I now have a $72k shoulder

[14Accent]

At the ripe old age of 35....

I'm currently 3.5 weeks removed from having two labrum tears and one rotator cuff tear repaired in my left shoulder. This is the price to be paid for choosing to be a mechanic, I suppose. My two surgeons were amazing and I was off the pain meds within 3 days. At this point, 90% of the bruising is gone and I have very good mobility in that arm as well as NO MORE PAIN! Living with a constant burning/stabbing type feeling for a decade got really old.

Luckily for me, between the initial scans/diagnostics/doctor visits I hit my $700 deductible and $3k OOP very early in the year so the entire procedure is covered.

 

[JoelB]

Being a mechanic is no easy career on your body. I've spent just a Saturday fighting a car and I really don't know how guys do it a lifetime day in and day out.

 

[14Accent]

Being a mechanic is no easy career on your body. I've spent just a Saturday fighting a car and I really don't know how guys do it a lifetime day in and day out.

Appreciate that, and one day of fighting is plenty to form an appreciation for the job.

I have to imagine that being a Midwest mechanic contributed A LOT. Having to spend 45 minutes beating on a rotor to remove it, multiple days on wheel hubs, WEEKS removing rusty cab bolts for engine swaps. I had a general rule of thumb, working on rust-belt vehicles: if it's more than 5 years old and it's a job that falls below the car's "belt line", take the book labor x 1.5 MINIMUM.

 

[Dr_Dr3i]

Wishing you speedy healing!

I recently worked on my 10+ yr old Benz that needed front and rear shocks replaced. Let me tell you, I'm still sore almost a week later. All 4 of those 21mm bolts holding the bottom of the front shocks to the steering knuckle fought me the whole way.

 

[Hall]

I now have a $72k shoulder

Sorry, nope, it depreciated to $36k as soon as you walked out of the hospital

 

[Oillover]

Being a mechanic is one of the most physically torturous jobs available.

 

[97prizm]

At the ripe old age of 35....

I'm currently 3.5 weeks removed from having two labrum tears and one rotator cuff tear repaired in my left shoulder. This is the price to be paid for choosing to be a mechanic, I suppose. My two surgeons were amazing and I was off the pain meds within 3 days. At this point, 90% of the bruising is gone and I have very good mobility in that arm as well as NO MORE PAIN! Living with a constant burning/stabbing type feeling for a decade got really old.

Luckily for me, between the initial scans/diagnostics/doctor visits I hit my $700 deductible and $3k OOP very early in the year so the entire procedure is covered.

Is physical therapy in the cards? Just curious as when I interned with a golf magazine in 2017, and I stumbled across "Red Cord" physical therapy. According to a few people that I spoke with the results were night and day difference on how fast they recovered.

 

[Fordiesel69]

At the ripe old age of 35....

I'm currently 3.5 weeks removed from having two labrum tears and one rotator cuff tear repaired in my left shoulder. This is the price to be paid for choosing to be a mechanic, I suppose. My two surgeons were amazing and I was off the pain meds within 3 days. At this point, 90% of the bruising is gone and I have very good mobility in that arm as well as NO MORE PAIN! Living with a constant burning/stabbing type feeling for a decade got really old.

Luckily for me, between the initial scans/diagnostics/doctor visits I hit my $700 deductible and $3k OOP very early in the year so the entire procedure is covered.

If you or anyone else would like to follow up with any suggestions on how to prevent shoulder damage id be curious to learn. The shoulder joint is a mystery to me. I have trouble buffing a car. I have to do one side. Wait a day and do the other side or the shoulders and neck get very uncomfortable.

 

[Passport1]

Re, shoulder surgery. I had a labrum repair about 13 years ago and the recovery is slow and somewhat painful. Be careful with that shoulder, it might feel fine but it can be reinjured easily w/o proper time to completely heal.

Re, being a mechanic. I did that for 4 years in Chicago. Winters were the worst. Cars come into the shop and they are full of slush and salt brine. The shop doors are open frequently and the shop temperature is miserable. I was glad to leave that profession and join the military. Time in the service as arduous as it was sometimes never came close to the daily grind of being a mechanic.

 

[Lubener]

At the ripe old age of 35....

I'm currently 3.5 weeks removed from having two labrum tears and one rotator cuff tear repaired in my left shoulder. This is the price to be paid for choosing to be a mechanic, I suppose. My two surgeons were amazing and I was off the pain meds within 3 days. At this point, 90% of the bruising is gone and I have very good mobility in that arm as well as NO MORE PAIN! Living with a constant burning/stabbing type feeling for a decade got really old.

Luckily for me, between the initial scans/diagnostics/doctor visits I hit my $700 deductible and $3k OOP very early in the year so the entire procedure is covered.

Thank goodness for coupons.

 

[14Accent]

Re, shoulder surgery. I had a labrum repair about 13 years ago and the recovery is slow and somewhat painful. Be careful with that shoulder, it might feel fine but it can be reinjured easily w/o proper time to completely heal.

Re, being a mechanic. I did that for 4 years in Chicago. Winters were the worst. Cars come into the shop and they are full of slush and salt brine. The shop doors are open frequently and the shop temperature is miserable. I was glad to leave that profession and join the military. Time in the service as arduous as it was sometimes never came close to the daily grind of being a mechanic.

Oh man, the winters were absolutely the worst. Door open constantly, especially when a car needed pushed in and out. We only had one large door for our entire shop.

RE: recovery. I appreciate that tip, that's what my doc said as well. I'm making sure to keep it in the sling whenever I'm doing any major movement, but when I'm sitting in my chair/sleeping in my chair I've been taking it off more.

Is physical therapy in the cards? Just curious as when I interned with a golf magazine in 2017, and I stumbled across "Red Cord" physical therapy. According to a few people that I spoke with the results were night and day difference on how fast they recovered.

Yes, I've got 6 weeks in the sling (3 down, 3 to go) and then I start PT 2x/wk for another 6 weeks. Luckily, the PT office is a quick 10 minute country drive.

Speaking of driving... I'm HATING being stuck driving our Kia. It's a fine car, but it's such a far cry from my Buick. Unfortunately, there's no safe way to operate a manual transmission while wearing a sling.

 

[14Accent]

If you or anyone else would like to follow up with any suggestions on how to prevent shoulder damage id be curious to learn. The shoulder joint is a mystery to me. I have trouble buffing a car. I have to do one side. Wait a day and do the other side or the shoulders and neck get very uncomfortable.

I know a sure fire way to prevent the injury: strength training and proper techniques.

That, and don't do the things I did. Such as: trying to prevent a jet ski and pontoon from contacting, drunk scaling my very steeply pitched driveway after an ice storm and falling down, slip n' slide at 30 years old, etc etc. I've been very hard on my body with very little maintenance.

 

[Dave Hess]

Hope you’re feeling better and a full recovery with PT.

PT extremely important.

 

[wpod]

Being a mechanic is one of the most physically torturous jobs available.

Yes my hands are worn out to where just an hour labor makes then cramp up ,my shoulders are constantly painful and my back always hurts and a few times a year hurts so bad I cant get off the toilet unless I crawl to get myself off of the toilet then stand up from a kneeling position. I try to farm our any work that I know will be long a tedious and try to do what I can and then do it till I [drop] I think it could be described as self loathing? Both hands have nerve damage , Carpel Tunnel diagnosis and I had my left elbow and wrist opened up and it did not make an ounce of difference. We wear out as we age.

 

[AdmiralYoda]

My dad retired one year ago after being a mechanic for nearly 50 years. His back is toast and he needs reconstructive surgery but is avoiding it because he thinks he will never walk again afterwards (and can barely walk now). He shoulder is all sorts of messed up and needs to be replaced and his ankle is bone on bone.

He owned his own shop for 40 years and never took any days off and as the lead mechanic would never go to the doctor to address minor back or shoulder issues for fear of not being able to be at work and keep the place running!

Now he can barely move and regrets not taking care of himself sooner....

 

[Passport1]

We wear out as we age.

Atrophy

Unlike a car, there is no warranty period on the human body. My parts are so past their 'Use-by date' they revoked the organ donor permission box on my driver's license.

 

[Dave Hess]

I worked a blue collar job but it didn’t beat up my body over the years.

I like working on cars as a hobby but couldn’t do it for 35 years.

 

[Oillover]

Yes my hands are worn out to where just an hour labor makes then cramp up ,my shoulders are constantly painful and my back always hurts and a few times a year hurts so bad I cant get off the toilet unless I crawl to get myself off of the toilet then stand up from a kneeling position. I try to farm our any work that I know will be long a tedious and try to do what I can and then do it till I [drop] I think it could be described as self loathing? Both hands have nerve damage , Carpel Tunnel diagnosis and I had my left elbow and wrist opened up and it did not make an ounce of difference. We wear out as we age.

While I agree that we certainly wear out as we age, there are ways to negate or at least postpone the "wearing out" process. Straight out of HS I also wanted to be a mechanic. After a couple of years in my 20s working in a "real shop", I quickly changed my tune and went back to school.

I have a friend in his mid 50s who's a mechanic. He does refrigeration at a small shop on large trucks and it's torture.
He works several hours a day welding and fabricating on his back with a piece of cardboard on a cold concrete floor (no proper lift in the shop). There's also no proper jacks, so they "improvise" with piles of 2x4's.... I cringe everytime I think of what he endures on a daily basis, especially as the temps get cooler.

We snowboard together, but as the years go by, I know there's a good chance he won't be able to anymore
He's already complaining of hernia, shoulder, back etc. issues, so I try to make the best of each visit.

 

[NormanBuntz]

Be diligent with your rehab and exercises.

 

[Fitter30]

2005 torn rotator and torn and detached bicep tendon. November 19 under the knife again torn tendon from a miss step down a spiral stair case.,