Hey all.

There is the possibility that some of my less careful younger days have come back to haunt me. My shoulder is starting to show some of the classic symptoms of a rotator cuff problem, and I am starting to contemplate the time table of healing if an orthopedist decides I'm right.

So, who here has gone into the shop and had it worked on, and what was your recovery time like? I've been reading the trusty internet, but firsthand experience from the peanut gallery will also be very helpful. I'm in good shape and heal pretty quickly typically, but I am closing in on 50 years old.

***Good News!

I saw and Orthopedic Surgeon at a clinic here that specializes in sports players. Their shoulder guru was very nice and better yet figured out very quickly that I hadn't torn anything. Apparently I have/had a frozen shoulder which oddly enough, so did my mother at about this age. Same shoulder even.

So I got set up with a couple of the clinic's lovely and mildly sadistic young physical therapists. So far, I have been three times, as well as doing the exercises at home and my mobility has improved dramatically. Almost back to normal level. What was really incredible was how effective 15 minutes of deep tissue massage was at loosening up the shoulder right off the bat. I got 30 degrees of motion back almost immediately. I may have to look at that as a regular part of my future health regimen.

It's an ongoing recovery, but no surgery needed. Woot!

Anyhow, thought I would let everybody know since I remember a post in What's Your Deal about folks never posting how things end up after asking advice.

Also, thank-you to everyone who chimed in. The depth of experience here is one of the things that keeps me coming to the forum year after year. ***

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Otto Pilot,

I had rotator cuff problems a few years ago, the result of swimming, weight workouts with a trainer and taking Krav Maga classes, apparently too much for these old bones and parts. I was then in my 60's, I believe. I was lucky, got diagnosed with only inflammation, short of tears, and endured months of physical therapy at the hands of some sadistic young women. Of course, I stopped swimming, workouts and Krav Maga while recovering.

An old girlfriend here told me yesterday that she had an MRI which revealed tears in her right shoulder rotator cuff, so she is facing surgery to repair. I bet that isn't going to be any fun. She is 71 now.

I have three tears, bicep tendon, labrum, and rotator cuff. I doing my best to put off surgery so this is also something I would like to know.

Have you seen an Orthopedic doc?

I hurt mine. Knew I needed to see a doc when it hurt so much and I barely had the strength to lift glasses from the dishwasher to a shelve about my shoulder.

Saw a good doc and he had set me up with exercises to do at home with bands. He said I didn't need surgery but it could take months to a year to get back to normal. Doing the exercises it slowly got better. One day I may need to go under the knife but for now, it's much better.

What I'm trying to say it find a good doctor. Surgery is sometimes the only option but sometimes it's not needed.

Had it done when I was about your age. Went to one of the top three ortho guys in town. I would hope techniques have improved over the years. I was opened up for bone spurs, tendon reattachment (screws), and a cuff graft. Horrific procedure. If my ex-wife had not been a post-op nurse I would have ended up with Tylenol for pain meds. Strong pain meds are required for rehab which began the following day. Not sure why the doc was a dick with the Rx pad.

Doing rehab religiously, it took a year to return to normal. You have to follow the PT's instructions. I believe I'm 100% today.

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
Of course, I stopped swimming, workouts and Krav Maga while recovering.

I used to swim all the time. Don't much anymore but when my shoulder was bothering me I found myself in a pool and tried to swim some freestyle. That might have been one of the worst things I tried when my shoulder was bad. Low impact my &^%.

pretty sure my right shoulder pain is rotator cuff related. Too bad my insurance is useless so I haven't been able to do anything about it. I hope I'm not screwed by letting it linger. I'm only 33.

I had shoulder repairs done quite a few years back following an industrial injury. I was given a 15% disability for the injury. As I have gotten older the disability is definitely making itself known as I have pain when held in certain positions and reduced strength in specific planes. Would I do the surgery again, yes, as the arm was pretty much useless when injured. It is better than it was when injured but not near what it was before.

Problems of hauling suit cases and flight bags around for 40 years. Had my first one at about 45. Without a doubt the most painful recovery of any surgery I have ever had. Do the PT afterword, no matter how much it hurts, do it, it will matter later on to get your full range of motion back. Slept on my Lazy Boy for the first 3 weeks, so the arm would not move much, sudden movements will send you up the wall real quick. I had a sling with a bunch of buckles to keep it from moving much, but it still does. Had a second one, same shoulder, about 3 months ago, doing better but it's still stiff. I found it averages about 6 months till you are totally pain free again. Good luck !!!

Last September. Diagnosis was rotator cuff. Turned out to be an impingement and torn bicep tendon. 2 weeks immobilized and 4 more weeks in the sling, plus 36 PT sessions. Have been told I should be 100% in a year.

My only "personal experience" with rotator cuff tears/problems was my brother. He fell, landed wrong, tore it.

Putzed around with it for several months and decided to have surgery.

We were out rowing white water on the lower Salmon River, and part of the Snake river 3 days after his surgery. He had no problems.

Probably much determined by the extent of the damage, etc.

My wife had the surgery.
The only thing I can tell you that the key to recovery is following diligently the PT that comes afterwards.
Don't do it and you will be sorry.
No pain no gain.

I had my right shoulder done at 42. I had a 3/4 tear of the supraspinatus, a labrum tear, and a partial separation of the biceps tendon from the bone.

Cause of the injury was multi-fold. Initial tear came in my late 20s playing a game of volleyball in the Army. Tried to stop a spike with my arm at full extension, and felt the muscle let go. Later, in my 40s, I assisted with my son's little league team, throwing hundreds of balls from the outfield to home plate. That didn't help. Final straw was when I tried to pull a 14 foot sailboat on to a trailer as a hurricane was approaching. Feeling a muscle tear is no fun.

I was in very good shape at the time; running, biking, lifting, etc., including the injured shoulder. Funny thing about shoulders, if you aren't moving the specifically injured part, the rest of the system works pretty well, and mostly pain free. Just don't do the wrong thing. That will light you up quickly.

Physical therapy was tried, and was useless, because an existing tear won't really heal, there is too much tension on it. Eventually the insurance company relented and I had arthroscopic surgery performed by the team orthopedist for the Florida Panthers.

I was in the OR for 4 hours. They stitched the muscle together, built a basket of sutures around the ruptured tendon, put two screws in my shoulder bone, and tied the end of the tendon to the screws.

I woke to my arm in a sling, heavily bandaged, with a battery operated pain med drip inserted deep into my shoulder. (About 4 inches, as it turned out.)

Instructions were not to move the arm AT ALL!. Any damage you do at this point will likely be permanent, unrepairable and possibly crippling.

Pain drip came out after two days. It was a weird feeling as the tube pulled out of my shoulder.

Heavy pain killers for the next 5 or so days. Not allowed in a car, even as a passenger for two weeks. Two weeks sleeping in a recliner, as there is a risk that you will roll on to the shoulder in a bed.

Putting on a shirt, or showering involves doing everything left handed, and allowing the healing arm to simply hang down away from the body. This period lasts 6 weeks, while the arm is in a sling, and the sling is separated from your body with a pillow to ensure that the tendon heals short enough to be of use.

Then physical therapy starts. Because I was in good shape going in, therapy was not painful for me. I have heard horror stories, but honestly, the only time I really hurt was when I misjudged a door opening at about week 4, and hit the door frame with my shoulder. Other than that, there was discomfort, significant at times, but generally not too bad. Therapy was not particularly painful, but it did take 6 months to get back to full range of motion, and nearly a year to get back to full strength.

When done, I had full range of motion and full strength. I understand my pain levels, recovery, range of motion and strength to be somewhat atypical, and consider myself very lucky.

I have since partially re-injured the same shoulder, but have no where near the pain and restrictions that I had previously, and have elected to just live with it for now.

Feel free to email me at my address in profile of you have any questions.

Thanks for all the input so far, y'all.

Of particular interest to me is how ling it will keep me out of the cockpit. Thankfully, being a Captain now, the only thing I have to really use strength for is occasional sticky throttles. I have already been giving thought to lightening my travel load significantly, especially now that I do primarily domestic stuff until I can get some more seniority.

Of course all that will be up to my flight doc. Looks like a good time ahead.

Thankfully, I am already familiar with the sadistic nature of PT due to getting my knee scoped in college. That won't be a surprise.

I've had 5 shoulder surgeries, 4 in the last 5 years. 1 was rotator cuff only, 2nd 3 years later on same shoulder removed bone spurs, clipped my collarbone, added 4 anchors to screw my rotator cuff back down and snipped my upper bicep - was basically 4/5 torn. My left was the same - minor RC surgery to clean, clip collarbone, and removed bone spurs. However, rather than snip bicep went in for a second surgery a year later and had it moved out of groove and reattached.

So yeah, some familiarity. A few things I learned:

• If you won't be disciplined in doing the PT - forget about it. This only works if you are religious about PT no matter how it hurts
  
• Get a good MRI picture so you know with certainty what is going on
  
• Do the PT religiously Before opting for surgery
  
• PT before surgery won't help if you have a "mechanical" problem - in my cases my bone spurs were tearing up my shoulder. I even did stem cell injection which just delayed the inevitable
  
• With the PT (and after surgery) controlling inflammation is the key to reducing risk of re-injury and reducing pain. Use ice religiously - it really does help. Ice Ice baby
  
• Anti-Inflammatories are a short term solution -helpful to a point. I went through years of cortisone injections to head this off, but knowing what I know now would have done it differently. Lots of side effects with this and pills
  
• If you have something mechanically wrong and it likely will lead to greater injury - get it fixed
  
• Pick the right surgeon - Orthopedic guys that do sports teams are at the top of the game for a reason. My guy does a lot of MLB pitchers and NFL guys.
  
• Push as hard as they tell, and no more. Muscle atrophy is as hard to get back from as the injury so do all you can do to minimize
  
• You get used to pain - and that makes you more likely to reinjure. Don't overdo it, and don't rush it
  
• Soft tissue takes a long time to heal - be patient
  
• If you were lifting before, don't do the same things again unless you PT guy/gal approves. Better yet just go be active in paddleboarding, swimming, etc. Being active is better than any workout to bring you back
  
• Did I say be patient?

Bottom line - if you can't sleep, it is messing with the quality of life - get it done. You aren't getting any younger and the older you get, the longer to heal.

I'm pain free for the first time in over 20 years and it is awesome. I no longer lift heavy, I lift "lite"/high rep, I'm scrawnier than I was - but getting "fitter" than I have ever been. I'm 50 in two weeks and my goal for the decade from 50 -60 is to not do the stupid things that led to my shoulder surgeries from 40-50.

Above all - don't reinjure. Good luck!

Painful rehab. We have two docs locally that are supposed to be really good. One (the one I used) starts rehab like two days after surgery. The other waits a month or so. Not sure which way is best.

I can no longer throw like a man, but I don't have any pain when using the arm. Before surgery, it hurt even while sleeping on my side...

Had full tear across most of the humerous I think.

Dr said that the steroid injections the primary care dr had given me had softened up the tendons and made them spongy and hard to reattach...

It will only get worse, so better to get it done sooner rather than later. I had issues I ignored until I went to lift something over my head and my left arm gave out. Kind of shocked me, so I went in.
The bone over my shoulder (achromiate or some such name), had a bone spur that was cutting my rotator cuff. Doc went in, shaved it down, clipped my collar bone, and stitched and screwed the cuff back together.
Did PT as instructed and recovery was quit good--only on big meds for two days as they made me nauseous. Worst part was them pulling off the sticky padding they wrapped my shoulder with following the surgery.
I was in my early 40s, am now 53 and it is 100%.

My wife is two weeks post op. She had a bone spur and a partial tear. Surgery took about an hour, three small incisions with one stitch each. Yea there is pain involved but she is a trouper...Percosets aren't hurting either!

First follow up was yesterday and learned she has to wear the sling for another two weeks since the tendon was torn. Starts PT next week, two to three times a week for three to four weeks.

We were given the option before surgery to do the non-surgical rehab type thing and MAYBE fix it. After the surgery the Doc said likely that approach would not have worked.

I had mine done almost exactly one year ago. 90% tear of the supraspinatus tendon. I let my 1st class physical expire for the first time in 35 years. That was a strange feeling.

I felt I could have returned to flying at the 4 month mark, for sure at 5 months but my ortho guy said 6 months. He said its not about regular flying but emergency egress etc. Doors can be heavy. You're ten years younger than I was so maybe you'll heal faster. The results of the repair are worth the surgery.

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.