Rotator Cuff Surgery Patient Swims Alcatraz
I just wanted to get back to being functional. Being able to work and being able go food shopping and put stuff in the pantry and just day to day stuff. After that, my goal was to get back to swimming, to swim pain free,
My third goal, I told myself that one day I would swim to Alcatraz to Aquatic Park and I set that as my goal. I didn't know if it would be achievable but that's what I wanted to do.
This past weekend I ended up doing the Alcatraz swim. I swam from Alcatraz to Aquatic Beaches. Part of the Alcatraz Swim with the Centurions. So I achieved my goal and that was really, really cool.
To see the Golden Gate Bridge and to see Alcatraz and then to see Aquatic Park,
It was fantastic to cross the finish line and they give you your finishers medal and I'm like, "Yes, I didn't drown, I did it. All those hours of physio and the surgery, it was all worth it. It was all worth it."
Sarah H. Profile
Sarah slipped on ice while biking home from work landing on her shoulder in 2010. She underwent therapy elsewhere which failed, leaving her with severe loss of motion. Her MRI confirmed both her frozen shoulder and, unfortunately, a rotator cuff tear. This makes it challenging since the treatment for frozen shoulder requires immediate, extensive mobilization but for rotator cuff repair, a more limited approach.
She underwent rotator cuff repair and debridement of the scar tissue. An articular cartilage lesion was found at surgery and repaired.
Three months after surgery she had regained 50% of motion and continued to improve over the next year, going on to complete the Alcatraz Swim with the Centurions race across the infamous Alcatraz Channel in San Francisco.