Shoulder tear

Has anyone had one? What was the treatment?

Shoulder tear

Are you sure?

I've had my shoulder diagnosed several times with MRI and some said it was a tear in the shoulder cuff, bone spur, others a tear in the ligament, some said a misalignment of the ligament. Recently I literally had frozen shoulder which is truly odd since I had no injury to my arm to cause me to immobilize it (the usual trigger).

I've had two shots of cortisone so far in my life time to my shoulder. Over a decade of time in between the shots.

Once because the 'tear' wouldn't be enough to have surgery on and physical therapy would be enough to strengthen the muscles around the area. OMG that PT was brutal but helped.

Second time was for Frozen shoulder. The pain was so intense I literally could not lift my elbow to my shoulder height, in any direction. The scarring and excess around my shoulder was so great that even the doctor winced and ached in pain while applying my cortisone which was excruciatingly worse than the first time but less shocking in application. First time they stabbed me through the back, the second time it was slowly pushed through from the front of my shoulder.

Both times cortisone and PT helped. First time I had PT it was covered by insurance for 13 sessions. I had a professional assist me. The second time I was unemployed and the doc gave me papers to show me what to do. Both times the work helped.

So ....

"Tear" is relative and oddly enough I've heard it said at least twice but I'm now a lot more skeptical since I've had my shoulder MRI'ed 4 times and seen by no less than half a dozen different doctors in my adult life time. Yes, I've trusted them all.

I'd like to just carve my shoulder off some days. It's the one part of my body that has ALWAYS provided me with pain, since I was 8. 32 years of pain in one form or another. Cortisone and PT would be my recommendations

Re: Shoulder tear

Not a tear but I did separate my shoulder once

Message edited 2/23/2016 7:40:48 PM.

Re: Shoulder tear

Yes. After a lot of pain over time the MRI showed a slight tear in the ligament of the cuff. Was told arthroscopic surgery will show how bad it is. Once they went in they determined not to stitch it. They removed other stuff like bursitis. That was over 3 years ago and it's better now.

Shoulder tear

my fil and bil both had their shoulders done. They both had different issues once in there. MY FIL hd to have some muscels tightened as well as some stuff repaired etc. He was in pain for a few weeks but with therapy he's been much better. he's still recovering but in little pain and can move better now.

My bil had to have 2 surgeries on one shoulder and so far one surgery on the other. I am not sure what they did but he just had it in Jan so he is still recovering

Re: Shoulder tear

I did not have a shoulder tear, but I broke my shoulder (the ball part) and the part that broke had the muscle attached to it. I was in sling and did PT for a few weeks. No surgery was needed.

Re: Shoulder tear

I had a sports injury dislocation many years ago. It started to get cranky in later years. Didn't have a tear but opted for orthoscopic surgery. They went in cleaned it up, removed calcium deposits and other stuff. Been great since.

Pick a good doctor, preferably one on the Castle Connolly list if you decide to get surgery.