emperorMA

It is a very real risk. My shoulder was ridiculously "loose" before the reconstruction...it only took about 7-8 lbs of force to dislocate it frontally. The doc removed the entire capsule and all ligaments in the front, stretched them out and reattached with anchor bolts (eight in all). He told me beforehand that I would lose some range due to the tightening but that I would never need that range unless I was going to be a ball player again. At 45 (at the time), that really wasn't an issue for me. Today, throwing a ball with any authority is about the only thing I cannot do. Everything else is fine, and I can actually lift quite a bit more weight than I use to.

+1 Mike Sailor completely rebuilt the front of my shoulder, lopped off about 1/8 of my collar bone and relocated my biceps muscle all in one procedure about 2 1/2 years ago. My shoulder today is stronger than it ever has been, and feels great. Sailor is a former shoulder fellow at the Steadman clinic in Vail...one of the best ortho places around. Warning: Shoulder surgery is the worst kind of surgery. It is extremely painful and it takes a long time to recover from. Make sure it's the last resort....you will be very unhappy for quite some time if you go through with it. Then, be very patient once the work is done and let the rehab folks work their magic.

I had an ACD (Anterior Cervical Discectomy)in August of 2006 at the C5-C6 joint. My symptoms were so bad I had completely lost the use of my right arm, and I hadn't felt my hand or lower arm for a few months before going under the knife. Mine was severly compressing the the nerve root exiting the right neural foramen, so much so it was grossly misshapen in the MRI. The surgeon removed the ruptured disc material then used a high-speed drill to widen the exit hole (foramen) of the nerve root to give it more room. He also knocked off quite a few bone spurs that were compressing from the opposite direction. I woke up with about 98% of the feeling restored in my arm and hand. To this day, all I lost was just a bit of feeling in my right forefinger and thumb....this is permanent damage. I needed zero rehab and was back to work in four weeks. I also had one of the best neurosurgeons in the country take care of the issue. If you need more info, feel free to ask.

I'm new here and have just decided to get into alpine climbing after a recent Mt. St. Helens slog rekindled the passions of my youth. I use to traipse around the Sierra Nevada growing up and I've been over 13,000' quite a few times and 14,000' a couple of times, but never on anything technical. I plan on taking an alpine course on Mt. Baker next summer and climbing Mt. Shuksan (it's so damn pretty!), soon thereafter. I'd like to get a try in on Glacier Peak, as well. My interests lie in mostly glacier and snow climbing with some rock scrambling thrown in. I like "aesthetic" mountains and prefer a beautiful objective over a higher one. I love the looks of Glacier, Shuksan, Forbidden, etc....and would rather climb those than do a slog on Adams. If given a choice between Adams and Hood, I'd do Hood because it's prettier. ... I have quite a bit of gear as I'm an avid hiker and backpacker, and I should be able to get a 4-day climbing load below 40 lbs for just about anything short of Rainier. I have new hardware scoped out and have narrowed my search for boots down to the La Sportiva Nepal EVO, Mammut Mamook, Lowa Mountain Expert and Kayland Apex XT. I just need to get into the stores and try them all on to see what's going to work best. I look forward to learning something here, and hope to bounce decisions around equipment and climbs off you folks before finalizing them. All suggestions and advice are welcome!