Recovery and Rehabilitation from surgery

In September 2023 I hit a tree with my shoulder after going OTB. I only had pain a day or so later and was lucky enough to get seen by a sports medicine doctor that Thursday.

We tried alternative therapy like shoulder infiltration and physical therapy.

On the 5th February we made the decision to go ahead with surgery as soon as possible. My doctor arranged for my first appointment with an orthopedic surgeon (Dr Leonore Botha). After that I was admitted for my surgery on 21’st of February.

That evening I had my first physiotherapy session and rehab program developed. The first two weeks where focused on post operative shoulder mobility. A large part of my rehabilitation was buying a Garmin Tacx Smart Trainer. I was able to start riding on the trainer the day after I was discharged. Initially I was unable to put any pressure on the shoulder for obvious reasons, however after 3 weeks I was riding fairly comfortably and slowly progressed to 30+ minute sessions multiple times a week.

After 10 weeks of rehab I was able to take part in the Sabie Xperience Lite 3 day stage race, 120km with 2171m of ascent. My wife and myself improved our time from 2023 by 1 hour 17 minutes.

I would say I am somewhat lucky that I did not injure myself worse, e.g tear of rotator cuff.