I’ve got a smallish tear of the labrum, not super clear on X-Ray, so I’m going back for an MRI.

All I know is it hurts like @#$&. Not all the time, positional depending, mostly a dull ache. Changing the radio station in the car, reaching under a table for a dropped pen and I can no longer sleep with my arm under the pillow. When I do or try, it lights up and I have to pause and catch my breath. A small amount of grinding and clicking occasionally.

What have been you’re expertise with shoulder surgery? PT has helped and I’m going to get more serious but I have my doubts. It’s been a long time coming. Cortisone helped for a bit but nothing else really helps.

I tore my front and rear labrum and my bicep head. It was ridiculiusly painful for months because I tried everything except surgery. It did get mildly less painful with PT but these types of injuries do not heal well on their own. I got the surgery, spent 8 weeks in an immobiliz8ng sling on that arm and then 2 months of additiinal PT. Actually better than new because they relocated the attachment points

The MRI will tell the tale as to whether PT will help or whether surgery is needed.

I have a buddy that had the same problem in both shoulders from years of lifting weights and he has a very demanding job so he really didn’t want to be down for as long as a typical shoulder surgery takes. He decided to at least first try stem cell therapy and it was such a game changer that surgery no longer has to be considered.

He went to a place near St.Louis that I will list below so you can take a look at the info and then maybe see if you have something similar wherever you live. If I remember right he said his insurance didn’t cover it or much of it but I’m not totally sure. His was $5,000 for both shoulders.

https://www.bluetailmedicalgroup.com/

Been through it. Both labrums torn. One was Bankart repair, the other was a SLAP tear. I had to get Bankart surgery. The other one, stem cells fixed it. I would recommend you find an ortho who can do a stem cell injection. Probably fix it in less than a year and no surgery. Shoulder surgery sucks man. They put you in half a straight jacket. Gotta sleep in a got damn chair. Skip all that bs, get stems. And get exosomes, not the placenta fluid version. Exosomes healed a tendon in my arm, worst tendon in the body to tear, in 2 months flat. The tendon not only repaired, it doubled in size in 2 months. I’ve had so many MRI’s at this point, I could damn near run that got damn machine.

I've had a tear in both rotator cuffs. The symptoms sounded similar. I had one fixed last December; it was totally worth it. I tried to get over the tears with PT first, but it wasn't enough.

If you do it, make sure you start PT as soon as the doc tells you. I had to start a few weeks later and it SUCKED. The therapist said, "You seem to be a fast healer. This isn't going to be fun."

I'm getting the other fixed in January.

Not work related or accident just wear and tear and stupid stuff over the years.

I’ll check into stem cells.

Stem cell or pro is highly variable, inconsistent in results in studies and most insurance doesn’t cover it. After MRI a better diagnosis and plan can be established

My one and only shoulder surgery was 35 years so a lot has changed since then. I was a teen and was strong before surgery. In 5 months, I was setting PRs in bench press which made my football coach happy.

In the last 5 years, Dad has had both shoulders arthroscoped due to tears. He was in his 70s for both surgeries. He is the model patient and if PT says do these exercises 4x per day he does them 4x or 5x per day. Both surgeries were in winter (Upper midwest) and he was ready for golf season when courses opened in spring.

I have a patch of calcific tendonitis in my left shoulder which flared up and prevented me from lifting my arm back at the beginning of the year. For me, high dose Advil was the only thing that made it semi-bearable. Naproxen helped a bit but like you if I tweaked it at all it would undo everything the Naproxen did and the 24hr dosing for it wasn't as flexible as the Advil.

In the end the only thing that worked for me was a cortisone shot, which I know doesn't help you. Definitely follow the advice of a good ortho and ortho only. My PCP wanted me to just do PT to try and fix it, even though I had little to no use of my arm and couldn't work for about a month. Finally I bypassed my PCP and went straight to ortho. He said that PT only was absurd, gave me the cortisone that day and it was better in a few days.

Thanks all! MRI says decent tear in the rotator cuff and the Ortho says I’m a good candidate for surgery. Ugh.

PT has helped, so I’ll continue that at home and look at surgery in the fall based on the expected recovery time. 3 weeks in a sling, 3 months before resuming somewhat normal activity and starting more serious activity. I’ll use the time to work on left hand coordination. .

I had a CT with contrast on mine and it didn’t show as much as it should have. Based on symptoms and range of motion, my ortho said surgery. PT was started before the surgery.
If I didn’t ever have to raise my arm above shoulder level, besides occasionally being woken up by a white hot poker embedded in my shoulder, it would have been okay.
(I was working on a fire truck at the time so putting it off wasn’t a possibility.)

Yes it sucked balls, took forever to REALLY be able to work it hard but well worth it!
Stem cells wasn’t an option back then, I had it done 4-5? yrs before I retired, so about 20 years ago.

I tore ligaments in my right shoulder probably four times from motocross wrecks and every time the doctor said it would heal just fine. I suffered for YEARS with pain to my upper back near my shoulder and I knew it had to do with the torn ligaments, but doctors told me I was wrong. I finally went to a very renowned shoulder specialist who looked at all of my MRIs and freaked out saying I should have had shoulder surgery on the first injury. He said almost all ligaments were barely hanging on and my back pain was from muscles compensating for what my shoulder couldn’t do. He said he didn’t know if he could fix it until he got in there since it had been so long, but the surgery was a total success and fixed everything! Now recovering from shoulder surgery sucks ass!!!!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Riley:
Thanks all! MRI says decent tear in the rotator cuff and the Ortho says I’m a good candidate for surgery. Ugh.

PT has helped, so I’ll continue that at home and look at surgery in the fall based on the expected recovery time. 3 weeks in a sling, 3 months before resuming somewhat normal activity and starting more serious activity. I’ll use the time to work on left hand coordination. .

Do the surgery, but for me it was six months before I could do most things and a full year until I was back to normal, but I had a lot of ligaments torn.

quote:

Originally posted by Riley:
Thanks all! MRI says decent tear in the rotator cuff and the Ortho says I’m a good candidate for surgery. Ugh.

PT has helped, so I’ll continue that at home and look at surgery in the fall based on the expected recovery time. 3 weeks in a sling, 3 months before resuming somewhat normal activity and starting more serious activity. I’ll use the time to work on left hand coordination. .

Keep checking into stem cells. They’ve worked for me every single time I’ve used them. 3 surgeries avoided thus far. As I stated previously, the SLAP tear in one labrum required surgery but my ortho injected it with stems when he was doing surgery on the other one (BANKART) as it was prioritized to be worse. It was 100% by the time I was done rehabbing the surgically repaired one. From post op I was back in the gym, 100% within 6 months lifting weights normally. 100% range of motion, etc. The “machine” in this country doesn’t want stems to be FDA approved because it would mean billions of lost revenue for them.

When I had a knee injury, 5 years ago, stem cell treatments were not that successful yet. I spoke to persons who had it, and read all I could. The results were less than 30% positive over a period of years. My insurance company stated that the success rates were not sufficient for them to pay for stem cell. I suspect the ins. company was telling the truth, as stem cell treatment would save them a lot of money.

quote:

Originally posted by c1steve:
When I had a knee injury, 5 years ago, stem cell treatments were not that successful yet. I spoke to persons who had it, and read all I could. The results were less than 30% positive over a period of years. My insurance company stated that the success rates were not sufficient for them to pay for stem cell. I suspect the ins. company was telling the truth, as stem cell treatment would save them a lot of money.

A quantum leap from 5 years ago now with Exosomes. Exosomes literally healed a tendon in 2 months flat, MRI verified. 3 for 3 for me, including a shoulder that would have required surgery. Your insurance company, nor any, will pay for them. FDA doesn’t want it because it would put a lot of people out of business and save billions of dollars. Stems were also a fraction of the price surgery would have cost me. Probably 1/10th of the cost of surgery and I have excellent insurance.

Good luck, Riley.

I guess I got lucky with my labrum tears. Left Shoulder done in 2012 and right one 2013. My recovery wasn't that intense and actually never had to wear a sling except for leaving the hospital. He said I could remove it when I got home. His caution was DO NOT lift the arm. I could walk and swing it and that would help keep things loose, but not to lift it at all. I did have PT of course. After just a couple of months I felt pretty normal, but still was very careful about over using them. I still work out, but again, cautiously and use lighter weights and higher reps. And not as often.

I am really intrigued by the stem cell advances. Should I relapse, I'd sure try that.

I also wanted to say that I had two MRI's. First without dye...contrast and that was completely inconclusive. And a waste of money. I don't know who dropped the ball on that one. Contrast is a must.

I had a partial tear in a car accident. It was no golf for 2 years and didn't feel right for another 2. PT helped with the lightning-rod pain and my dropping things. But time is all that really did anything for me. Good luck as it can be a bitch.

In 1982 and 1985 I separated my left shoulder in motorcycle accidents.

In 2018 I lost my balance on the edge of the drainage ditch that runs across the front of my property. It's not much of a ditch, perhaps 18" deep, with the place were I was standing another 12-16" above the top of the ditch. So out I go, with a push trying to clear the 24" wide ditch. Lacking sufficient velocity I crash into the far edge, about which I pivoted, slamming my left shoulder into the pavement, full force. It hurt. A lot. As in my first thought was I'd broken the head of my humerus. Turned out I had a double, full thickness tear of the rotator cuff, with a torn biceps tendon to boot.

Surgery ensued.

After 12 weeks with my arm immobilized, I began PT. Two weeks later I'm in a coma from a bacterial infection that came a whisker from killing me. I spent a month in an ICU and nearly five in a rehab recoverying from the damage done to my body from the infection. No effective rehab on the shoulder ever happened.

Now I have been informed that I need a reverse shoulder replacement. No fucking thanks, boys. I watched a video of the procedure and was left with serious desire not to go that way.

My point is, irrespective of undergoing surgery or not, DO THE PHYSICAL THERAPY!!!

My knee replacement five weeks ago? Going perfectly because I am doing the PT. Every damned day, eight times a day.