quote:

Originally posted by coloradohunter44:
Had my right shoulder done at age 51. 10% was all that was left holding it together. 4 screws to hold it together to heal. Electric therapy chair for three weeks after, 6-8 hours a day. Sling for 2-3months after that. PT for 30/40 session as well. I seriously doubt you will be flying any sooner than 2 months. Hope I'm wrong. Good luck. I have full range of motion, but maybe 75 percent of my old strength.

I did not shoot my shotgun for 5 months after. Did NOT want to undo their work, nor suffer all that pain again.

I'm fully expecting to be out of the cockpit for several months at least. It's just a matter of how much.

On the upside there are some good orthopods here in Denver and the team doctor of the Broncos is taking patients. I don't care if he charges in gold bricks, if he's good, it's worth it. Still researching.

Get the arthroscopic method, had a complete tear because of a fall.Interview the Dr, ask him his success rate. Do not cheat on therapy. I am fine today.

If your shoulder is starting to show "symptoms" and the cuff is not actually torn, much of what you may be experiencing can be resolved with aggressive physical therapy and routine treatment. (ice, stretch, reduction of overhead lifting, etc.)

Most people in the 40's and 50's that have had an active lifestyle will often being experiencing "impingement syndrome" which is treatable without surgery. If ignored your shoulders condition will not improve. I learned this the hard way by trying to work though the pain in the gym. Today I work my rotator cuffs just like an actual muscle group 3x week. (versus merely "stretching" them).

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
If your shoulder is starting to show "symptoms" and the cuff is not actually torn, much of what you may be experiencing can be resolved with aggressive physical therapy and routine treatment. (ice, stretch, reduction of overhead lifting, etc.)

Most people in the 40's and 50's that have had an active lifestyle will often being experiencing "impingement syndrome" which is treatable without surgery. If ignored your shoulders condition will not improve. I learned this the hard way by trying to work though the pain in the gym. Today I work my rotator cuffs just like an actual muscle group 3x week. (versus merely "stretching" them).

I hope this is the case though I am pessimistic.

Many moons ago I was practicing a fairly aggressive and fast style of Aikido. I got thrown towards a wall and my normally excellent (if I do say so myself) ukemi (falling and rolling with style and purpose) failed me. My rolling arm collapsed and pain exploded. It healed, but I am afraid that poor roll lit the fuse on this particular shoulder.

Again. I hope perhaps you are correct.

I had my Rotator Cuff surgery in February 2015 after a slip on the ice in November 2014.

I could not raise my arm to reach the power window switch on my Wrangler, they are just below the radio probably 90 degrees angle from my side, could not work the shifter, didn't even try the 4wd shifter, and a helluva lot of constant pain. I stuck it out for about three weeks before seeing a Orthopedic surgeon hoping it would get better even though the ER doctor said that he suspected the Rotator Cuff was at least partly torn.

MRI showed a full tear. When he got into it there was some other minor damage plus three bone spurs, he suspected that they contributed to the tearing.

Outpatient arthroscopic procedure. Get the pain pump even if your insurance does not cover it. Made it a lot easier. The worst part was the nerve block, it lasts for about twelve hours. That truly scared me, your arm just in a sling and unable to move it or feel it. About six hours after coming home I started getting feeling back and was able to move my pinky finger, what a feeling of elation that was!

IIRC the doctor gave me Norco and some Tylenol 3's, surgery was on a Friday, I took maybe three Norco's, last one was that Monday, only aspirin afterwards. I could not drive for a week per his orders.

PT, follow all instructions INCLUDING the at home ones. Don't get frustrated like I did, I considered selling my bikes and my 4 speed Pontiac but the therapists calmed my ass down and told me to give it a chance as I could not see any improvement myself.

I probably have almost all my movement back, arm behind my back and raise like to scratch seems like a little less than before but no big thing, that's what corners of walls are for.....

I was a week shy of 63 when I had my surgery. I guard it a little more as I am afraid of reinjuring it so I don't do things like lift transmissions anymore. One of the contributing factors in my decision to retire from a car dealership parts job this year.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery to you.

Otto... I have had both shoulders rotator cuff repaired at ages 62 in 2006 & 66 in 20010. I regained good mobility in 6 to 8 weeks, but 9 months for full strength to return.

After full strength returned, I unloaded by hand 20 tons of gravel repairing a private road in 90 days summer of 2012. I have good strength now at 72 & pain free. 100% movement in left arm & maybe 85% right arm.

I used Steadman Clinic in Vail - world famous sports docs. Email if you desire more info. I live in Arvada.

Went over the handlebars and landed on left shoulder, doing a pretty good number on it. Supraspinatus torn in a couple places, subscapularis torn completely off, biceps tendon actually in the joint. Wasn't a lot of fun. On a neighbor's recommendation went to a fellow in Van Nuys who has been doing nothing but shoulders for years, taking in board certified orthopedic surgeons as fellows and teaching them about scoping shoulders. He did mine in about 3.5 hours and said it was in the handful of worst ones he had seen. I was 43 at the time. Got three titanium anchors and a biceps tenodesis (bicep tendon attached to the head of the humerus and the part running over the shoulder cut out). The rehab wasn't bad then. I ditched the prescription pain meds in a couple days, switching to ibuprofen and extra strength Tylenol. The prescription was a generic with extra strength Tylenol levels of acetaminophen and 5mg of some narcotic. The thing that helped the most was the ice. I did what the doc and the PT said and recovered relatively quickly. A month out we flew to Idaho to visit Mrs slosig's cousins. I was glad she could fly as even holding a chart up with that arm for any length of time was tough. Six months later it was bulletproof.

I've been back twice with issues, the first time a couple years ago with that left shoulder and recently with the right. I overdid it both times. With the left, I managed to knock a good sized chunk of cartilage out of the socket where the head of humerus rides. Although the cartilage is apparently the texture of cottage cheese, when floating around in the joint it causes a lot of inflammation and results in arthritis. "Give it a couple months - it should re-absorb and things should settle down." It did. With the right I managed the same except several chunks and a slight tear of supraspinatus, probably not enough to be worth fixing, but we won't know for sure until the cartilage is re-absorbed and the inflammation is down so he can test. Things do seem to heal slower at 53 than they used to at 43.

It is not easy being patient, but at least I am getting better shooting left-handed.

Got hurt at work , Had surgery Jan 2017. PT started 2-3 weeks after that , 3 x week. I'm still off work.
Painful , yes it is. The drugs helped , helped a lot in the beginning but I weened myself off of them pretty quickly. Ice machine that comes home with you & a recliner at home helped me. PT , PT & more PT , doing strength training outside of the PT helped me also , helping me now.

The warden at home cut some shirts for me , left side , surgery side under armpit straight down , becomes half a poncho sorta with the good arm sleeve in tacked.

Good luck

Thanks for all the info y'all. There are some good pieces of info and wisdom here. I'll probably be sending a few emails as well. Again, thanks, and now to see what the doc says.

I had mine done in Feb '13. I was 42. The ortho told me the x-ray showed a bone impingement and that I likely didn't have a roto cuff or labrum tear. He was wrong. I was 3/3. I did my therapy, but I couldn't do a push up for almost two years. I was cleared to go back to full duty after three months and light duty (10 lbs or less) after two weeks.

My shoulder was completely useless, found a great orthopod who recommended a Mumford procedure on my right shoulder. As has been mentioned by some it was the most painful surgery I have ever had, but thanks to one great physical therapist and a certified massage therapist after a year or so I could use it again and after three years can even shoot a pistol but not great!

Do the exercises and the therapy and you stand a good chance of good recovery. One lesson I learned the hard way while you are sleeping is a very dangerous time to move wrong and tear a muscle loose. Sleep with the sling until the Doc says you do not need to, then go an extra week!

This was a serious operation, many shoulder surgeries are pretty simple and a friend was back in about 3 months.

Good luck!

I fell in '07, and besides crushing the nerve in my right knee, I put my right hand out to keep from slamming my face into the sidewalk, tearing my rotator cuffs. My shoulder was pretty useless, and I could actually pop it loose and it would float around. The ortho doctor was upset with me when I told him no surgery right away, as I was too unstable walking and until it improved a lot, I wasn't going to have any surgery on my shoulder, mostly because of having to have my arm in a sling for weeks. I just felt it was asking for a bad fall. For 3 years, I couldn't raise my arm above my head at all, and if I tried, it hurt a lot. One day I went to the grocery store and when I reached for a carton of milk on the top shelf without thinking with my right hand and had no problem doing it. I have pretty much full motion with it now, it's not "right", and I can't lift anywhere near what I could before I hurt it, but it's mostly pain free, and no surgery and even more importantly (to me, as my PT experiences have ALL been negative) NO therapy. My left shoulder has had "impingement" for a long time now, and therapy made it much worse than it was before I started going. A friend recently had rotator cuff surgery and so far, it's not looking like the outcome will be positive. Hopefully, something changes, but right now, therapy is a painful as hell torture session. At least he hasn't wound up in the ER like I did THREE TIMES while taking therapy. Twice for knee issues, partial and full tears of the quadriceps tendon, and once when I was going for my back and the exercises set off the worst sciatica I have ever had. I told them I was in the middle of a bad spell of it, and they had me do the normal exercises and I ended up just walking out (barely) and going to the ER next door and getting a pain shot.

Been there !

Unless I missed it, I haven't heard anyone mention cortisone injections. I've had this done twice, years apart on my right shoulder. The last time was at least ten years . I am a doc myself ,so I went to one of my ortho buddies, when I realized I could no longer raise a book high enough to put it on a 6 foot high bookcase. He diagnosed rotator cuff injury and proceeded to take this long needle and stuck it in the front of my shoulder. Worked for many years. When I eventually had a recurrence, a second doc injected it from the back . That as I said, was at least ten years ago and my shoulder is currently fine. I am a great procrastinator and have found over the years, that with the exception of things like cancer, the body has a remakable ability to heal itself if you give it enough time .

I had them.
They don't work for me.
Once the pain from the injection site wore off any relief was gone.
Less than a week.
Dr. said some people's bodies don't respond to the injections favorably.

quote:

Originally posted by NK402:
Unless I missed it, I haven't heard anyone mention cortisone injections.

Everyone here has posted regarding a very invasive procedure for a very complicated injury. In my opinion, unless you're a couch potato injections merely postpone the inevitable. Bone spurs don't go away and tendons don't reattach themselves. Don't forget the ortho doc's famous quote, "the torn cuff damage was worse than anticipated."

Bump to share the results.

Glad you have had good results from your docs.

I'm glad the PT is working well for you. Like my doctor told me when I had similar problems with my shoulder, and the PT worked, "use it or lose it".

Outstanding result!

Congratulations and good luck.

A