Eight months post Latarjet surgery - No complications

December 12th

 It's been a while since my last update - Life happened and I am actually writing from California now :)

 I am now almost exactly 8 months after my Latarjet surgery and I am very happy with the results so far. I was using my arm normally in daily activities by the eighth week post surgery and steadily kept on improving. In total I went to 30 sessions of physical therapy - usually twice a week - and we mainly worked on increasing range of movement in the first few weeks but added strength exercises in the final 3-4 weeks. I've had most trouble with external and internal rotation. At some point we focused a lot on improving external rotation - which is not easy, not fun and requires some true dedication - but forgot about internal rotation. At my final exam with my surgeon he also noted that my internal rotation could be slightly better but everything else was well. So in the remaining weeks and until now I've worked on increasing my internal rotation and I am now almost where my "normal" arm is.

 In general the recovery process went smoother than I expected. At the beginning of June (10 weeks after surgery) we went on a beach trip to Greece and I was able to swim! Slow, controlled breast strokes - but I was very surprised and happy :)

 Around the same time I started running and riding bikes in the city again - so I was able living a normal life but had to work on improving my internal/external rotation. However I didn't notice any restrictions in my daily life. 

 Two months ago (6 months after surgery) I started doing more body weight workouts again. I gradually went from kneeling push ups to elevated hands push ups to normal push ups and my shoulder feels very stable. I am still doing basic overhead exercises with some weights and the "plopping" I wrote about in earlier posts is still there sometimes. However it is less frequent and now only happens sometimes when I completely stretch my arm. It seems like it just takes a long time for your shoulder to adjust to the anatomy. While this "plopping" sometimes feels uncomfortable - I know it's nothing to worry about and has no effect on the stability of my shoulder. During day to day activities I don't have any plopping sounds anymore.

 My scar has healed very well and I have not had any issues with the scar tissue or any infections during the whole time. 

 So I think I can say for now that the surgery feels like a success and I am recovering well and can do all the activities I wanted to do. 

 All in all my Latarjet experience has been way better than I initially expected. But keep in mind it is extremely important to select your surgeon carefully!

 Let me know in comments if you have any questions, this might be the final update here :)

 Thanks for reading, I hope this was useful for you!

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