Tell me about Rotator Cuff surgery

[MasterKiller]

Anyone had it? How long were you out?

[David Jamieson]

Training Partner had it. 2 years ago. Out for 6 months in total, still does some of the therapy exercises when his shoulder bugs him.

[David Jamieson]

there may b other issues that contribute to the shoulder bugging him, e.g. - restriction of structures not immediately at site of symptoms; I can refer u to a few local DO's in GTA if interested...

Thanks man! He's back in Hong Kong for a little while, but by all means, shoot me some locals and I will let him know upon his return.

[mawali]

Anyone had it? How long were you out?

I didn't have the surgery but the subjective feeling of pain and immobilization was so great that surgery was recommended. I was jumping out of a MRAP (backward, of all things) and soemhow my sleeve hung up at door angle and I heard a crack at shoulder hinge with some level of scapular injury. It was enough that the 2 people closest to me heard the crack! The medic observed the area as being traumatized with reddened localized swelling but it was if my right hand was just hanging there. I was out for 2 days. I did not want surgery

A combination of ice, ditdajow, vix, vaseline some Afghan/Waziri lotion and some basic joint range of movement exercises. Turkish massage helped considerably! It took a year to heal! What I did notice was that soem people want to stop the pain so bad that despite lack of obvious conditions for surgery, they do it anyway and that might end up causing more problems.

[MasterKiller]

depends on the degree of damage, the nature of the repair and what u r "out" from; a full-thickness tear will keep you away from any ball-throwing activities for a lot longer than a partial thickness will keep you out of skiing;

it's worth adding that in certain cases one might be able to avoid surgery: for example, if it's small tears (even in several locations), and there is effective treatment of the structures putting excess stress on the external rotators (usually tight sub scap, lats, pecs and anterior rib depressors; also flexion lesions at T4-7 and facilitation of upper traps inhibits lower traps), it could conceivably change the symptom profile sufficiently to enable non-surgical resolution; but again, that's going to vary from patient to patient and practitioner to practitioner (for me, I'd be looking for some concrete markers in terms of immediate changes in certain signs / symptoms, and strong maintenance of those changes before I'd tell someone to reconsider surgery, and of course that wud be in consultation w their doc)

My general practicioner told me it was likely a bad tear, but I'm seeing a sports ortho next week and won't know for sure until the MRI comes back.

I hurt it last March by rolling out of an omaplata. I couldn't use my arm at all for a few weeks. Had intense burning running down the length to my elbow. Eventually, I started lifting/doing BW exercises, but it's still painful to curl much weight or perform throwing type motions. And it pretty much hurts all night in bed.


I'd prefer to avoid getting cut, but I can't do much right now as is. It even hurts when I run.

Everything that happens to me is always bad, so I'm expecting to hear a "that's the worst tear I've ever seen" type of diagnosis.

[Oso]

have you had an MRI yet?

it was remarkable to me what the mri showed in my shoulder once the doc pointed out the tears.

i had:

3 90% tears in tendons...can't remember the specific ones except one of them was in a muscle that tied back in under my scapula.

2 tears in the labrum, not sure of degree of tear

a bone spur in the socket that was probably a large contributor to the damage as it pushed the ball out of place in some ranges of motion

those things were what prompted the call for surgury. he did have the caveat that he might find other stuff and i had to sign off that he could fix what he found. that included scraping off some arthritis/calcium buildup and repairing what he called a 'shattered' end of my collarbone. the cool thing was he had pics to show me of the things he found...cya on his part if nothing else.

i was told i'd be out for a year. my insurance only covered 3 months of the 6 months of recommended PT...at $145 per visit and 2 visits a week it's needless to say I didn't continue PT the other 3 months. I did continue the exercises for most of the three months.

at this point, i don't know whether to say it was worth it or not. i still can't overhand throw. i quit martial arts because my left shoulder starting feeling the same as my right had before surgury and attempting to train anything, arm drills/chin na in mantis or mma ground work/shoulder locks was just not good on either shoulder and since i work with my hands/arms and need to keep working till then end, I had to chose to try and preserve the shoulders.

the biggest relief from chronic pain came via strength training (in crossfit environment) and I attribute it to any and all of the overhead pressing exercises including hand stand pushups. after getting the impression that these movements seemed to be giving me long term relief, my spare time was spent working them and after another 6-8 weeks of specific training, i was actually pain free...that seems to jive with what TGY is saying.

[Vajramusti]

sounds like more than just the RTC that u jacked up; def want to c what MRI says, but some of the sx's u describe I'd be curious to c if they were from other things that might perhaps b amenable to conservative approach; where r u located again? maybe i kno sumone skilled near u...

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I think that Masterkiller is in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I remebered that because Oklahoma was once my stomping ground.
Each case can be different and good medical diagnosis is important.

Anecdotally, some years ago--according to primary care doc, I had a rotator cuff tear. Painful. I could not lift my arm. By using different sizes of Indian clubs (mudgar in Hindi or mil in Farsi) using
circular flowing motions- after several weeks-the rehab worked. No problems since.
Indian and Persian wrestlers used clubs to strengthen that area.

[MasterKiller]

sounds like more than just the RTC that u jacked up; def want to c what MRI says, but some of the sx's u describe I'd be curious to c if they were from other things that might perhaps b amenable to conservative approach; where r u located again? maybe i kno sumone skilled near u...

I'm around Oklahoma City.

[IronFist]

Hope you recover soon, man.

[MasterKiller]

Ortho said there is a good chance I won't need surgery, but he won't know for sure until I have my MRI.

For now, I'm on methylprednisolone (steroids), using a ketoderm cream, and applying flector patches to my shoulder.

The price we pay...

[IronFist]

I think I heard that corticosteroids cause tissues to heal wrong, or not as well as they would have without them (although faster). Same thing with NSAIDs. I don't have the source off hand, though. Maybe it was for tendons, though, and not muscles.

You may want to look into platelet-rich plasma (PRP). They take your blood, spin it to separate out the plasma with all the growth factors in it, and then inject it into the injury.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19282509

I've never had it but just recently heard about it and have been looking more into it.

Good luck.

[MasterKiller]

I think I heard that corticosteroids cause tissues to heal wrong, or not as well as they would have without them (although faster). Same thing with NSAIDs. I don't have the source off hand, though. Maybe it was for tendons, though, and not muscles.

You may want to look into platelet-rich plasma (PRP). They take your blood, spin it to separate out the plasma with all the growth factors in it, and then inject it into the injury.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19282509

I've never had it but just recently heard about it and have been looking more into it.

Good luck.

****, negro. This is 'Murcia! My insurance won't pay for that.

[Oso]

Ortho said there is a good chance I won't need surgery, but he won't know for sure until I have my MRI.

For now, I'm on methylprednisolone (steroids), using a ketoderm cream, and applying flector patches to my shoulder.

The price we pay...

and you're not even old yet, lol.

sucks. been there. honestly, i've come to the determination that any combative endeavor is just not good for your body. stretching, walking/hiking, sprinting, lifting...all good, but trying to beat the crap out of each other, even in controlled circumstances...leads to, well, getthing the crap beat out of you in the long run.

[MasterKiller]

and you're not even old yet, lol..

It's not the years, it's the mileage -- Indiana Jones

[Oso]

no, it's the age AND the mileage.
it's not like you're the only martial artist who has suffered rotator cuff damage