No Bear Hangs for Now … Shoulder is Pwned

I should add that I am in otherwise good health and decent shape (although I’m not looking for a hookup).  I’m 69 and I went to Titcomb basin year before last.

i just want my arm back.

I can’t help with exercises and I imagine putting your pack on will be difficult, but in terms of throwing my bear bag line my hand never goes much above waist level.  I spin the rock sack around about 10 times and have gotten pretty good at timing the release so that it arcs nicely over the targeted branch.  It looks a little backwards (because it is), but I’ll often put the branch about 5 feet behind me and release the rock so that it arcs backwards.  It seems to work for me…

On my trip to Dolly Sods last weekend we were lucky enough to be hiking with Bob Moulder (of Moulder Strip fame).  He’s got a multi-ring bear bag hanging system that easily lofted all five of our food bags at once (we just kept clipping them to each other) using pseudo-pulleys.  The big advantage here is that there’s only one bear bag line and I didn’t have to throw it!

A shoulder injury like that is tough, especially at 69 when the tendons are likely not of the quality to allow good reattachment.  You likely won’t get your old shoulder back, but you might get lucky.  But it’s not the end of the world.  You’ll learn to adapt.  Maybe buy an Ursack as a start.

Two bad shoulders here. Ursack and don’t look back.

Well, you could just underarm it. As usual, I recommend getting the lightest piece of equipment that will be bear proof. If you must carry gear for it, make it the lightest that will do the job with no looking back. Eventualy, your arm may come back. I underhand my rock sack easily to 20-25′. It does take a bit of practice to hit your spot, though.

Based on your title, I’m PRETTY sure your shoulder is hurt from playing too many video games and not enough shoulder exercise. ;)

Old days, not now

@ jack. The whole point of doing the surgery was to recover function of the shoulder yes?

Are you working with a good physical therapist? I tore my rotator cuff and ignored it for 18 months before getting my self to a MD. I could not raise my arm above my head and my range of motion was severely impaired

I had rotator cuff surgery and it took 10 months to get full range of motion.  For me, the therapist started with a lot of assisted or supported exercises to get range of motion. For example, there is the one where you use your fingers to crawl your arms up a wall.

In the mean time, get a Ursack.

Injury shoulders suck.  Sorry. Mine took a long time before I had a full recovery.  I don’t have any confidence that I could provide good recommendations for shoulder rehab.  As to what to do about protecting food;.

Get a bear can. They are easy to use, make decent chairs, and aren’t *that* heavy. I switch to them years ago when I saw a properly hung didn’t guarantee food was protected (at least in Yosemite).  There was a great post by photon about this years ago.

Ursacks are great when you DON’T encounter a bear.  If a bear does find your food it sucks because the contents get smushed. Didn’t happen to me, but talked with people who experienced this.

–Mark

I had a long thoracic nerve injury on my right side two years ago.  The doctor called it Brachial plexus neuritis and it could have been related to Parsonage Turner Syndrome as a result of a flu shot.  It affected my entire right shoulder, right lat and serratus anterior muscles which all atrophied.  I had persistent weakness and difficulty in raising my right arm to shoulder level and had moderate winging of the scapula.  After much diagnosis, I went to physical therapy and returned to weight lifting.  Over two years the nerve healed.  I have full ROM now.  I still backpacked and fly fished during the entire time it was healing.  I would experience a very tired shoulder at the end of the day.

Thanks for all the replies, especially Mark, Robert and Bruce.  Hanging my food is of less concern than is getting back the use of my arm.

On that note, my surgeon advised that I may recover the deltoid depending on how the nerve recovers and I won’t know for a year.  Robert your experience is very encouraging.  I will be diligent and patient in my rehabilitation.  And hopeful.

BTW. I’ve lurked and learned a great deal from this forum.  Thanks to all of you.

Age 64, tore other rotator on throwing shoulder, mountain biking.  Could not sleep, tuck in pants, and trowing a bear bag over park bench would be impossible. Went to MD, he said no surgery. He could see I wanted to have surgery since i had a good result last time.  He reminded me of my age now and referred me to physical therapy and stared me in the eye saying “Only if you believe PT will work will you have a good result.”  I got religion, got to a good PT, triathlete, in 9 months of intense workouts I am throwing the bear bag over some serious branches again.  Hang in there, be patient, find a good PT, and work hard.  Also, the conventional wisdom on nerve damage recovery is a year or 2 at most. I can tell you that many times it continues to improve for many years, even in “old” people.

That’s very encouraging, thnx.  My surgeon gave me some encouraging words on Tuesday as well.  No nerve response but he said it was 50/50 for recovery.  Where I’m at now, I will take those odds and work hard on rehab.

So you have no nerve response whatsoever?  I read you did have the EMG test, what did it show?  When I had the EMG done for the LTN trauma I had a degraded response but there was still some present.  Like a 40% reduction in response.

Zip, 0, nada (trans. None)

I’m with Arthur on the value of physio – done long and hard and serious it can overcome really big issues. Soft tissue damage often has poor blood circulation which hinders recovery, and age doesn’t help. Physio has gotten me through shoulder separations, sprains, fractures, torn cuff, knee surgery for cartilage, etc.

For me, there have been two secrets that made a difference. The first was to slowly but consistently work towards doing about double the assigned exercises. The second was active stimulation of the injured area, as done under the direction of my physiotherapist, when my recovery rate stalls or plateaus. This stimulation mostly boils down to a stiff massage of the injury area, which hurts like blazes, but which also stimulates the local cellular/immune system response. More blood circulates post stimulation also.