Rotator cuff shoulder injuries....

[fkovalski]

Has any one sustain rotator cuff muscle injuries in their shoulder? I have on going problems in both shoulders as a result of hockey injuries. The right is from a straight down “pile drive” fall to the ice and the left is from the twisting and forward motion of my wrist shots. I know that the latter is from weak muscles of the rotation and have been performing all the requisite exercises. I have been also working the same on the opposite side. I have been considering going in for the needle to relive the pain to get back on a workout routine to strengthen all the shoulder muscles to hopefully rehab through this. These are not recent injuries. They occurred last summer and are still lingering. Any opinions or recommendations? Thanks. –frank.

 

[Hale on wheels]

I tore mine my senior year of high school playing baseball. In short, it practically prohibited me from throwing the ball. I have tried to strengthen the muscles around it, but that only helped a little bit. I still cannot throw a ball nearly as hard as I used to before it happened. Go ahead and get it fixed now. It will suck in the mean time, but your shoulder will never heal from it properly if it is actually torn and you don't have surgery, IMO. Granted, I am not a doctor nor do I play one on TV.

 

[fkovalski]

Originally posted by Hale on wheels

... Granted, I am not a doctor nor do I play one on TV.

:-laf Thanks for the reply ... . and the laff.

I don't belive that they are torn. I'm certain that the pain would be unbearable if it were. I think it is more of a strain that is a constant pain that is nagging and not healing. I am going to take the summer off of playing hockey to try and rehab it. I do not want to opt for surgery. Thinking the hydro cortizone route.

 

[bulabula]

I Tore my right shoulder apart during senior year of college and ended up getting disqualified from flight school. The good news is that I'm left handed so it didnt slow me up too much.



I'd get it surgically repaired now - if thats what it takes, it may not be necessary in your case. It took my arm falling out of its socket a few times to convince me. Don't forget that drugs only makes it feel better, they won't fix any physical issues. I'm not sure how old you are, but if surgery is required it won't be any easier as you get older.

 

[tntway]

if it is torn... all the hydro cortisone in the world will NOT help you.

find a good orthopedic surgeon in your area and at least get an MRI on both. surgery is relatively simple and will get you on the road to recovery ALOT sooner.

 

[The patriot]

My left shoulder is pretty messed up. I dont know why.

I got the MRI, and X-ray's.

The orthopedic dr said I have some wear, and I have some torn ligiments.

I got the shot, it's better but not 100%, besides I couldnt continue taking pain drugs.

He wants me to go in for phys. thereapy, but with my schedule, I dont really have the spare time. My job is somewhat physical, so I hope this is a form of thereapy.

Being my job is leaving for mexico,(and I wont have insurance) and it seems like theyre trying to fire everyone before they have to pay the severance pay, I actually WANT to do the operation, but my injury isnt too severe, the dr is a little hesitant to go that far right now.

I cant even imagine having both shoulders hurting at once. :{ :{

I have some leftover dialaudid (synthetic morphene)

from when I had my kidney stone episode, but I havent taken any. I dont even take the new stuff(which is not nearly as heavy duty as the above)the dr prescribed for me unless it's unbearable.

Eric

 

[TFabian]

I just had surgery on my shoulder the week before Christmas. Just finished my last physical therapy session yesterday. Still not 100% but it is getting better every week. I put off going to the doctor for close to 2 years, but the pain and stiffness got to the point where I needed to get it taken care of. I ended up having a torn Labrum, which did not show up on the MRIs. Prior to the surgery, I couldn't throw a tennis ball more than 15 to 20 feet. Prior to the surgery, I had 3 Cortisone shots which helped very little.

 

[klenger]

See http://klenger.net/photo_album/ourfamily/shoulder/index.html for pics.

 

[fkovalski]

Holy ****... Ken!

 

[tntway]

dang Ken----makes me feel like i'm at work!!!!



(which i am of course)

 

[fkovalski]

Thanks for the replies, folks… I guess I am still not sure as to what’s going on in my shoulders. I did call today to get an appointment with the ortho doc. My conventional belief is that if I actually tore something that the pain would be unbelievable. I have read that there are several muscles that make up the rotator cuff assembly and that a very small part (if not developed properly) can injure quite easily when worked in relation to the surrounding stronger ones. I am hoping to rehab those injured ones, but the pain is preventing the proper rehab motion movement with low weight via many reps. I realize that shots are not the cure, but I am hoping that the shot will “mask” the pain to be able to do proper movement of rehab motions.

Originally posted by fkovalski

My conventional belief is that if I actually tore something that the pain would be unbelievable.

It is not excruciating, it is bearable, but very annoying and uncomfortable. I kinda' walk with my arms folded to "self support" as to avoid uncomfortable positions. Like the old doctor joke adage: I don't do what hurts. But something isn’t right and I think I need to do something. Avoidance is not a cure.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

I've had two surgeries on my left shoulder and need one on my right. I dislocated my left shoulder in 1988 and didn't really have much trouble with it (other than it crunching when I rotated my arm around) until 2000. Slowly but surely it got worse until it got to the point that I couldn't sleep on the shoulder, pain all the time, etc. Tried physical therapy and it about killed me. I couldn't even do the starting exercises. Went to a surgeon and surgery was warranted. I'm glad I got it done. My shoulder isn't 100% (never will be I'm sure) but I can at least sleep on my side or stomach again. There's no crunching as I move my arm around either. I went to the #1 shoulder guy in my area - he works only on shoulders. My dad just had surgery about a month ago and he was really messed up - torn ligaments, cuff, etc, etc. He should have gotten it done years ago but put it off because he is sedentary and doesn't do anything physical - his surgery was much worse and his recovery is going to be much worse because of putting it off. My recommendation would be to find a good surgeon and if he recommends surgery get it done. Better to get it done early before you do more damage IMO.

 

[thejeepdude]

I know it's not the same thing, but sort of related. In August i shattered my collarbone into several pieces. Normally they just let it grown back together but since it was so messed up and I worried about the alignment of my shoulder I went the surgery route. Now I have a plate and 9 screws holding it together and it's the most annoying thing! Drives me nuts! The docs says the pain will gradually go away as the underside of my skin is calloused, but a couple of the screws don't sit flat, so the head is at an angle... with the sharp side of the screw head cutting into my skin from beneath... but to get it out I would have to have surgery again. On to the second problem... while the alignment is much better than it would have been without the surgery, there's still some pretty serious popping in there when I move my shoulder the wrong way. I used to chest press 110lb dumbells, but now anything over 85lb just hurts too much on that side. The docs says this may or may not go away, but if it really bothers me they can look into it further.



Does this sound like a rotator cuff injury? My collarbone was shattered when I flew about 30 feet through the air and landed abruptly on my left side, directly impacting my shoulder, and I suspect the clavicle wasn't the only thing in there that absorbed that blow. Those of you that have had rotator problems... did they start with a bearable amount of popping/grinding and get worse? Or is it likely that as I keep excercising it will repair iteself eventually and I'll be OK? I really don't want to do the whole surgery thing again. I was pukin pretty bad from all the morphine since they had me under for so long trying to put things back together and don't look forward to that again.

 

[smartineau]

Ken, I thought my shoulder was bad, I'm in the market for a shoulder replacement in about 10 years.



Frank, as mentioned find a good orthopedic Dr. Ask your general practitioner for a few recommendations, and you want to find a guy/gal that only works on shoulders/arms. You don't want the yahoo who does all of the bones. They are just way too complex of operations and way too much new stuff coming out all of the time.



The longer you wait, the longer you are in pain, good luck.



steve

 

[fkovalski]

I have an appt. with a bone doc on the 30th of this month. I have gone to him before and he is a shoulder specialist. We have a fair amount of quality bone docs here being located rather close to Vail where many a ski injury does occur. Not looking forward to the knife if it is deemed appropriate.

 

[smartineau]

Frank,



I just got done looking up one of the shoulder guys in my doctors clinic. He did his fellowship at the Steadman-Hawkins clinic in Vail. This supposedly is the best shoulder clinic in the U. S.



steve

 

[fkovalski]

Originally posted by smartineau

... Steadman-Hawkins clinic in Vail.

No doubt they are good. Heard the scuttlebutt 'round town 'bout them. Unfortunatly, our office insurance plan does not include them

 

[PLaFrombois]

I had a busted bone spur, and everytime I moved the shoulder it kept tearing the muscle and ligament. Went to P. T. after surgery, and the third session I torn another muscle. Second surgery went better, but I was told that I might need to have the collar bone removed next time. Twelve years later I'm still on the second surgery.



Paul

 

[ndurbin]

I had a slight tear in my right shoulder if I remeber right when I had mine worked on. Also had some bursidous (sp?) and the tendons were all stretched out. Had one shoulder done about 2 1/2 yrs ago and the other about 2 yrs ago. Neither one has really ever healed fully. I recently reinjured my right shoulder but theres not a whole lot I can do unless I want to be opened up again. The first time wasn't any big deal since it was all done with the little tiny insturments but this time they'd have to go in and split me open pretty wide. After I had the surguries I had a min. of 6 weeks of doing nothing then 6 more weeks of Physical therapy. The sling I wore wasn't to bad had a bladder type thing hooked up to a cooler that circulated water around my shoulder.

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

Face it - injuries like those covered above WILL came back to haunt you in later years - as my own 2 lower back surgeries for herniated disc did. THEN, you WILL be looking for some suitable ongoing pain/discomfort reduction - and one my wife and I both take daily is MSM in powder form with juice every morning. That has managed to take almost 100% of my back pain away, and allow me to at least do most of the things 67 year old fella should - and a few I shouldn't...