Shoulder Surgery

Had a torn rotator cuff playing hockey 1 year ago February. Have not shot a compound bow since. Shot a crossbow a couple times but that even hurt holding it up. I got into airguns in my in house archery range. Played hockey this past winter but still feel the odd twang in my shoulder. I have a 40lb compound bow I use in my indoor archery range when I decide it is full healed. Until then pellet guns will get me by. I am trying to let it heal verse surgery. I can now raise my arm right up into the air with no pain so I am getting ready to try my 40lb bow. Been 14 months. Good luck to you. CHEERS!

Interesting read. I should have said in my first post that there are tears and there are tears. Size of the tear make a big difference in the plan and the recovery.

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Originally Posted by Sharon

Interesting read. I should have said in my first post that there are tears and there are tears. Size of the tear make a big difference in the plan and the recovery.

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You are right but mine was bad and they said surgery is the only way to fix it. Glad I decided to talk to a lot of people that had surgery and everyone of them said if you can do without surgery go for it. Said with scar tissue once you have surgery you will be in having it redone every five years. CHEERS!

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Originally Posted by Sharon

Interesting read. I should have said in my first post that there are tears and there are tears. Size of the tear make a big difference in the plan and the recovery.

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Good point.

Oh one other thing - I was told that if you are going to have surgery the sooner the better - if you wait the chances of a successful outcome go down

Cut and paste from a recent review of Rotator Cuff Failure, in the New England Journal of Medicine.
NEJM is North Americas leading, premier, reputable medical journal:



It is unclear why some persons with rotator-cuff failure are symptomatic, whereas others with seemingly identical patterns of failure are asymptomatic. The optimal management of chronic degenerative rotator-cuff lesions remains uncertain, including the approach to exercise programs and the role of complementary therapies. It is unclear when surgical intervention is warranted; a survey of 539 orthopaedic surgeons showed remarkable inconsistency in perceptions about the indications for rotator-cuff surgery



In other words, nobody really knows the best interventional approach.
And that often means... stay away from surgeons... even if it takes a year or more... eventually it settles down and you'll be mostly OK again.

The shoulder froze up really bad in the beginning, physio helped a lot but hit a limit. They tell me the tear isn't that big but also that it will never heal on its own. Doing the anthro what ever surgery, says it will take 2 hours and then the recovery time, 6 weeks no driving, up to 3 months off work, but I have a desk job so hopefully less time.
This happened last June, a referral took until early this year, not bad I figured, an MRI first, a couple of x-rays, he figures there is a good change of a full recovery. Discussed the options, opted for the surgery, a call within a week and scheduled in for the end of this month.

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Originally Posted by johny

Cut and paste from a recent review of Rotator Cuff Failure, in the New England Journal of Medicine.
NEJM is North Americas leading, premier, reputable medical journal:



It is unclear why some persons with rotator-cuff failure are symptomatic, whereas others with seemingly identical patterns of failure are asymptomatic. The optimal management of chronic degenerative rotator-cuff lesions remains uncertain, including the approach to exercise programs and the role of complementary therapies. It is unclear when surgical intervention is warranted; a survey of 539 orthopaedic surgeons showed remarkable inconsistency in perceptions about the indications for rotator-cuff surgery



In other words, nobody really knows the best interventional approach.
And that often means... stay away from surgeons... even if it takes a year or more... eventually it settles down and you'll be mostly OK again.

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Interesting info . My rotor cuff tear has been 2 years now and I still can't put on the seatbelt or pull the covers up over my body, or................. I 'm going for the surgery. :)

Another thing to remember about a knee replacement is that the device only lasts about 10 years. I'm going for it at 70 now and hoping for 10 more active years - by 80 I won't care. :)

Paul: London is a year's wait. Why is service in Cambridge so quick?

Ladies and Gentlemen the Wife or Boss , whatever she goes by had her shoulder REPLACED last Nov. and let me tell you it is a long long healing process, I would say a year before she is even back to anywhere near 100 %. very slow process, she had her knees replaced 4 or 5 years ago and those both healed fine ....

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Another thing to remember about a knee replacement is that the device only lasts about 10 years. I'm going for it at 70 now and hoping for 10 more active years - by 80 I won't care.

Paul: London is a year's wait. Why is service in Cambridge so quick?

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My surgeon told me that knee replacements usually are good for 20 years, told me this two weeks ago.

Service in Cambridge is quick, possibly due to the fact that they CMH received an additional $ 850,000.00 plus last Sept. this allows them to do more operations.
A friend of ours is an OR nurse at CMH she says operations are all geared to funding, if the money isn't there operations are cut back [ other than emergency ones ] and wait times are longer.