Torn Rotator Cuff

About two years ago I had a similar thing. Couldn't extend my arm, couldn't raise it above my head. An incredible amount of pain if I tried to do either. I saw a GP and she said I may have a torn rotator cuff and they referred me to Memorial Hermann Ironman Sports Medicine near Memorial City Mall. Within a minute of seeing the specialist there he told me I had a frozen shoulder. Hurt like hell and took about 8 months to get rid of it. One of the most painful things I've ever had actually.

I would say unless you injured it in some manner that you recall, you may have a frozen shoulder.

 

I hurt my shoulder weight training about 6 months ago and think it's probably the rotator cuff. Haven't seen a doctor and just returned to lifting two weeks ago.

The pain is still there to a small degree. So far I've just gone through the motions without maxing out. Probably will crank up the intensity this coming week.

 

I tore my rotator cuff about 3 years ago playing Ultimate. I was jumping up to catch the frisbee and had my legs knocked out from under me and landed right on my shoulder. Knew right away that it was a significant injury. It seemed to get better after a few months, but then I reinjured it and didn't even know how. I tried to just let it heal again with time, but months later I still had a lot of pain and limited range of motion. I finally went to an orthopedist who prescribed an MRI, which confirmed the tear. Then I started physical therapy which was very effective. I've had a couple of small flare ups, but I dealt with them easily, by just doing some of my PT exercises. Right now my shoulder feels 100%.

 

I ended up with two partial tears in my rotator cuff almost two years ago. I'm not sure when the first one happened, but I think the second one happened when I kept trying to play softball, and tennis after getting the first one.

It was horrible pain, and made it almost impossible to sleep through the night once it really started getting bad.

Just getting the MRI and holding still while the machine was going over it, was next to impossible. It hurt so bad. It also turned out that I had a little bit of Arthritis in there as well. I hadn't known that.

If you look it up there are mixed reviews about cortisone shots. I had to end up getting one just so that I could begin the physical therapy. It took a long time and lot of physical therapy until I finally was able to make layup with that arm again. Swimming was one of the last things I could actually do because of the motion required. Surfing was the final thing that came back. I still do all the stretches from therapy, but at least I can do all of the activities that I had always enjoyed.

I never had to have any more cortisone shots. One of the things that I didn't think about was how the strength in that shoulder and arm would whither away. At first I didn't realize that I was leaning to the other side when doing things like push-ups or planks. My Physical Therapist pointed it out and when I tried to correct it, I had become unbelievably weak on that side.

At one point the therapy wasn't going the way they wanted and they were on the fence about whether or not I should have surgery. I had made a lot of progress but not as far as they thought I would make. I was about to decide to do the surgery, but they explained that after the surgery I would have to go back to where I was in the beginning and start all over again from square one with the physical therapy. I changed the approach and some of the activities in the my physical therapy and luckily was able to do everything again. But it took a lot of time and a lot of work.

The TLDR, slightly less boring, version is that get it checked out as soon as you can. Then start your physical therapy. Stick with it, and be aggressive when it comes to doing your exercises. Find out if you need surgery or not, and double check before deciding to go that route.

 

Check internal and external rotation in your other shoulder to get an idea of your shoulder health. Usually, if one is off, so is the other. If that's not in good shape, then your rotator cuff isnt at its best, so weight lifting can be risky.

 

Tore my rotator cuff many years (late 90's) from a mountain bike crash. Same symptoms but since it was many years ago I am sure the PT exercises available then versus now was way less advanced and I still have problems with the shoulder. It hurts if I throw too hard for too long and even will hurt if I swing the bat too aggressively (oddly, I can swing my golf club as hard and long as I want... must be the swing plane/angle). Also it hurts if I throw a pass at a certain angle or if a defender gets a hand on a pass when I am at a certain angle. I probably should have gotten a second opinion and looked into surgery. I've tried all sorts of weight training to address my shoulder... nothing seems to protect it from the things that do cause pain.

 

The orthopedist will most likely perform the drop arm test to assess for rotator cuff tear. You can also do the 20 second test at home. Sample video is on Youtube.

 

Tore mine last year and had similar symptoms as you are describing. They found it with the mri. I went through the cortisone shots as well they didn't help me much. Surgery wasn't bad but the rehab was a huge pain. Hopefully you don't have a year. Right now I'd say my shoulder is about 80%

 

unless it's a severe tear you should be able to rehab it. Mine is partially torn but I've built up the area around it to where it never bothers me unless I play a ton of tennis.

 

I tore mine pitching in highschool.

felt the tear immediately. Tried to throw another pitch and my mph dropped about 20mph LOL!

it was painful to twist door knobs.

 

The return to lifting has helped a lot. I now have full range of motion without pain. 6 months of rest was far too long.

 

You probably won't pitch again until next season.

 

I went through this last year. It took about 6 months or so before I started feeling better.