Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Rotator cuff pain

Any of you folks dealt with this? I haven't got a doctor to look at mine yet, hope to get that scheduled today. Just wondering what others have went through with it.

I've lived with the pain for over 10 years.....had to switch shooting to my left.....cannot cut enough firewood in a week it now takes me a couple weeks to have enough wood for the winter....try not to over do it....

About half the Country has rotator damage. Most don't know. Chalk it up to old age and forge on. Others think its the worst thing they have ever endured. I've had both shoulders done, 38 years of Linework. Pain is less. But, I'll never play catch with a child or the Guys or throw for my dog again.
You gotta weigh quality of life and what you want. Life is pain. Sometimes the answer is deal with it.

I’ve dealt with in, had a shoulder rebuilt. The pain was no longer manageable, so I had it done. The surgery and recovery sucked, but it helped a lot. Doc said I’d get 20 years out of the fix, and it was in 2003, so it’s getting to be time again. Good luck, I hope it’s something simple.

Old70

Thanks for the replies. I don't mind some pain and usually deal with it okay but most things have always gotten better for me. This gets pretty intense by bedtime. It moves up my shoulder and my neck muscles really hurt, as bad as the shoulder.

Yes. Doing the rehab exercises that they'd prescribe after surgery is actually almost as likely to resolve the issue as surgery itself. Try that before considering the operation.

When it gets to the point that it's interfering with your sleep, you need to do something about it. Which normally means surgery. My surgery was not bad pain-wise and since then I've had no problems with the shoulder.

Starting physical therapy this week. Really difficult to sleep as I'm a side sleeper... on the shoulder that is affected. If physical therapy doesn't help with the pain and limited motion, I guess it'll be time for an MRI and possibly surgery.

Surgery is the only way to repair a torn rotator cuff, I've had both repaired. The first was a medium to large tear and the other was a complete tear off, the complete tear off was the more difficult to rehab. For the first 8 weeks rehab was passive, I went to PT and the therapist stretched my shoulder. The remaining time in PT was pretty normal. I have about 90% range of motion but cannot work with my arms extended overhead for very long. I am pain free and glad to have had both repaired.

Small tear there and biceps. Workers comp injury so forced me to go through physical therapy.

Physical therapy for the most part eliminated the pain going 3 days/wk for 2 months. Basically they helped build up the supporting muscles around the tears to reduce further damage because if you dont you will learn to compensate and either do more damage to the tears or the supporting muscles.

I had been exercising for years just to stay in shape. But during physical therapy, using resistance bands and water therapy, they helped me learn how to properly hit every head of the deltoid muscles and strengthen them. After therapy was over I then started on my own to build those muscles much bigger than I had been previously.

Still get lil prick of pain if I dont use proper form while working. Much better than the original pain or going through surgery tho!

My Dad recently was diagnosed with a completely torn rotator cuff that is years old. He's been complaining about that shoulder for years. He's 88 so they won't do surgery.

Now, I'm starting to feel it in my right shoulder. It's getting harder and harder to lift my arm above my head.

I found some cream at a CBD store that really helps Dad's pain. It's not cheap but works. I've put it on my shoulder and knee and pain feels WAY better within minutes.

The longer you wait the worse it gets.........

I put off surgery for as long as I could. Had a tear for a couple of years, it wasn't too bad. Then last Feb I fell and tore my bicep. Had surgery end of July, fixed tear and reattached the bicep. Was in a sling for 6 weeks and am just now allowed to start lifting a little weight. Won't be able to use it fully for 6 months.

It's not fun at all.

Only a fool doesn't do Physical Therapy ! Either before or most importantly after surgery, doing exactly as your doctor and therapist instruct you to will ensure successful recovery.

Take a look at ultrasound-guided percutaneous needle tenotomy with PRP. It might take two or three injections (treatments). There is one case study where an elderly woman got complete "in-filling" (complete healing) of a full-width (100%) rotator cuff tear. I have a 60% tear and have had one injection and am scheduled for a second. The first injection greatly improved my pain. I go to a clinic in Reno, Nevada (Sweetwater Pain and Spine) where three of the doctors did their residencies at the Mayo Clinic. You need a doctor who knows what he is doing. The price is $700 and is not covered by Medicare.


https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/hea...rapies/plateletrich-plasma-prp-treatment

https://bmcmusculoskeletdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12891-021-04288-4

https://ejrnm.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s43055-020-00221-2

Everyone is different. Its amazing how your body will compensate, react, overcome. The pain in the neck is normally less/ un used muscles picking up the slack for those not being utilized because of the tear.
I took zero pain pills after both. With my right they didn't know how i was still working. I got cadaver parts in that one. The Left they did arthroscopic, only to have come apart in Post PT, then they opened me up and re-did like the right..
Even with all that, no drugs. Just ice.
There is also a non invasive that is becoming more popular for knees, but is being tried with Shoulders.
They draw your own blood, centrifuge it to isolate and concentrate the Stem cells, then inject them. Back into the joint. Might be something else to consider.

The sometimes very painful rehab exercises won't help at all if you have detached or damaged rotator cuff tendons (I had both). My health insurance wouldn't pay for an MRI until I went through the rehab therapy. When I got the MRI and they found physical damage that required surgery to repair. I got the surgery and went to the same therapist for rehab. He looked surprised and asked what why I was back for more therapy because he had already "fixed" my shoulder. I asked for another therapist. I'm glad I did because all the other therapist were hot young women. My shoulder hasn't bothered me at all since I completed the rehab over 12 years ago.
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Yes. Its called PRP, but they don't use stem cells per se. See my post immediately above.

Thanks again guys! I have an appointment for December 21st. I'm all about doing everything I can to help myself and do as the doctor suggest, I know him and my wife has worked in the hospital where he works and he is very good. I'm very active and being limited by something like this works me over in a big way so I have lots of motivation for do all I can to move forward. For therapy we have an excellent place not far from here that helped me about 12 years ago when I had a ruptured disc. No surgery on that account. God and time made a huge difference.

I tore mine about 50%, six months of suck, six months of occasional suck, then after a about year it was fine. No surgery for me, but it took a long time to heal.