Anyone here have any experience with rotator cuff surgery? I just got my MRI results back today and I have 3 tears in my rotator cuff plus muscle atrophy from 20 years of playing racquetball. I don't have much pain on a daily basis unless I'm playing regularly, which I haven't done in the last year. It used to wake me up in the middle of the night and I used to take about 1000mg of ibuprofin per day when I did play regularly. I'm thinking of becoming a lefty as an alternative. Any opinions?

 

Unless I magically get better, I can safely say you will live with the pain for the rest of your life. I tore mine ( granted amongst a few other things as well ) about 13 years ago and it still aches, sometimes it gives me headaches because of the pain. I've been in therapy for that, plus a few other things for the last 15 years..just to get me by.

 

I had it done 13 years ago. I remember that after the numbing medicine wore off that it hurt a dull ache for 2 days. I still remember that pain. They tylenol 3 lasted 45 mins and I suffered the rest of the time. It took 6 weeks to rehab. The pain after 3 days was only with movement and got better as time went on. The repair was great though. I was so bad that I couldn't throw a football without anterior dislocation, now I have no problems at all.

If you can live with it, don't get cut. If you want a cure get cut. Get an experienced orthopod and ask if possibly he uses an on-q or lidocaine pump of some kind for post op pain. If not see if your anesthesiologist can do an interscalene block and catheter.

 

Can you elaborate on the tears. Are they full thickness or partial thickness? What muscles are involved - Supraspinatus? Infraspinatus? Subscapularis? Also, is their evidence of muscle retraction. Any evidence of arthritis?

Also - what type of symptoms are you having? Can you sleep on the shoulder? can you pick up objects with the elbow extended? Can you get a gallon of milk out of the fridge with that arm? What sports are you playing at present?

As you can see - its not as simple as it seems.

 

I don't know about the thickness or muscle involved. She didn't see any arthitis or say anything about muscle retraction, just muscle atrophy.

As far as my symptoms, it barely hurts now. I've only played racquetball 4 times in the last year. I can sleep on the shoulder with no problem. I just tried picking up a small magazine rack (with nothing in it) with my elbow extended and I felt some pain. I doubt I could pick up a gallon of milk out of the fridge. I was noticing a little bit of pain just raising my arm to grab something off the top shelf let alone pick a gallon of something. And I'm currently not playing any sports which would be the reason for me being 20 lbs over my usual weight.

 

plus other factors as well like your age, general health, diabetic status etc etc....it's not that simple.

If you can not give up your sport and cant tolerate with the pain then surgery is the only way. You will need to find a good surgeon with good rotator cuff repairt result and listen to his advice. It's not which procedure, it's who do the surgery sometimes ...just be prepare to accept the rare but not uncommon complication.

 

Aside being overweight now, I am 36 and was in fantastic shape before the layoff. Changing to being a lefty is an option. I'm a natural lefty for a lot of things and have played a few times. So, if I don't want to give up the sport, I could just change sides. As long as the shoulder doesn't get any worse than how it is right now, I think I could easily live with the seldom pain and not have the surgery. But I will see what the doc says.

 

Without seeing your mri scan and performing a shoulder examination; your symptoms don't sound too bad overall. You should try some rotator cuff rehabilitation and see if it make any difference.

Rotator cuff reconstruction is certainly not a quick fix procedure. You will hate the doctor and the b@st@rds that recommend the surgery for the first 6 weeks. It usually takes 3-6 months to get back to full shoulder function if there isn't any complication.

Anyhow, take this free advice with a grain of salt and trust your treating doctor

 

I had some major shoulder surgery about 7 months ago. My rotator cuff was torn, labrum was torn, bone spurs, shoulder capsule was messed up. The doc told me they put in 6 anchors.

The surgery was hell. I spent the first month and a half afterward sleeping on the couch. I had to sleep on my back. I went through a car laod of percoset because the pain was so bad. Taking two would give me about three hours of relief otherwise I would almost go fetal the pain was so bad. The first two months of recovery brought pain that could only be controlled with serious narcotics.

It is seven months later and I have been lifting weights regularly. The strength is now about 90% of the "good" shoulder, even though some mobility is lost. It still has some pain, but I just ignore it. I don't like to take stuff if I can help it.

Would I do it again? Absolutely. My arm was so bad it would pop out of the socket sometimes just putting on a shirt or reaching for the salt. But also I am an active person and most of the joy I get out of life is participating in active things. I was not ready to give up skiing, or wakeboarding, weight lifting to stay in shape, throwing a baseball if I have kids, rock climbing, kayaking, etc.

You must be prepared to do several things.

Endure pain.
Do your rehab religiously.
Tell your employer you may miss some time. (I could not drive for 6 weeks due to percoset)
Get a giant pile of DVD's for your couch time.
Tell the doc you want a huge bottle of percoset. Vicodin is week.

I have heard that just a rotator is not as bad as what I had so it should not be THAT bad. But what kind of life do you want to have in the future? Its worth some hardship to not be limited IMHO.

But you can go online and find some rehab programs for rotator cuff and try the exercises for a month before you make your decision. I was working out regularly before my surgery with exercises that would not make the shoulder pop out and was in decent shape. The doc said I was ahead of schedule at most points during the recovery and said that he always saw a quicker recovery in active people. Doing a month of exercise can't hurt no matter what you decide.

Good luck.

 

I had rotator cuff surgery twice on my left shoulder, both times with impingement, where the tendons bind against the bone. Arthroscopic both times. About 1 1/2 months of physical therapy, then I could resume lifting weihghts. It still hurts at times and I will never have full range of motion.