Rotator cuff surgery recovery??

Find out the Dr's background..get one that has done thousands of repairs...
I had 90% of my labrum reattached..surgery friday...
.was in therapy Monday morning...
9 weeks of therapy....plus electric impulse to keep muscle working....
Shooting a Mathews BlackMax set at 50# 2 weeks after released......never a problem....
My Dr had been a Chicago Whitesox team dr......get experience....
 
I need to go get my shoulder checked and I'm afraid they are going to tell me I need surgery.
How is the actual recovery? How long it take ya?
I had a Roto cuff repair in my Right shoulder - WENT GREAT!!
Had a Roto Cuff in my Left Shoulder - SUCKED. After 9 months of the same surgeon I went to another. The other surgeon did another Repair and said that the first repair was only did half way. He fixed it but told me that in a few years I would need a total repair due to the previous surgeries and arthritis setting in. AND it did. I needed a total replacement. After I got the replacement I was to have physical therapy.
Well being me I never did the PT and just kept working as usual in the yard and other physical activities. I am different that other people. I didn't have any issues with my replacement and that was 7-8 years ago.
I do suggest that you have a good surgeon and that you have a good Physical Therapist for your recovery so that you keep your full range of motion and strength!
I have pictures of a Good Rotator Cuff Surgery and a Bad one. My Shoulders.
I'll try to pull them up.
 
I need to go get my shoulder checked and I'm afraid they are going to tell me I need surgery.
How is the actual recovery? How long it take ya?
My first surgery (2012) was in July, and I was bowhunting in September. My second one, on the same shoulder (2021), was great in terms of range of motion and pain management. However, my physical therapy was slow; I was not allowed to lift a pound over my shoulder until the 40-week mark. My orthopedic surgeon and physical therapist suspect that I was not given enough recovery time to heel on my first surgery.
 
Definitely depends on age and extra hours of involvement. Dad done one at 70 and no pain meds back to most activities in 6 weeks and finished rehab. Next at 75 he has been much worse and tired after rehab and lacks energy to do extra exercises at home. It has been a slow go

Thanks

Buck
 
Before they decide if you need surgery, they will probably want to get an MRI to see what degree of injury there is. There are a couple of tests that will indicate a rotator cuff injury but they will need an MRI to fully diagnose.

I am on week 6 after having surgery. I had a complete tear that was repaired arthroscopically. The first week was fairly rough but it has been more annoying that anything else. Sleeping sucks and the shoulder sling is a PITA. I have almost zero range of motion in my repaired shoulder, currently. I will start on PT in the next week or so. Doc said 6 mos. of ROM PT, then strengthening.

You can probably forget about shooting a bow for a year following surgery. But, in my case, there was no way I could raise a bow before surgery so that didn't really factor in to my thinking.

EDIT: I will add that I did not see a PT first. I went straight to the ortho. When I tore mine, I felt it tear/rip in no uncertain terms. I am pretty sure that I had some degree of a partial tear beforehand as I was have a some pain and decreased mobility. I was doing a bench press and tore the rest of it off.
 
Mine wasn't so bad, at least not as bad as everyone kept telling me.

My Dr was a Polack, super nice guy and into bird photography. He told me that he was doing an experimental surgery on my shoulder and the recovery would be unorthodoxed. He made the cuts and used a mesh to tie everything together and then told me he wanted me out of the sling and using my arm in 36hrs. He also said it would be extremely painful for a year. That was December 30th of 2011. I was hunting ducks January 1st 2012. I bought a Browning Gold 20ga, my usual shotgun was a Auto-5 Mag-12. I told my buddy Scott that this was the most pain I had ever endured. I was back at work 2 weeks later and using my arm what little I could.

A year later we were hunting the same slough on my property and I told Scott that my arm didn't hurt anymore, that was January 5th of 2013. I don't remember when it stopped hurting, I just remember he made a joke about me using the 20ga one armed and killing a limit of wood ducks the previous season out of the same blind and he had hunted with people who couldn't kill 3 ducks with both arms.

I took my Dr out there after both seasons and I bet he burnt up 20 rolls of film taking pictures of wood ducks, mallards and green wing teal. My dad has the only picture I had framed of a banded wood duck drake over his desk. I told Scott it was hard not to go back down there with a pellet rifle.

I told that to tell you, I don't know what was so different about how he repaired my rotator cuff, but I do know that I didn't lose mobility of my arm after it completely healed. I was in excruciating pain for probably 6 months and it slowly subsided. I know that several people I worked with couldn't believe it when I returned to work 2 weeks after the surgery. Within a few years of my surgery, I had 2 coworkers go to him and have the same surgery, both were back within 2 weeks and both said the recovery wasn't as bad as people made it out to be. He even fixed my FIL's (at the time) collar bone and he never complained about the pain or recovery.
 

Recent Posts

Top