Not far from the truth..this active bird fell on a cruise ship and I tore 3 of 4 tendons in right rotator cuff. No shooting for me for awhile. Not to mention PAIN. I am scheduled for surgery in 2 weeks, but at 58 I am feeling kind of older..not so fast healing. Plus MRI showed some osteo-arthritus in there too. And bone spurs..
Anyone here have major shoulder rotator cuff repair and come out on the good side of it ? It's got me a little rattled.

Mike

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John 1:17
NRA Life Benefactor

A good friend of mine had both shoulders done, not at the same time, to repair torn rotator cuffs. He admitted that it was painful and the rehab was pure hell but, he did all of the required rehab plus more and is now 100%!

This is a guy who is very active and a professional fly rod instructor and rod builder. Not to mention that he is the primary baby sitter for his grandson, constantly lifting him up and down.

My wife had double (yes, both at once) knee replacement surgery last February. She was required to go to a rehab hospital for the post operative rehab. She pushed through the pain and did all of the required rehab plus more. She is now 100%

Rehab and excellent care givers are the key!

Above all else..................do the physical therapy !!!

Cruise ship??? What the blankity blankity were you doing on one of those floating petri dishes???

One of my shooting buddies had his completely rebuilt. It was hell for a while but he is shooting .308s off of it . Shotguns,everything really. As others have said. DO THE REHAB.

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Bill
Dis B. Leaf

Thanks for taking the fall for the rest of us. Sorry. My brother had it done and is ok now.

im keeping this o e to show the mrs how dangerous those tubs are. Get well sooon.

Hi Mike, you'll do great. My sister had a shoulder replacement and did way better then I expected her to, she's 70. My wife had back surgery, they fused 5 vertebra and she lost the pain she had in her legs and it was the best thing for her. Medical has come a long way and yes, do the therapy like they say. Don't quit the therapy when they say you're OK, keep it up for a while. If you need someone to talk to, give me a call. Good luck and keep us posted. What hospital? Love to take cruises, what line were you on? You have till mid May to get better so you can come to the bunch, Larry

About 4 years ago I had mine repaired, it was a complete mess to include a lot of bone shrapnel in the shoulder. Recovery was slow and painful, but its better then ever. I was older then you when I had it done.

No one has told you the important part. Practice wiping with left hand.

At 74--I sometimes sit down and can't get up.
Get over it --getting old is not for wimps.
Sorry about the rotator cuff.
Blessings

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TEXAS, by GOD

Hi Mike:

Back in 1991, when I was 35 yrs. old, I tried to keep a very large (fat) patient from falling. It did not end well for me as he dislocated my left shoulder and damaged my neck and back as well. This injury took me out of the health care field as I could no longer care for patients - I was an Emergency Room nurse at the time.

Though I was treated by a number of qualified (board certified) orthopedic surgeons, none of them could actually repair my shoulder, nor treat my complaints of pain. Eventually, they determined that my pain was "psychogenic" in nature. In other words, the problem was between my ears, rather than in my shoulder.

I suffered along for another 13 years until I was lucky enough to find a doctor that had the right skills and education to understand what was wrong with my shoulder. She had to completely rebuild my left shoulder in two different surgeries to repair my shoulder and give me near full use of my left arm and shoulder again.

What I learned from this is that you should, if you haven't already done so, seek out a doctor who specializes in sports medicine and rehabilitation. These doctors are up to date on the latest technologies and techniques. They are use to seeing patients with terrible injuries who demand full and complete recoveries so they can return to sports - which in many cases is their livelihood. These days, it's pretty easy to scout out these doctors by looking at their websites. The types of doctor you need will be team doctors for a number of different sports teams - the greater the number of teams, and the more advanced they are (i.e. college and professional teams are better than high school teams) the better.

I have nothing against orthopedic surgeons, but my personal experience has resulted in my strong recommendations for the sports medicine and rehabilitation doctors.

Also, as others have mentioned, physical therapy is critically important in your rehabilitation. The lesson I learned here is to try and find the smaller practices, rather than the larger PT clinics. The reason why is simple - better, and more individualized care from the smaller clinics means better and faster recovery by you. In larger clinics, I was seen initially by a Physical Therapist, and then handed off to an assistant. Though my care was supervised by a PT, the assistants were doing all of the hands-on stuff. In the smaller PT clinics, ALL of my care and treatment was done by a physical therapist. They may have had an occasional PT student working in the clinic with them, but a PT was always standing right next to the student during my care. After I figured this out, I have always stayed with the smaller clinics, and in fact, I've been seeing the same physical therapist for the past 12 to 15 years.

I hope this is helpful.

Best of luck for a good surgery and an uneventful and full recovery.

Regards,

Dave

Today I wore my "I Survived" T shirt. On the back is the logo for my physical therapy clinic. I've been to the point of 'a grown man crying' a few times and that rotator cuff was one of them. However, with the surgery and therapy, you stand a good chance of getting healed up.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"