Rebreathers and Rotator cuffs

[doctormike]

And as one more encouraging note today, I had emailed my awesome PT with this question, and this was his response. Will keep you posted!

 

[doctormike]

And I had emailed my orthopedist as well, and just heard back from him too. Fingers crossed!

 

[211ratsbud]

How about spacing the o2 bottle of the can about 2 inches? Pony bracket mount it to the 50 or I have a couple other easy ideas.

 

[doctormike]

Yeah, I could play around with it if things don't improve... the JJ is good for positioning alternatives...

 

[VikingDives]

Stretch. Then stretch some more. Do more than what your PT asks of you.

After my rotator cuff surgery, my PT told me I couldn't dive for a year. I'm one of those patients... I was in the water 4 weeks later and while I couldn't move my arm above my shoulder on the surface, I was pain free and had basically full range of motion underwater. Being in the water really helps IMO.

The one thing I didn't factor was being able to reach my left valve on doubles. By the time I started stretching for that, I was really outside the recovery window. I got to the point where I could do a valve drill, but it looked ugly and it was really hard to do. My instructor and I agreed that while I had the skills to pass the course, it wasn't sufficient for either of us to feel comfortable with my ability to do a valve drill when my life depended on it. Thus began my sidemount training.

Today, after a few years, I think I could probably do a valve drill in backmount, but I've settled on sidemount diving as I'm much more confident in my abilities without the stress of fighting my shoulder.

That being said, had I realized I needed more mobility to reach my left valve early on, I'd have stretched more, a lot more.

My advice would be just that: stretch every chance you get, and then stretch some more! Mobility will come back, but you have to drive yourself even if you don't feel like you're making progress.

Some stretching ideas that have worked for me:

Have some markers of progress. Measure them and log them so you can see improvement.

Stretch for a long time, without stopping. We tend to stretch for about 20 seconds and then take a break. I've found that stretching to the point of discomfort, then relaxing and holding for about 20 seconds will allow the muscles to relax. Then you can continue into the stretch getting more range. Do something like stretch to discomfort, hold and breathe deeply for 20 to 30 seconds at that point without forcing yourself forward. Be patient and wait for the muscles to "give in" and relax a little, then continue into your stretch. This should take a minute to 90 seconds to complete.

Come back to each stretch twice each session. So after doing the above on stretch one, go to stretches two, three, and four. Then recycle the routine starting again at one. This seems to help reinforce the body's need to adapt to the change.

Distract yourself when you stretch. If you're leaning into a weird position, anything you can do to distract yourself from the feeling of, "I'm standing around stretching, and I'd rather be doing something else." will keep you stretching longer. Watch TV, youtube, etc.

Get functional. I'm not a rebreather diver, so I can't say what functional is in your situation, but if I wanted to get back into backmount today, I'd get in the water in full kit and work on my left valve until I couldn't do it anymore. Then I'd find a way to do something like hang on to my valve while I swam around doing other things.

Stay dedicated and you'll get it your mobility back.

 

[211ratsbud]

Yeah, I could play around with it if things don't improve... the JJ is good for positioning alternatives...

View attachment 785615

I've never seen a pic of the gue inverted set up. Do you have any live action pics?

 

[GF99/99]

OK, normally people ask me medical questions here, but today I’m looking for help for myself.

I had a skiing injury in January, tore my right rotator cuff. Had the repair in February. This is a BRUTAL recovery, much longer and more difficult than I imagined. But I’m making slow progress with my range of motion in physical therapy (my PT is terrific).

I was really looking forward to getting back in the water this season. I had no problems in my single tank gear in the pool. I finally got some cells for my JJ, and I put it together yesterday. Had fun setting it up, adjusting the IP on the regs, etc…. All good to go! I got in the pool, and realized that I can’t reach the O2 valve. UGH.

So I’m looking for specific rotator cuff and valve advice from anyone who has gone through this. Yes, I will continue to work with PT and I’m hoping that it will happen for later in the season, but who knows. I may never get there.

Options at this point are:

1) Figure out the weighting for a single tank rig. I hate diving dry with a single tank, because even with a second backplate and a weighted ST adapter for the backplate, I still need a lot of weight. But I will try doing this for the near future, and hopefully get in the water for a dive with some sort of slung pony (40 or 80).

2) Get rid of the JJ and find some sort of CCR that doesn’t require the valves to be in the standard inverted position. Yes, I know about the GUE de-inverted configuration, but I can’t reach there either. Tried with a set of doubles, which used to be my backup when I didn’t have cells, but I can’t really reach the right valve on doubles either. Could probably reach the isolator with my left hand, but doesn’t seem like a great option.

3) Find another hobby. I used to say “take up golf” but I don’t think that I could even do that at this point..

Totally out of the box idea...

I guess it depends on the dives your doing and how much deco your racking up but if it shallow diving with minimal deco then I would just remove the O2 1st stage plumb your solenoid and MAV o2 lines into a splitter that reduces it to one line coming out the back with a somewhat long hose and QC6 connection then I would just carry an o2 S40 B/O kit up and plug into that. Obviously if you lose your S40 your going to need to take your buddies or if your solo its B/O or do some kind of semi closed BS with your other B/O's but thats up to you.

The safer thing to do would be strap an O2 2L to your deco B/O much like a pony (or how most running sidemount units do it) and run your unit off this via QC6 and then it would be the same redundancy you would have running a regular onboard O2 on your unit.

Just my thoughts, don't know if its right or wrong but at least it puts the valve in a really easy to access spot.

 

[doctormike]

Stretch. Then stretch some more. Do more than what your PT asks of you.

After my rotator cuff surgery, my PT told me I couldn't dive for a year. I'm one of those patients... I was in the water 4 weeks later and while I couldn't move my arm above my shoulder on the surface, I was pain free and had basically full range of motion underwater. Being in the water really helps IMO.

The one thing I didn't factor was being able to reach my left valve on doubles. By the time I started stretching for that, I was really outside the recovery window. I got to the point where I could do a valve drill, but it looked ugly and it was really hard to do. My instructor and I agreed that while I had the skills to pass the course, it wasn't sufficient for either of us to feel comfortable with my ability to do a valve drill when my life depended on it. Thus began my sidemount training.

Today, after a few years, I think I could probably do a valve drill in backmount, but I've settled on sidemount diving as I'm much more confident in my abilities without the stress of fighting my shoulder.

That being said, had I realized I needed more mobility to reach my left valve early on, I'd have stretched more, a lot more.

My advice would be just that: stretch every chance you get, and then stretch some more! Mobility will come back, but you have to drive yourself even if you don't feel like you're making progress.

Some stretching ideas that have worked for me:

Have some markers of progress. Measure them and log them so you can see improvement.

Stretch for a long time, without stopping. We tend to stretch for about 20 seconds and then take a break. I've found that stretching to the point of discomfort, then relaxing and holding for about 20 seconds will allow the muscles to relax. Then you can continue into the stretch getting more range. Do something like stretch to discomfort, hold and breathe deeply for 20 to 30 seconds at that point without forcing yourself forward. Be patient and wait for the muscles to "give in" and relax a little, then continue into your stretch. This should take a minute to 90 seconds to complete.

Come back to each stretch twice each session. So after doing the above on stretch one, go to stretches two, three, and four. Then recycle the routine starting again at one. This seems to help reinforce the body's need to adapt to the change.

Distract yourself when you stretch. If you're leaning into a weird position, anything you can do to distract yourself from the feeling of, "I'm standing around stretching, and I'd rather be doing something else." will keep you stretching longer. Watch TV, youtube, etc.

Get functional. I'm not a rebreather diver, so I can't say what functional is in your situation, but if I wanted to get back into backmount today, I'd get in the water in full kit and work on my left valve until I couldn't do it anymore. Then I'd find a way to do something like hang on to my valve while I swam around doing other things.

Stay dedicated and you'll get it your mobility back.

Thanks so much... great advice!

 

[doctormike]

I've never seen a pic of the gue inverted set up. Do you have any live action pics?

Here you go!

The Thought Process Behind GUE’s CCR Configuration

 

[doctormike]

Totally out of the box idea...

I guess it depends on the dives your doing and how much deco your racking up but if it shallow diving with minimal deco then I would just remove the O2 1st stage plumb your solenoid and MAV o2 lines into a splitter that reduces it to one line coming out the back with a somewhat long hose and QC6 connection then I would just carry an o2 S40 B/O kit up and plug into that. Obviously if you lose your S40 your going to need to take your buddies or if your solo its B/O or do some kind of semi closed BS with your other B/O's but thats up to you.

The safer thing to do would be strap an O2 2L to your deco B/O much like a pony (or how most running sidemount units do it) and run your unit off this via QC6 and then it would be the same redundancy you would have running a regular onboard O2 on your unit.

Just my thoughts, don't know if its right or wrong but at least it puts the valve in a really easy to access spot.

Yup, those do sound like reasonable options!

For that matter, since I'm not doing dives that require O2 for deco bailout, I could just sling a 40 of O2 on my right side and connect the regular O2 first stage to that... Then no need to reconfigure the plumbing, just have the O2 MAV and the solenoid off the current hoses (maybe adjusting the length a bit..).