OT: possible rotator cuff injury???

[Westdawg]

Quick backstory - I was helping setup a ladder stand in November, felt a slight pop in my left shoulder. Hurt a bit to put my jacket back on on the way out of the woods.
Little by little, I?ve been losing strength ?, and range of motion has gotten more painful and limited. Pain is terribly intense at night trying to sleep, to the point I cannot sleep soundly?.even trying to pull the covers up with that arm is no bueno. I can still curl weight with only limited pain -(2-3/10) - but anything to the sides/above head, deadlifting?if it were torture I?d tell you where mammaw hid her money.
I?m going to speak with my primary physician about it, but just asking the board if this lines up with what others have experienced with rotator cuff issues.

ETA:
What is the surgery like?? How long before you started PT? How long before you got back to ?normal??

[KB21]

That's consistent with a rotator cuff tear. Likely progression of this is an intra-articular injection into the sub acromial space to see if that will help ease the pain. If it works, it may not be completely torn. If it's torn, it will not help for very long. The surgery is a bear. You would be on a large abduction pillow after surgery and progress to a smaller one 2 weeks or so into the rehab. You will start rehab immediately after surgery, but it will be very limited ROM activities. This is different from a labral tear. Labral tears are completely immobilized for 3-4 weeks after surgery. Rehab takes around 12 weeks post op.

[BorneDawg]

I had it done when I was about 40. It's not fun but wasn't as bad as ACL surgery I had when I was 25 ( got t-boned on S. Montgomery on my motorcycle 3 months before I graduated MSU). Rehab depends on your pain tolerance I accelerated mine due to I wasn't gonna have to ask my wife to help me use the bathroom so I started using it as much as I could stand the day I came home from hospital (it was my right arm and I can do absolutely nothing with my left.....yes i'm that uncoordinated) by the time I was supposed to go back for post op and set up rehab I dug about 30 post hole the day before ...... but thats prob not the recommended path!

[viverlibre]

If in Jxn, Dr. Hogood at MS Sports Medicine in Flowood is considered one of the best in the area.

[Hot Rock]

I had surgery due to labral tear, torn bi-cep and rotator cuff damage.

It's been over 5 months and I am still not ready to swing a golf club. I was told ,maybe in April and no pushups! I was told a year until full recovery and I am starting to believe it. I did 6 weeks of physical therapy before the surgery and 6 weeks after the surgery. Insurance would not pay for a MRI until I had exhausted all other options, including injections which did nothing.

The surgery itself, was outpatient. No big deal as I was asleep and remember nothing. No real pain the first day but you need those pain pills for at least a few days. I was in a sling for a month and sleeping in an upright position. There was no lying down in a bed.

My MRI was done without contrast which was a mistake because they can't see the Labrum without contrast. My regular Dr ordered MRI before sending me to a surgeon. My surgeon convinced my insurance to go ahead with the surgery saying he had to fix the bicep and he may as well put a camera in there to see what's wrong with the labrum rather than doing a 2nd MRI with contrast. Before the surgery he said my pain was from the bi-cep but after the surgery he said it was my labrum. Most of the back half of my labrum was blown out from about 6:30 to 11:30.

He went on to say that he only saw this kind of tear in Off Linemen and due to my size he knew that wasn't the case and asked me had I had a fall or something. I had a wreck years ago and just kept going until I couldn't.

Would I get the surgery again? Yes, I am way better off now than before even if not 100%... yet. I actually can lift my arm over my head and have almost full range of motion. I just can't stop the golf swing or sleep on it fully yet. Oct 21 2022 was my surgery date. My rotator cuff wasn't that bad so every shoulder is different.

[KB21]

If you are in Starkville, I would recommend going to SOG.

[KB21]

I had surgery due to labral tear, torn bi-cep and rotator cuff damage.

It's been over 5 months and I am still not ready to swing a golf club. I was told ,maybe in April and no pushups! I was told a year until full recovery and I am starting to believe it. I did 6 weeks of physical therapy before the surgery and 6 weeks after the surgery. Insurance would not pay for a MRI until I had exhausted all other options, including injections which did nothing.

The surgery itself, was outpatient. No big deal as I was asleep and remember nothing. No real pain the first day but you need those pain pills for at least a few days. I was in a sling for a month and sleeping in an upright position. There was no lying down in a bed.

My MRI was done without contrast which was a mistake because they can't see the Labrum without contrast. My regular Dr ordered MRI before sending me to a surgeon. My surgeon convinced my insurance to go ahead with the surgery saying he had to fix the bicep and he may as well put a camera in there to see what's wrong with the labrum rather than doing a 2nd MRI with contrast. Before the surgery he said my pain was from the bi-cep but after the surgery he said it was my labrum. Most of the back half of my labrum was blown out from about 6:30 to 11:30.

He went on to say that he only saw this kind of tear in Off Linemen and due to my size he knew that wasn't the case and asked me had I had a fall or something. I had a wreck years ago and just kept going until I couldn't.

Would I get the surgery again? Yes, I am way better off now than before even if not 100%... yet. I actually can lift my arm over my head and have almost full range of motion. I just can't stop the golf swing or sleep on it fully yet. Oct 21 2022 was my surgery date. My rotator cuff wasn't that bad so every shoulder is different.

I learned that from an orthopedic surgeon a long time ago. He told me that if I am getting a MRI of the shoulder, it needs to be done as a MRI Arthrogram where the dye is injected into the joint. When I was in residency, the radiologist called the residency program wondering why they had a resident that was ordering MRI Arthrograms on shoulders.

[DownwardDawg]

I had a shoulder "issue" a few years back. I cant pinpoint the exact cause but it started bothering me more and more. It was to the point I couldn't bow hunt because it was the arm that holds the bow out. I couldn't hold anything out in front of me or to the side like that. It eventually went away. Had to deal with cancer so the shoulder was no longer priority. Lol

[Hot Rock]

OH, my physical therapy didn't start for a month after the surgery but the doctor had me doing some light exercises starting day one. I mean extremely light, no weight just movement to start and progressing slightly and slowly. First day was just getting my arm to hang down which sounds easy, it was not. I was barely moving it and in a lot of pain.

Be sure to use the squeeze ball so your forearm and hand strength aren't lost. Squeeze it and it will help the recovery time. I was working within a weeks albeit on light duty and no lifting. I can see a scenario where one couldn't do real work of months depending on the damage. Again, every shoulder is different and do you exercises. Keep in mind, you can do more than the say, just don't reinjure yourself. I found the pain will limit that part. No jerking motions etc..

[Westdawg]

It?s the same distance more or less for me to go Flowood as it would to go to Starkville. So, I just want to have a good idea of who I can consult with my Dr. about.
Mid morning is about the best time of day for ease of movement and less pain?.but wooo those nights and trying to hold weight out in front or to the sides, dang it sucks

[Extendedcab]

I did not have a rotator cuff tear but I did have frozen shoulder - both shoulders - thankfully not at the same time. You can't sleep a whole night for the shoulder aching and before I finally went to a doctor, it was hard even dressing myself - I could not reach behind my back or across my body - hard to put a belt on.

I had intra-articular injection into the sub acromial space twice in both shoulders and 6 months of physical therapy for each shoulder. I did lose some range of motion in my left shoulder - the right shoulder is OK.

The physical therapy exercise, if you can call it that, that I hated the most was the BELT exercise where you loop the belt around the hand/wrist on the hurt arm and then with the good arm, pull the belt over the shoulder where you are moving the hurt arm up the spine, behind your back, as far as you can stand it. I still hurt thinking about it!


It was not fun

[RocketDawg]

Yes, sounds like a rotator cuff injury. I had mine while doing bench presses several (about 30) years ago. There was an audible "pop". Went to a specialist, he gave me prescription NSAIDS, and they did no good. After a while, I switched to Motrin and that helped a lot. Couldn't even hold a coffee cup when it was at its worst, and was very painful at night. The whole affair lasted about a year, never had surgery, and it's all fine now. Around that same time, a guy who was a serious bodybuilder in the gym I went to hurt his, and he was doing curls with a rubber band (not a big one).