial ligament was torn nearly 75%, and the posterior ligament was torn nearly 50% of the way through. In addition, I had a bone chip floating around inside there too.

My rehab went much better than Alan described. I only spent three weeks immobilized before we started therapy. And my arm was only strapped to my chest for six weeks. I spent an additional six weeks in therapy before they allowed me to return to work on a light duty status. Light duty at my institution consisted of listening to inmate phone calls trying to catch information about drugs, crimes, or escapes. B-O-ORING!!

All totaled, from cut to return-to-duty, was a little under six months. And wouldn't you know, the first day back on full duty I had to rock-and-roll again. No injury this time 'cause I fought dirty.

ETA: I don't know which is funnier, the fact that the board automatically changed what my doctor said or the way it reads after it was changed

LeatherneckPA wrote: first day back on full duty I had to rock-and-roll again. No injury this time 'cause I fought dirty.

ETA: I don't know which is funnier, the fact that the board automatically changed what my doctor said or the way it reads after it was changed

What no PPCT techniques ? lol. In my former life as an GED intructor and later an accred manager for a large private corrections company that was the bane of my year, my 40 hours inservice training including PPCT and allowable use of force.

(and yes, the board does autocensor with funny words)

A thought just came to mind... true our physical bodies are not getting any younger, but when the wind catches the sails just so and our Chrysler's surge forward like one's favorite pet chasing a stick. Indeed our hearts grow younger.

Terrence
Wilmington N.C.
Chrysler 26' 1980
Pandora (for now)

Everybody sing

"I'm growing older but not up, my metabolic rate is pleasantly stuck. Let the winds of time blow over my head, I'd rather die while I'm living than live like I'm dead...."

But then again my back hurts this morning from painting from a ladder yesterday,lol..

Oh goody!
Something new to look forward to!

LOL!

Sorry for those who had to experience this problem!

( turns and knocks on wood . . . .)


Scott

You are only as old as you feel is what they say. Some days I feel like I will old enough to drink next year and sometimes I feel like Ben Franklin should still be alive but I always feel young on my Chrysler.

I've been lucky...so far. Having 95% of my adult, working life on ladders and working above my head no problems so far. I've known enough folks who had to have rotator cuff repair I want to avoid it if at all possible. Thanks for the info sauerliegh. And you other guys take it easy too!

lecker...couldn't agree more!

EE, I love that stanza, but I know not where it comes.

Which song, please, I have to quote it. It fits so good!

Really,,, I never expected to live this long...

But after years of abuse, like probably some of you, I feel lows coming in as my neck, back, shoulder, knees, and ankle start to whine. Started in football in HS, then some falls rock climbing, frequent high speed falls skiing, getting bucked off green horses, poor high speed landings skydiving... then one day I could hardly put a piece of wood in the fireplace...


Sauerleigh any links available to see the hardware you work on? I have 8 implants in my shoulder, actually they are some kind of little ropes anchored in there holding things together, swear they look like halyards!

Billy

mcrandall wrote:EE, I love that stanza, but I know not where it comes.

Which song, please, I have to quote it. It fits so good!

Jimmy Buffet
"Growing Older But Not Up
from the album Coconut Telegraph

Naturally it's also on his Meet Me In Margaritaville greatest hits compilation.

Thanks Mike! Never fell completely into the Parrothead scene, though it fits well with sailing. I'll check it out!

Typically, I do not take photos of my work. I'm satisfied if the requester is satisfied and then it's on to the next job. I'm not a doctor or scientist and I always figured that when they hired me they were not looking for one. I am a mechanical designer, machinist, welder and cabinet maker. I was promised employment for one year when I started, this coming September will be my 25 year anniversary, so I guess I've been doing something right.

My work on the shoulder studies alone, is probably somewhere around three years of my time. To find out how strong a repair needs to be, they need to know the forces it takes too tear a normal rotator cuff. They take the shoulder from a cadaver and remove all the soft tissue unrelated to the tendon and muscle. The humerus ( upper arm bone ) is bonded into a piece of aluminum tube that is inserted into a steel fixture mounted to the base of a MTS or Instron tensile testing machine. The major muscle groups are attached to grips which pull on the muscle until the tendon fails. Muscle is very difficult to hold, so we developed grips that are frozen with liquid nitrogen that circulates inside the grips to help retain the muscle. So after they've determined the force, they now have a target for a successful repair, so they do different repair trials using the same specimens.

The standard repair is pretty much, sutures through the bone and through and around the tendon. Sometimes the sutures come loose in the tendon before the tendon can reattach itself to the bone and many times the repair failure does not show up on X Ray or an MRI. My colleagues approach is to add a fabric patch which also has long fibrous tissue taken from a cadaver, which is sutured over the standard repair. The living tendon eventually grows in and around the patch and you end up with a stronger repair. They are also working on a system of markers that are embedded into the bone and tendon that show up easily on a standard X Ray, that way they can measure the distance between the makers to see if the repair is holding fast.

I spent the more then a year working on a device that a surgeon can use to measure the displacement and load on a tendon before a repair is made. The goal was to come up with a data set of different loads to compare a repair result. The surgeon knows he needs to pull on the tendon to reattach it but does not know how far or what kind of force the sutures might see. It took three attempts but in the end the doc was pleased.

Medical research is expensive. We are lucky to have a sketch from a requester, most of the time all we have to go on is a verbal description on a desired end. I make things you can not buy anywhere and when you hand them the bill, most the time, all that comes to their mind is, what else could they buy for that amount of money. I designed and built a bed for one researcher, that did everything they asked and more. It took me 4 months to build and the bill was something like 40k when finished, he went through the roof. I told him to go to WalMart and get me their price and I would match it. He paid the bill but never came back, but I'm still there.

Bhacurly, this is a project I worked on two years ago. We were asked to design and fabricate a system that can used to accurately locate a hypo needle into the spinal cord to deliver stem cells to treat various Central Nervous System disorders. I was given a few napkin sketches with a basic size envelope. I spent about two weeks designing in Solid Works and four of us spent something like three weeks making all the required parts for two complete systems. They were originally used for practice surgery on cadavers and were granted FDA approval for use on humans. We eventually fabricated two more complete sets with improvements gained from clinical use.


Systems broken down for sterilization.


First prototype system.


The device is anchored to the base of the skull just above the neck and to a vertebrae lower on the spine. The soft tissue is opened to expose the area of the spine to be treated. The long rods act as support for the gantry containing the guide system which can pivot on a SS ball. Once the desired location is found the positions are locked and a long hypo is lowered through the guide into the spinal cord to deliver the stem cell treatment. I guess the whole thing works.

The entire project cost tens of thousands of dollars in the end, but like I said before you won't find one at WalMart.

Wow~!

That is really amazing stuff!

I would love to see your shop

But thanks to folks like you there is hope down the road for many people like us. I know the gadgetry in my shoulder wasn't available even 10 years ago, and it is mostly just something into bone and very strong very small "halyards" to hold my labrum together, which for those who don't know is like a donut that the head of upper arm bone pivots around in.

It's not just the hardware, it's the technology that allows minimal invasive surgical techinique. Mine was done arthroscopically through just a few stab wounds that healed up quickly. Not long ago it would have been cutting open my whole sholder to get access in the joint.

Doc told me in a few years there may be an artificial fluid that can help replace what is naturally in there to keep down the risk of future arthritis in that shoulder...

I'm waiting for them to fully evolve the artificial disc implants that I hope will eventually replace the bulging discs in my back when they finally fall to pieces. They've been out there for a few years now and are just starting to use them in my area...

Cool stuff, so thanks for sharing!

Very cool!! Love to see that shop too!

Two disks gone in my neck (fused) and three bulged in my low back, one operated on to remove the bulge. I'm looking with great interest at the milestones made in new processes.

So cool, glad you're involved in this type of work for the best medical system in the world, by the way!

I had my right shoulder done four years ago, turned out to be only a bone spur which they ground off. It was done orthroscopically. I think the therapy was the most painful part. After a lifetime of driving trucks, flying airplanes, running heavy equipment, riding motorcycles, breaking horses and shooting 44 mags things could be a whole lot worse. I think I'll slow down and go sailing.

Larry