This past February I slipped on a patch of ice and fell, my left hand side took the brunt of the fall. I never bruised (probably because I was wearing a heavy winter jacket and snow pants). My shoulder was a bit sore as I assumed it would be. By mid-March it was still sore but I was able to use it ok. I was hesitant to go to the doctor because of my crummy insurance with a sky-high deductible. At some point in April, I thought I’d better go in - maybe I cracked something. I had x-rays. There was nothing broken, but I was told that a rotator cuff injury was possible (that can’t be seen on an x-ray) so I could go to an orthopedist and/or do some PT. I just paid close to $600 for x-rays. I knew I would have to pay out of pocket for those options too. So I Googled it and I have all of the symptoms of a rotator cuff tear. I have been doing my own PT (exercises I’ve found online, but it’s still sore - especially at night in bed, and I have certain movements that just about kill me. Otherwise, during the day it doesn’t bother me too much. I use topical patches and roll-ons (Icy Hot, Salon Pas) and Tylenol or Aleve. They help for a while. My research shows that there really isn’t anything they can do for it. Surgery is not done for the majority of rotator cuff injuries.
Has anyone else gone through this? Any advice?
Yep, I did the exact same thing when I slipped on the ice. For the longest time I could not raise my right hand over my head without loads of pain. The best thing I did was start doing water aerobics, my flexibility came back big time and I lost a lot of weight at the same time. Then I was able to start swimming a little bit and I cannot even tell that I had a rotor cuff injury anymore.
A simple fix for a lot of sore and frozen shoulders, takes one treatment and about 10 minutes or less. Have someone deeply probe the area between your neck and shoulder with their finger tips looking for a tight muscle or tendon, once they find it kneed it out for a few minutes until it softens. Start off easy and increase the pressure as you can stand it. If it works relief will come within a few hours. I have been doing this for people for decades and it works in a very high percentage of cases.
The surgery will cause lots of pain. Loss of use of the arm during the healing lockdown. Then the PT to get it moving again.
Which is painful.
All for something like 40% improvement over time that you may have had anyway.
Keep doing the home PT.
Rest it if it really hurts for a few hours.
Stop using it is good advice before you’re really having a few bad nights.
The patches aren’t worth the money. An ice pack would work better. Or a heating pad.
(Voltarin is a good rub)
Don’t wanna be a downer, but you may never get fully well from this.
I believe it will get some better. You’re only 6mos or so into the injury. Give it a longer period to heal itself.
Time will tell.
So sorry you have this painful condition.
I hurt my left shoulder back in the mid 90’s. After x-rays only, the doctor at my work medical clinic diagnosed me with a possible rotator cuff tear. Then my claim for an on the job injury was denied, I have lived with on and off again pain in my shoulder since. Just before I retired I decided to have my shoulder checked out again, this doctor had me get an MRI. It showed a 40% tear, some of it had healed on it’s own. But that is what was causing my pain, the scar tissue lacked any flexibility. I had a couple cortisone shots since and have done some exercises I found on You tube. The little pain I have now is bearable. I have been keeping pretty busy since retiring so I’m not sure when I could take the time to have surgery. If it’s something I can keep putting off, I will.
I had no specific injury, per se, just developed pain in my right shoulder late in 2009. I wound up doing PT for it in 2010, and it actually HELPED (unlike PT that I’ve done for my knees, off and on, which was amazingly effective at making the knees feel worse).
At one point, the shoulder pain was bad enough that if the doctor had offered to do surgery, I’d have let him, but it really was not appropriate.
A couple years later, I developed pain in the left shoulder. Again, no obvious triggering event. That time, while I was prescribied PT, I never found time to follow through, and it resolved on its own.
I’m a bit frequent PT-er.
A Flunk-ee everytime.
It is astounding how less than useful it is.
I don’t know why I’ve ever to agreed to any of it.
The MDs will likely be in to offer their opinions. IMO/E, your options are:
-do nothing
-PT/home exercises
-possible injection
-possible surgery
You suggest pretty clearly that you aren’t in a position to pursue anything very pricey. Not sure if that rules out a single visit w/ and ortho, and/or a single visit w/ PT to have exercises recommended.
I had some significant difficulty w/ my right shoulder some time back. Had one injection, and no have zero symptoms. Now I have some, but lesser - symptoms w/ my left shoulder. I’m not doing anything other than some light stretching.
If you are unable to afford any care, I’d suggest you just research the physiology of the shoulder, assess the specific motions that bother you and that you wish to improve, and research exercises you can do to improve those. I am very much NOT a medical professional, but my expectation is that you would be able to regain considerable function if you consistently followed such exercises and avoided actions which would exacerbate it - water skiing, heavy weight lifting, etc.
Good luck!
As a cyclist, I’ve unfortunately had a few wrecks that resulted in shoulder injuries that are usually some variety of AC separation and minor tearing of rotator cuff. I’ve had PT for them twice and they have been helpful at getting my movement back, and reducing the pain. My left shoulder has a permanent AC “hump” and that shoulder locks up, particularly when I’m driving and have my arm resting on the window sill. As you say, shoulder injuries make for very painful nights of not getting very much sleep (I got a muscle relaxant for my last wipe out and it helped greatly). I still do the shoulder exercises, but not as often as I should. My plan going forward is to stop wrecking! I had a mountain bike wreck that did in one shoulder, then less than a year later a high speed road bike wipe out that really did in the other shoulder and left me with some great scars on one arm and my knee.
About 5 months ago I tweaked my shoulder somehow. I couldn’t reach up to anything above shoulder height and couldn’t extend my arm out in front of me fully. My local NHS GP office website had a self diagnostic app that pointed me to a phone app called getUBetter which offers different exercises of different intensity. I started doing those but wasn’t seeing much improvement so went to see a physio. He confirmed it as rotator cuff tendonitis and recommended keeping up the exercises. It’s been 5 months since it first flared up and I’d say I’m back to around 95%. It just takes time.
I did similar when I went to Seattle winter of 2022 - I arrived during an ice storm and managed to slip and fall on the ice, doing the same thing to my left side.
It would get a little better, then worse again. I finally brought it up to my doctor about 10 months after it happened because I was tired of the better…then worse situation and she suggested it was likely a strain/pull rather than a tear. Basically a squishy ball, roll it in the shape of letters of the alphabet. Do it whenever I thought of it.
I didn’t think it would help, honestly. And then it did. Not immediately, but fairly quickly. Reading your post made me realize that I don’t remember the last time it hurt.
As a cyclist myself, I had a rotator cuff injury that required a tiny screw inserted in my shoulder.
Apparently they use biodegradable screws called suture anchors that eventually disappear.
Good as new now.
I utterly destroyed my right shoulder rotator cuff. When I would try to raise the arm frontward the top of the arm bone would come out of the joint, a very nasty and painful sensation. Got an artificial rotator cuff (a donut shaped balloon filled with saline) installed with an arthroscopic minimally invasive operation. It helped immensely but nothing can replace the 2 tendons that were disconnected and atrophied. So I still can’t do much when the elbow is above shoulder level.
The surgeon said the balloon would last 2 years more or less but some people don’t need another one. It’s been 2 and a half years now and I still don’t need another one.
The worst pain I feel is when I extend my arm straight out from the side of my body and try to raise it up. I can barely use the bank and fast food drive thrus. I usually cross my right arm over and use it instead. I also cannot reach around by back. I couldn’t hook my bra the regular way if my life depended on it. I think I’ll make an appointment with an orthopedist just to see what they say. I keep thinking that I can’t imagine having to live with it forever. Some of you said that it might take more time. I keep telling myself that too!