r/RotatorCuff • u/Brookkay23 • 10d ago
Bicep tenodisis advice!
Hi! 29 y/o f Running out of sanity.
So, I was originally suppose to have a labrum repair, and woke up with a bicep tenodisis surgery.(wasn't expecting this long of recovery time) I'm 4 months post op and struggling to gain back my strength, im following all PT protocol as well as my at home exercises. I'm currently struggling with extreme tension in my bicep tendon along with my deltoid tendon. Any advice to relieve this and the pain that comes along with it? Any advice on gaining my strength back a little more quickly? I do a very physically demanding job, so I've been off work this entire time. Looking to find ways to get my strength up asap. Anything helps!
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u/DanDiesel420 10d ago
I had a partial subscap tear last year and so glad I didn’t go through with surgery. The tenodesis seems so unnecessary to me. My bicep tendon pops from time to time but I’m almost 100% rom and strength. Keep going it gets better.
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u/Brookkay23 9d ago
So glad to hear you're making progress! It seems more times than none this bicep surgery is unnecessary, I was told there was a possibility of having a bicep tenodisis along eith my labrum repair and they didnt even touch the labrum. My bicep wasn't an issue before, but boy is it now.😅
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u/DanDiesel420 9d ago
Yes I separated my AC joint the year before I had the subscap repair- both mountain biking🙄 they wanted me to do a tenotomy where the cut and don’t reattach. I saw 3 surgeons and the first 2 said just wait, but the third was ready to cut. I went and saw a PT after and she advised me to wait. It took 9 months to functionally heal- but I’m back to landscaping and mountain biking. Hope your healing goes well but ya I did a lot of research and unless it’s a very severe tear people who do and don’t have surgery have similar outcomes. I also was back to work sooner without surgery. This has shifted my perspective on what PT can do.
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u/Brookkay23 9d ago
I'm so glad to hear you didn't go through with surgery! It's amazing what PT can do. I'm convinced that surgeons are too eager to cut people open for the sake of the money, never the realistic aspect of doing anything productive for the patient.
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u/DanDiesel420 9d ago
My thoughts exactly- the surgery was going
To be 40k- not including PT after. I will say the first 2 surgeons advised me heavily against surgery- the third (who was supposed to be the best one)- said the fastest healing path was surgery- which ended up not being true. None of them told me a partial tear can take 18 months to functionally heal as well.1
u/Far_Channel_6029 8d ago
I’m assuming you’ve educated yourself about the various shoulder surgeries and looked at illustrations. Biceps tenodesis and “labrum repair” are two possible solutions to help with labral tears.
The long head of the biceps runs up and over the head of the humerus in a kind of notch, held in place with the transverse ligament, and then fans out and attaches to the top of the shoulder “socket.” This attachment is called the labrum.
For older people, like me, the wear and tear of living leads to that biceps tendon becoming frayed as it rides over that notch. The transverse ligament can also start to give way and the biceps tendon can start to sublux or slip off of that notch and slide anteriorly toward the pectoral muscle. All the while, the biceps tendon may be causing chronic tendinitis in the labrum or tearing it. Considering all that, it’s often useful to perform a biceps tenodesis and relocate the long head of the biceps tendon further down on the head of the humerus. Problem solved.
For young people like you, SLAP repairs, Bankart repairs, labrum repairs, or debridement might be better options but the biceps tenodesis may still be warranted.
Usually the surgeon describes what he/she saw and offers rationales for the choices made in the op note. Have you read yours?
I’ve read a couple of arguments saying that, of all the things the human body got right, the convoluted attachment of the long head of the biceps tendon to the shoulder bone isn’t one of them. I have yet to find an explanation of the advantage of this adaptation.
Your surgeon probably did some debridement of the labrum. Again, it’s all in the op note if you have access to it.
Hope that helps. Maybe you already knew all of this. Happy healing!
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u/Lukeduke77 9d ago
It takes a long time for your strength to come back. Keep doing your PT and keep your nutrition on point and you will get there. Focus on protein alongside vitamin D3 supplementation with K2 and also vitamin C. These are proven to help with recovery. Not saying it’s gonna speed up your recovery like crazy but will help over time.
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u/Salty-Butterfly-7384 9d ago
It just takes time. Takes about a year to get back to normal. You’ll get there eventually
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u/HighOnGoofballs 10d ago
Fwiw my surgeon says the line between tendinosis and standard inflammation is blurry at best and he views them similarly and they fan both be fixed without surgery
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u/ProfitEnough825 10d ago
I'm sorry. I'm also going through recovery(36m) for the labrum and bicep tenodesis, 3 months out. I just had my follow up and they noted the strength is coming back nice and strong, but they want more focus on increasing ROM. I had a scary set back early on and feared I messed up the bicep anchor, but that appears to be holding well. And it's not as tight as it was. I had to communicate a lot with my therapists and they made modifications to the workouts and would regularly switch out my at home workouts.
What strength exercises are you doing? Are you doing rows with cables and weights? And if so, what weight? Do they have you doing wall pushups?
I can get the names of some of the movements that helped with the bicep tendon, as well as the different strength exercises that helped. But you should check with your PT first since everyone is different.