Share your rotator cuff injury stories.

[Beausoir]

Please.

[taterguy]

1. Had mystery pain in the shoulder

It hurt like hell. Ordinarily I avoid drugs but I was gobbling anything I could find, no questions asked. I did a month of PT and exercises. I avoided surgery. I still don't know what caused it; probably several years of carrying unbalanced loads while on my bike

[greatauntoftriplets]

7. My experience was similar to yours....

though I am not certain exactly how it had occurred. Maybe just 50-plus years of life.

[Oeditpus Rex]

2. Not much to tell

I threw a 1-2 slider to Walker, and all of a sudden...









Sorry...

It started after I painted the inside of my house about 12 years ago.

The ceilings, y'know.

Flares up every so often; I call it "mouse shoulder."

[flvegan]

3. 80 pound dumbells

Seated presses...not my first time doing them, but it's a lot of weight. I actually felt the shearing. I stopped the set, and didn't do any more that day. Iced, stretched, then avoided overhead presses like the plague for 90 days. Did Arnold's instead for my seated routine.

I blame it on lack of proper warm-up that day.

[Beausoir]

4. Mine hurts so bad I am afraid to do the PT exercises.

Got those bands and a shoulder wrap.

[masshole]

5. had surgery 2 1/2 years ago

I had "Impingement Syndrome" - bone spurs that needed to be removed from my right shoulder and an "unusually large clavicle" (settle down ladies ;-)) that needed to be shaved down.
Prior to surgery during the MRI the Ortho noticed a tear in the rotator cuff. I was fortunate, the PT after helped strengthen everything to where nothing further was needed. I just can't throw a football more than 20 yards anymore lol.

Now it's the tendonitis in left shoulder acting up, I got a cortisone shot in May that's helped.

[graywarrior]

6. Was splitting wood and threw a log tearing my rt cuff

Doc wanted to do surgery, told him FU. Went to a physical therapist, she gave me simple weight lifting exercises which I did for 3 months. Problem solved. Never had surgery. That was in the early 90's.

[DancingBear]

8. Twice

Long term results of hockey and aging, I guess.

Persistent pain led to the first operation - 8 months of rehab and then the first time I went to do a barbell curl I yelped like a puppy.

Turns out the first doctor missed a second (hidden) tear, but thankfully one of the greatest ortho surgeons in northern VA operated on me this time (no way in hell was I going back to the first clown).

Ten month rehab this time - back to what a 53 year old shoulder should feel like.

[MichiganVote]

9. 50 year old hubby snowboard victim...fell..not once, but twice on

shoulder on the same day on a Utah ski vacation. Took baby home, 3 hour surgery, 3 months recuperation, $15,000 (insurance paid most)

Not funny, not funny at all. Best part? Morphine pain pump following surgery. Worst part? He was bored off work and the initial PT was a pain.

[sendero]

10. Had a injury...

.. called "impingement syndrome", where the various muscles of the shoulder are not holding the bones in proper alignment during stress. I was lifting weights back then, and my left shoulder started hurting more and more during exercises with arms overhead or putting certain stresses on.

I wound up having to have a surgeon go in (larthroscopically) and make a few repairs. Recovery took a long time, count on a minimum of 3 months taking it easy on the shoulder. Now, it's been good since but if I do too much overhead stuff I'll start getting off of it.

This time, I don't not "work through the pain", that was foolish :)

[seemunkee]

11. right or left?

right one got initially injured while boogie boarding at the beach and then further torn when I took a fall climbing. Got the surgery and its doing OK.

I just started last friday on my third round of PT for the left. I have impingment problems and also the bicep tendon is in bad shape. This PT guy works with a lot of athletes so hopefully he can get me stablized and able to climb again at a higher level.

[REP]

12. I Tore Mine Gesturing

Not a wild gesture - just normal conversational gesturing, and completely dislocated my humerus out of the shoulder socket. It hurt like a motherfucker, and of course I couldn't move my arm, so I waited over 24 hours to have it re-located. It's not a big tear, and I've never had it repaired, but it's a very bad idea for me to hyperextend my arm, especially reaching behind, say into the backseat of a car.

I tore the other one when I was a passenger in a car that was hit prety much head-on. Permanent nerve damage at C6 and 7, minor rotator cuff tear, dislocated knee, lot of bruising. That tear wasn't repaired, either, since my mother was the driver and she was at-fault for the accident.

[pitohui]

13. this one might be encouraging

my friend got one, middle forties, ONE consult w. a physical therapist to tell him what to do and he has full recovery, full range of motion, and has never needed the surgery several years later

if they insist you try the physical therapy exercises first before doing surgery, don't roll your eyes and go yeah, right -- it can actually work!

i stand amazed at how fully he has recovered

by the way he is still fully involved in weight training and lifting, w. no further issues, he just had to learn how to do it properly

he was really supposed to go to the physical therapist multiple times but since, no health insurance, he just learned the exercises really, really well the first time and it all worked out

you of course get all of the exercises and physical therapy your coverage will put up with, because it CAN work out so well

[NewWaveChick1981]

14. Not me, but my husband and my father-in-law have had rotator cuff tears.

At different times for different reasons, but still both excruciating. Hubby and I were in a car accident in 1991 (someone else's fault) before we got married, and he had a few injuries as a result (none life-threatening, thank goodness). He ended up having to have three surgeries within a year after it happened; two were related to injuries in his right forearm and elbow, and the other was a rotator cuff tear in his right shoulder. He couldn't lift his arm above shoulder level, and it was intensely painful most other times. He had arthroscopic surgery to correct it, and after the surgery and physical therapy, it was (and still is) about 90% of what it was before with no pain.

My father-in-law injured his left shoulder in the Army in WWII. He never thought too much about the aches and pains in his shoulder except that they were a normal result of his injury back then. He took aspirin for it, but over the years, it got worse. He finally broke down and had it X-rayed about twelve years ago, and it was diagnosed as a rotator cuff injury that had never been treated. He went elsewhere for a second opinion, which resulted in the same diagnosis. There was so much scar tissue built up it was almost impossible for the surgeon to repair it. The surgeon did what he could, so he has some relief and some increased usage now, but it'll never be the same. He just turned 80, and if he'd had some sort of treatment in his 20s, it might not have been that bad.

Bottom line: get treatment for rotator cuff injuries ASAP. Don't wait.

[mduffy31]

15. I told you to not throw the split finger

without your arm being warmed up properly. Don't be a hero, use the curve and change until your arm is nice and loose.

[LibertyLover]

16. Same here - husband had it, not me

Seven years ago,in August, 1999, we adopted a former racing greyhound. My husband was walking him to the car when a motorcycle blew by. The poor dog freaked and pulled on the leash, jerking my husband's arm back in a direction arms are not meant to go in. He complained about it hurting, but it seemed to get better. Fast forward two years - husband is at an archery shoot. He shoots a crossbow and is good. In fact the contest came down to him and a longbowman. He led up to the speed round. Crossbows are not meant for speed, but he tried. Afterwards he was shaking with the pain from his shoulder. But would he go to the doctor? Of course not. So we go through the summer and fall of 2001, including a trip to London with him carrying luggage and needing to lie down because the pain was so great. We go through the winter of 2002 with snow shoveling and pain. We go through the summer with more archery and camping and pain. Finally, in the fall of 2002, in fact the day after our paperwork to adopt a child went to the Chinese authorities, I convinced him to see an orthopedic surgeon. By now he could not lift his arm any higher than about mid-chest without severe pain. Orthopod ordered x-rays and an MRI and told him that he had a nasty rip in the rotator cuff that needed surgery immediately. Husband tried to put it off, his motto being "it's better to be on the surgical team than the table". But the orthopod told him that if he didn't take care of it, he was looking at impairment. So my husband finally agreed almost 3 and half years after the initial injury to have it repaired. When the surgeon got into the site, he found not 1 but 2 tears and bone spurs on the clavicle from an auto accident my husband had been in some 12 years previously that were also causing pain and irritation. So the orthopod repaired the tears and shaved the clavicle. It took my husband a few weeks longer to heal, but he is happy that he finally had the surgery, since a year later he was able to hold his daughter in his arms and play silly daddy games with her.