Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Rotator cuff surgery - how painful is it?

I had a left shoulder rotator cuff "clean out" and reattachment of a partial biceps detachment a few years ago. Pain wise, it wasn't bad. However, now I am having trouble with both shoulders, right shoulder quite painful at times. I go to the doctor tomorrow to start looking into it. Two friends in my age category (over 70) recently had rotator cuff surgery. One told me "You don't have to do anything wrong, it just wears out".

There needs to be more alternatives to surgery,surgery is not the answer to everything..When you get old,surgery to the shoulder usually means time off from hunting and fishing and at old age,there ain't that many years of it left..So time off is not an option for some...

They have came so far with back surgery and minimal evasive techniques..They need to do the same with rotor cuff injuries...

i had it 2 years ago. nerve block was fine until it wore off. worst pain i have ever had. mind numbing. felt like someone was taking a dremel to my shoulder bone while pulling my arm out of the socket. and thats no schit and i ain't no stranger to pain. my mistake was i fell asleep before block wore off and by the time it wore off the pain had started. wife hid my pain pills and i had to wake her up and force her to give them to me. (she was concerned about addiction). i pounded 3 and went right asleep. woke up and pain was just as bad. i was counting the pills, almost crying trying to figure out how long they would last until the dr opened again. it gradually subsided but it was bad, bad, bad for about 2 days. dead shoulder for a month and then once therapy started it hurt like a mofo. did therapy for 4-5 months and regained most function but it still hurts if i use it much in certain positions. was it worth it? i'm not really sure. i waited 6 months for it to get better and never did so i got operated on. not sure i would do it again. sorry to be "that guy" but you asked.

ya editing this to clarify maybe a bit. yes its better than it was and probably would have ever been. it is not near what it was before though so that clouds my opinion a bit. and after thinking about it, ya i'd probably do it again. it just suck to get in that condition in the first place. simple dumb ass accident that will affect me for the rest of my life. but this being thanksgiving, i am thankful it wasn't worse and i know others who have it much much worse than me.

I've known two fellas that have had rotator cuff surgery and they both said that the post op pain was terrible......good luck and I hope that you will be the exception.

Faaack! ^^^

I also had both rotator cuffs done, about 4 months apart. As others have said- stay ahead of the pain. I didn’t take any meds except ibuprofen which helped with the pain but swelling too. My saving grace was an ice machine that pumped ice cold water through a unit strapped to my shoulder. I had that thing running around the clock for first several days. I have no pain in either shoulder now and also no loss of mobility or strength. I might have gotten lucky but I don’t think it’s really all that bad.

Everybody has a different experience with rotator cuff surgery but I had a good experience with little pain and very little swelling. I only took one Hydrocodone tablet and that was at 3:00 am when the nerve block wore off. By 7:00 pm that night I just had a dull pain in my shoulder. The physical therapy wasn't very painful either probably because my therapist was a beautiful young woman with black hair and beautiful blue eyes. My Son had the opposite experience with a lot of pain and swelling but he had a lot more damage than I did.

Sleeping was a big issue for a friend that had that surgery. The only place he could sleep was a recliner.

If I do indeed end up getting cut on, I would like some contact info for your physical therapist. 😁

OH yes!!!

You'll be really glad you had the surgery. It's not terribly painful. When it heals is when you'll be really glad you had your rotator cuff repaired.

Good. I don't really have much choice, I don't think. I fell off a 15' high roof and the top of my humerus ended up next to my ear.

I tried the taking it easy route a couple of years ago and it was a mistake. It's healed up fairly well but I don't have the strength in my shoulder and it's not coming back. We had an absolute rodeo at work our last night cementing a well. By the end of the night I couldn't hold a chisel at eye level without a lot of pain.

I was supposed to go in for a MRI yesterday but we postponed it for a week because my insurance hadn't approved it yet. I don't know what we are going to find or what's going to be done yet.

The differences in post-op experiences can often be explained by the skill of the surgeon. Find the best you can. One who does several a week is a real plus. While difficult to do, the best way to accomplish this is to find physical therapists who will tell you who gets the best results. How one accomplishes this is up to you. It is frowned upon to express such opinions but with resourcefulness, it can be done. Of course not all PT folks have the same skills either, so that's another task that is well worth some effort.
Staying close to home may not always be the best idea, depending on local choices.

I had a partial rotator cuff tear and could not raise my arm above my shoulder but elected to do nothing for reasons not relevant here. It took 4 or 5 years but eventually I could throw a football again pretty well. Crossing patterns and outs were pretty easy. Going deep...not so much, but by then other factors may have intervened.
BTW part of the problem with healing, with or without surgery, is that the blood supply to this area is very bad so it takes a long time to heal. That's just the way it is.

Of course memory of pain eventually fades.

Best wishes and good luck.

Unless extremely messed up (like the OP from a bad accident), why bother with the surgery? What is the gain/loss from doing so?

Without the surgery there is usually pain. The pain can be when moving the arm or just from being still. And very poor ability to elevate the arm over the head, like when trying to reach a light bulb or things like that.
With the repair things usually get back to normal.

That's not what my doc told me, or what happened. The shoulder I had surgery on is stronger than the other one now.

For the OP, everyone is different, including the extent of your injuries and the ligaments that need to be repaired. "Rotator cuff" is a catch-all term that includes more than one ligament and not all are necessarily injured.

Mine got to the point where it was affecting my sleep.

No experience here but I know quite a few that have done it. Most said buy a good recliner since you won't be in bed for a while and when you start PT, stay on the drugs. It takes 6-9 months to get back to a firemans job and some guys don't make it back. I'm not sure 80% will do it. One of my friends couldn't make it back. He's fine other than he really can't do much overhead work with his left arm.
Most of them get their shoulders done here
https://kerlanjobe.org/ by this doc. https://kerlanjobe.org/physicians/daniel-kharrazi-md/

What he said.



My surgeon made the difference, having years of successful experience in fixing shoulders. Two morphine pills later I was only moderately sore, although they had to scrape away some arthritic spurs and fix the bursa and tendon so everything was done at one time. I already had an excellent physical therapist and he and his the staff were all diligent and effective with a minimum of discomfort. Recovery was OK with the therapy being as thorough as the surgery.

I was concerned that the joint would be weak or vulnerable. No need to worry, I did the acid test about six months later. I was hanging on to the rope around a 550 lb steer's neck when he zigged. I landed on my elbow while it was in the 90 degree arrangement. I heard the "snap" and knew I had hurt the thing. X Rays showed how good my orthopedist really is. The shoulder was fine, but my collar bone was fractured. The PT office had a laugh at my expense. I sent a couple of ribeyes to my surgeon. Range of motion 2 years later is 95%, strength is at least 95% and pain is old history now.