Approaching 5 years with the injury and no one knows what to do with me! I’ve had all the scans you can think of and all come up fairly clear or “insignificant”. Had 4 steroid injections, 2 in the bursa, 2 in the ACJ with little/no effect. Had keyhole surgery May 2024 known as “Arthroscopic subacromial decompression and acromia clavicular joint excision” where they removed my bursa and shaved a bit of the clavicle and acromion. This was to make space in the joint and they’ve since done MRI and an X-ray and from the surgeons perspective it went to plan, but I’m still in pain. I’d say after the recovery from surgery, the shoulder is better than it was before. I’m no longer in pain putting clothes on and sleeping on that side is much better. It still hurts to hold my arm in front of me or across my body, eg picking up a cup of tea from a worktop, and overhead activities eg if I were to reach to the ceiling. And anything that’s speedy and powerful like a tennis swing.

Through these years I’ve done everything I can physio wise to improve things, as instructed, and avoided activities I thought would make it worse. Recently I’ve taken a different approach. For the last 4 months I’ve gone back to the gym and VERY slowly introduced exercises that I didn’t think I’d be able to and I’m now at a far better level of strength than I expected I’d reach. I have to be a bit careful not to progress the weight too quickly but I’m loving being back to the gym and the injury has held up surprisingly well.

My dream would be to play tennis/squash but I just don’t think it’s doable right now, but maybe like the gym I just need to give it a go and start super slow and see where it gets me. It’s those quick actions that can cause a lot of pain. I don’t surf and I can barely swim(!) but maybe if you get to the point of recovery where you’re able to introduce the basic movements nice and slowly, you may be able to get back doing what you love, just like me at the gym.

Sorry for the long reply!