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Wellness Wednesday for April 29, 2026

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

  • Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

  • Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.

  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

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I mentioned those because they're on your substack as options for managing chronic pain, along with a lot of other good stuff. But nothing on there is a solution for the long-term mechanical damage sustained in a shoulder dislocation. Shoulder instability is a mechanical issue, not a pain issue, which can be greatly improved by these things, but not fixed - and I don't think, based on my experience, that it can be improved enough to make advanced climbing with strenuous overhead holds safe.

I apologize if I seem condescending with the pattern-matching remark, and would prefer this not to escalate into shit-flinging, but I do have to point out that you referred to it as "a muscle you pulled". That's just not the case. There's temporary damage to the rotator cuff and other muscles from the intense stretching involved as the bone is forced out of position, but there's also permanent damage to the labrum and similar soft tissues and, with subsequent dislocations, the bone itself. If he does not get surgery he will have to accept that his shoulder is permanently mechanically weakened - which is a perfectly valid option, and the one I chose - and he'll have to shape his activities around that. It's up to him but in his position I would get an anchor attached.

@ThomasdelVasto , as @Bartender_Venator said, there is some permanent damage that won't fix itself. The Labrum has a tear, and needs to be repaired. It has started creating a lesion because of the instability it causes.

I'll be doing Yoga and PT after the surgery. I grew up in a household where my grand mom did 3 hours of yoga daily, and the lady is still full of vigor in her mid-80s. Clearly it worked.

My ortho, sports-medicine consult, gpt 5.5 xhigh and 4.7 Opus max are all in agreement on the surgery. It is minimally invasive, so shouldn't be too bad. So surgery it is.