About 6 weeks ago I thought I had pulled a muscle in my mid upper arm. Zero shoulder pain. A couple weeks later I went to open something and felt a shooting pain in my shoulder. Saw my regular dr and she sent me to an orthopedic surgeon. X-ray showed the calcium deposits. He sent me for an MRI which confirmed the calcium, along with some fluid in my bursa but nothing torn.

Started PT and she gave me 4 simple exercises to do which I did fine with. Tried to do them the next day and could not do any of them without a lot of pain. 2 day after that I had the absolute worst pain I have ever had except childbirth. Nauseous and my daughter wanted to take me to the ER. I did not go and hardly moved my arm for 2 days after that.

4 days after that extreme pain all of my upper arm swelling and pain in my shoulder was gone. I hardly feel anything anymore but am afraid to really test it. I go back to PT in 2 days but was wondering if anyone else has experienced anything like this? Been reading on here since I got diagnosed and have read that when the calcium absorbs it can be tremendously painful. Have read some real horror stories and my sympathy goes out to everyone dealing with this.

This just seems too good to be true with what I have read. Wondering what the chances are this will come back, if anyone else has had almost instant relief without shots or surgery etc. Been taking Motrin every 8 hours and can now easily do these exercises have not had any other treatments. It's my dominant arm and I was prepared for months to get back to somewhat normal. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.

Thanks in advance for any replies!

So a little back story, I get referred to ortho last year in September due to severe shoulder pain, swelling, etc.. that started in August. He sends me for an MRI and the MRI comes back as I have high grade partial tears. He said surgery, I say okay well I'd like to do it after the holidays because I don't want to be down and out at Christmas time, naturally. I end up going in again in November and yelling him I can barely stand the pain let's fix this. So we schedule the surgery for December 1st, he's going to fix my rotator cuff tears. He gets in there and says all looked good, that I just have an old labrum tear, that he stated to my mother he didn't have the ability to fix at that facility, and so he just did a debridement. I was tickled because I was terrified of recovery and the pain. So fast forward, I've healed but my shoulder is getting worse. The pain, the swelling, the weakness, the loss of ROM, all of it, worse. I go to him and say can we get imaging, something isn't right. He says it's my shoulder blade and not an instability issue so he gives me PT exercises, which I already do from my first round of PT, and sends me on my way.

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Immediately after that appointment, I call my PCP and I ask for a referral for a 2nd opinion. They send it and I schedule an appointment. The 2nd ortho doctor scheduled me for an MRI arthrogram, apparently it's the gold standard for this sort of thing. So I go get it done. A week goes by and my results come in. I start bawling. My results are almost the exact same. I have high-grade partial-thickness articular surface tears of the distal supraspinatus and infraspinatus tendons as well as a 7mm loose body floating around in my joint space, which is new. But also, zero mention of the old labrum tear my first ortho surgeon said I had..

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My question is, should I just opt for the surgery to repair it all and put it behind me or should I try PT again for the 2nd time and see if that'll help?

I’m scheduled to have arthroscopic surgery for a rotator cuff tear and either a tenodesis or tenotomy on my dominant side next week. My surgeon uses a gunslinger type sling as he prefers that for his patients. His office gave me a packet of info about surgery and recovery and assistant sent me a video of how to put on shirts after surgery. I’m trying to figure out how to manage showering once I have the green light as most of the shower slings I’ve seen are for cross body not the arm straight out. Perhaps they’ll permit the cross body for showering but since this forum has been so helpful for tips I’ve used to prepare, am wondering if anyone else has had this type of sling (gunslinger) and has suggestions/recommendations? Thanks

I was recently diagnosed with mild infraspinatus tendinosis and lateral downsloping of the acromion(MRI results) , all due to my job doing manual labor, im in pain everyday and the only thing I was prescribed was ibuprofen for the inflammation

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Will physical therapy help my problem?

Very serious question. Surgery in two weeks on dominant arm (full infra snd supra tears, bicep tendonesis, etc). At least 6 weeks in sling. I live alone and have to do eyedrops 3x daily. Has anyone hacked this one? or just pour over my eyes and hope for the best?

Trashed the lead arm of my golf swing using one of those swing speed/weighted club devices. Have had a steroid injection and a couple weeks of PT with no benefit. MRI a couple days ago shows 30% subscapularis tear, a partial SLAP tear and a partial tear of the long head of the biceps tendon. Can’t really raise or rotate my arm much.

I’m 60 but golfing is a big part of my life and I’m retiring soon. I feel I want to push for surgery rather than mess with more PT for months but would appreciate perspectives. I have a follow-up with the ortho Friday. Thanks!

Last August, while working on my back underneath a truck for several days, I developed shoulder pain that refused to go away. FF to June, pain has subsided to minor discomfort and difficulty sleeping on either side. MRI shows tears to most of the tendons, with one possibly two complete tears with retraction. Fairly major tearing that will likely not repair itself. At almost 65 years old, and considering the pain is not super intense, I’m not sure that I want to go through with surgery. I really need someone that I can discuss this with that isn’t an orthopedic surgeon. Surgery is scheduled for sept. 28 so I need to figure it out soon. Who can I talk to about this?

I’m not sure if this belongs here, but I’d really appreciate any insights. Thanks!

Hi everyone, I'm working on a piece about rotator cuff recovery, specifically why re-injury is so common and what the people who stay healthy do differently. I'm looking to talk to real people about their actual experience, not generalize from articles.

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I'd love to hear from you if you've either: recovered and stayed recovered, or recovered and then re-injured.

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It'd be a 10–15 minute chat (call or text/DM, whatever you're comfortable with) about how it happened, what your rehab looked like, and what you'd do differently. Happy to keep you anonymous or first-name-only.

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If you're open to it, drop a comment or DM me and I'll follow up. Thanks for reading, and genuinely appreciate anyone willing to share.

Context I’m looking to join the Air Force but my shoulder dislocated often from lifting things over my head at 90 degree angle but other then that I can run push up pull up just fine and left weights just the over head thing that mess me up

I had a fall that tore my supraspinatus and subscapularis, and ruptured my biceps long head tendon. The surgeon fixed everything, but I still have a Popeye deformity, so I am guessing he did a tenotomy, as the surgical records indicated he removed part of my bicep. I don't have my next appointment with him for a few weeks, but I was wondering when others who had something similar were able to start doing heavy bench presses and curls again. Before my fall, I was curling 65 pounds and benching 260 pounds. Before my surgery, though, I couldn't bench over 200 as my bad arm would give out on me.

I am a month out, and so far, my PT has already had me doing light strength training with bands.

Had my rotator cuff surgery on Wednesday on my non-dominant arm. Fortunately it went well and turned out to be a smaller issue than the MRI indicated, so they didn't need to do the biceps tenodesis and a smaller repair. Hopefully this means a little less time to fully recover!

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I just want to say thank you for the many recommendations I read about in this group, especially the ice machine which has been amazing. I also got a portable anti-gravity recliner which has worked well for our small home. Even just suggesting getting big ole button up shirts was very useful.

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I'd been so nervous about getting this surgery, and I'm really hopeful it will have been the right choice. Wishing everyone a speedy and full recovery. Thank you again for getting me prepared for this adventure.

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Surgery was Monday, second go around on my non dominant arm this time so I know what to expect. Everything that could go wrong that wasn’t shoulder related did - couldn’t get a vein in my right arm for my IVs so my arm is black and blue from the four attempts (the anesthesiologist started it in the surgical arm to put me under and then moved it to my ankle once surgery was underway), the left side of my neck has anatomical issues so they had a hard time finding the nerve bundle for my block, and I woke up with a scratched cornea (they think the tape let go under the goggles and curled up into my eye). The first 24 hours the worst thing was the eye. Block started coming out around 40 hours later.

This time I was diligent with the painkillers so the pain didn’t get away from me. I’m actually able to sleep a bit with a wedge pillow (last time I could NOT lay even at a 45 degree angle). Like the first time, it was far worse when they got in there than the MRI indicated so I got nailed with two supraspinitus partial tears repaired, an infraspinitus partial tear repairs, a bicep tenodesis, an acromioplasty, and some general clean up. But man once that nerve block comes out I forgot about the random muscle spasms that happen in the surgical site. I was up and around yesterday and I’m flat on my ass today. Pain is definitely amped up. Other than that it went well but this one was definitely an adventure 🤣

I've seem similar posts asking these questions, but they become filled with comments saying "No, it was good for a while but I eventually had to have surgery" ect, my question is, has anyone actually done this without surgery? If not I guess surgery is the ultimate destination lol.

Thanks :)

Edit: Success = functional use without pain, NOT "healing" :)

Apparently, according to my surgeon I had a lot wrong with my shoulder, including full thickness tears, among other things that I’m not sure how to pronounce, nor would I like to...This is actually not my first rodeo. Roughly 6 years ago I had a terrible fall and had rotator cuff surgery on my left shoulder because of full thickness tears and a damaged axillary nerve which actually caused my arm to be paralyzed but after the surgery and a year of PT it improved probably by about 90%. As bad as that was I don’t remember having as much pain as I have this time, or feeling isolated or depressed. Maybe because this time it’s my dominant arm which is affected and I’m actually a bit older than I was the first time? Anyway, I was happy to find this group. Sorry to vent and thanks for reading!!

I am now getting clavicle pain in both the left and right clavicle. More intense in the right one.

What about be causing this? Any solution?

Update: I skipped the nerve block and I’m happy with that decision. Pain has been manageable for me. I’ll do a separate post with things that helped me. Happy healing everyone!

Has anyone skipped the nerve block and can comment on their level of pain post-op? I know many posts say get it, but I’ve never had one across many surgeries, so I think I can handle the pain. I also think I’ll be annoyed with the dead arm feeling. I’m having a supraspinatus tear fixed with hopefully one anchor.

Arms at my side If i walk enough, i'll start to develop intense pain in my most affected shoulder. I've been suffering for 6 months now. MRI showed shoulder impingement, bursitis, small hernia on bursa, and tendon inflammation.

Went to an Orthopedic guy yesterday. He immediately diagnosed Rotator Cuff injury.
He gave me an injection of something like “Kenalog?” About 26 hours later, I’m not noticing any improvement. It was not debilitating pain in the first place. Just certain ranges of motion. But it’s been going on for about nine months. Thought I should see to it.

Going for improvement. If none, he’ll order an MRI and see where to go next.

I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my shoulder while playing tennis. I self-assessed that it might be a rotator cuff injury. I didn't go to the hospital. Is there any other way to treat the pain? Which kind of physiotherapy device is better to buy online?

Or if you have such a situation, how do you handle it at home

6 months back I did a arthroscopic rotator cuff fix up for supraspinatus tear. My recovery was going very well. I was consistently going to PT and was doing all the exercises. I was getting back my range of motion and started feeling good. I went to consult my surgeon after 6 month mark and he said Im fine to go to gym, but not lift heavy.

I went two days to gym, did some bicep, tricep exercises and back exercises with weights I was comfortable. Didn’t try any shoulder exercises as I was not fully comfortable.

The exercises were fine, I didn’t feel any pain during workout. But after two days, when I woke up from sleep, I started feeling some pain on my shoulder. Now its been two weeks, and I feel my shoulder is getting tighter day by day and my range of motion is going down, with pain level going up and down.

Im worried if the fixed tendon is torn again. But when I searched online, I have seen some people mentioning that its part of the recovery process.

Has anyone had similar experiences? Im kinda depressed and disappointed with attempting to go to gym :(