I have just been diagniosed with a 1.2 cm tear of my superspinatus(?) tendon in my shoulder as a result of a fall , the specialist has said he is not going to operate and is quoting a period of 2 weeks for significant improvement and 10 - 12 weeks for full recovery .
Has anyone had a similar experience ?
Obviously swimming and cycling is out and at present running jars too much however would it be safe to resume running in acouple of weeks ? I need to keep moving !
I’ve also been warned to keep moving my shoulder so it doesnt freeze on me and I have series of stretches to do .
Interested in hearing from anyone who has had an experience with this injury
Your tear is not so bad. I had a 2.5 cm tear in my supraspinatus surgerically repaired last winter. It is about back to full strength now, but it is a long, slow rehab. I have a 2.0 cm tear in my other shoulder that I will have repaired early next year. I injured this shoulder just a few weeks before surgery on my other shoulder. With a lot a physical therapy-stretching and strengthening-I have regained much of the the strength back in my 2.0 cm shoulder, but heavy overhead lifting, hard throwing and long swims are still limited.
You need to understand that this type of tear normally does not ever heal on its own. You will just be strengthening whats left of the muscle and attachment. I strongly advise finding a physical therapist who can give you a stretching and strengthening protocol. Have the tear checked every year or two to make sure it is not opening up. Plan on doing maintenance exercises for life to keep your rotator cuff muscles strong and flexible. This is a good idea for everyone. My second tear was the result of the high intensity activity of starting a lawnmower.
I tore my rotator cuff in the spring. I don’t know how big the tear was because I didn’t have an MRI done, but my doctor said I had a slight tear (probably not that bad). It was extremely painful to do anything with my right arm for about a week, then gradually started getting stronger. I wore a sling for a few days because downward pressure hurt a lot, but I would move my arm all around every hour or so to keep it loose. After a week or so, I started running again, but with the sling on. After about 3 weeks I was almost back to normal, but swimming was a little painful, so I took it real easy in the water. Even from the beginning, biking was fine, so I used the injury to specifically strengthen my biking. Hope your healing goes well!
I think it’s good you’re not having surgery. You could get it eventually if you need it. I had a slight tear and a stretched ligiment in one shoulder about 12 years ago. The surgeon thought surgery was a 50/50 call, so I didn’t have it. I had a stint with a PT and have been doing the exercises since then. Every once in a while I stretch the shoulder the wrong way and experience pain for a few days, but some ibuprofen and the PT exercises have always squared it away. You do have to be cautious though. Try not to do anything that makes it hurt. My swimming coach got me into a front quadrant stroke last year. I’m a bit slower (although I think I’ll improve over time) but it’s much easier on the shoulder. Good luck.
I have a torn rotator cuff from all those years of throwing out baserunners from behind home plate. My ortho always recommended “soup-can” exercises, you perform shoulder strengthening exercises using the weight equivalent to a can of soup. The goal is to strengthen all the smaller supporting muscles in the shoulder, not the major ones. I have been feeling decent and havent had any real problems from swimming or cycling. I have trouble throwing a baseball now. But the exercises did help alot. Good luck.
I’ve torn a couple weight lifting. total recovery would usually take most of a year, but during that time I only had to curtail the weight lifting a little bit.
Swimming will be the hardest thing to return to.
I don’t see why you can’t cycle and run as soon as you are able to tolerate it. I’m sure you’ve been prescribed an NSAID, so use that and ice your shoulder well until the swelling has come down enough to resume running and cycling.
Definitely go to physical therapy because improving that shoulder is dependent on moving and strengthening. If you do nothing, it may never feel good again (sort of like the old ‘football’ injury some people have).
My first tear didn’t finish healing until the next year when I decided to play softball. At first I could only lob the ball to someone about 20 feet away, but by the end of the season I could toss them in from the outfield. It was gently throwing the ball around that completed my recovery and you will find that to be the case too I’m guessing.
Got me one of them there supraspinatus tears as well, but I don’t know how severe since I didn’t get as far as an MRI. I’m guessing mine was more minor than yours based on your description. I did mine shoveling out of about a foot of wet, heavy snow this past winter. Didn’t feel anything other than the usual fatigue until the pain woke me up in the middle of the night. After a couple of days of constant pain, despite mega-doses of Vitamin I, I went to see an ortho. I did the PT which helped tremendously, but never followed through with the return visit to the doc. I figured he might do an MRI and then give me the choice of whether or not I wanted to go through with surgery. Since the PT helped and I was able to swim and run after a few weeks, I decided to pass on the surgery. Still have compromised strength in the injured shoulder, but good range of motion and no unusual pain. I must admit that I’ve been a slackass and haven’t kept up with the exercises that my PT gave me - I guess I figure I must be good to go since I can swim, and that’ll take care of strengthening up the surrounding muscles. Still can’t throw worth a damn, though.
From your apparent age and number of years doing tris, I would recommend some rest. I had a fairly severe tear last June, ended up finishing off the season in November, cutting the swim training to near zero. Took 6 months off from swimming and cycling and now it feels so much better. I can sleep, run, cycle, and swim with almost no pain. I had no surgery and my main focus was rest and stretching.
boy…this thread is hard to read, it is so full of misinformation and confused people.
Here are some facts, without an MRI or arthrogram (xray with dye in the joint) you can NOT diagnose a rotator cuff tear. Full thickness rotator cuff tears do NOT heal without surgery. There is a HUGE difference between a full thickness and a partial thickness rotator cuff tear. a LOT of people as they get older ( 40’s 50’s etc ) get partial thickness tears and most can be treated effectively with physical therapy. A full thickness tear, where the entire thickness of the tendon has torn from the bone and left a “hole” is a totally different thing. In an active person these should be fixed (most sports medicine specialists believe) with surgery. If you dont repair these tears they can over time get so large that they become irreparable and the function of the shoulder can deteriorate dramatically.
I just got the prognosis from the ortho…mri shows a 2 mm tear in the supraspinatus for me as well. He recommends surgery due to the fact I’m still in pain 1 month after the injury (Playing hockey- some guy fell on me). He said if I was 50’s and not athletic, he’d recommend a wait and then therapy strategy.
I read somebody’s post where it was 1 year to return to full strength and I near shat myself. Seriously? A full year until I can swim, albeit badly, like I could prior to the injury.
Sorry to hear it, man. FWIW, I’m getting surgery next week for a torn supraspinatus as well (and a detached bursa I think?) The doc I am going to figures I should be able to start rehabilitation a few weeks after the surgery, but 3-6 months for full recovery. I’ll let you know.
I have just been diagniosed with a 1.2 cm tear of my superspinatus(?) tendon in my shoulder as a result of a fall , the specialist has said he is not going to operate and is quoting a period of 2 weeks for significant improvement and 10 - 12 weeks for full recovery .
Has anyone had a similar experience ?
Obviously swimming and cycling is out and at present running jars too much however would it be safe to resume running in acouple of weeks ? I need to keep moving !
I’ve also been warned to keep moving my shoulder so it doesnt freeze on me and I have series of stretches to do .
Interested in hearing from anyone who has had an experience with this injury
I also have a minor tear in my right shoulder. Hurt it in a crash on my mountain bike. Anyway, I have done two sprints with it and it wasn’t too bad. Being down on the aero bars hurt a bit, but it was OK.
Basically just keep away from lifting heavy things, and generally take it easy. The less stress the quicker it will heal. Generally mine tells me when I’m doing too much with little twinges of pain, so make sure you listen.
I had about the same last december. I did a lot of swimming for rehab. It was ready to go by sept for IM-Moo. While I still do not have as much strength as I used to it held up quite nice in the 2.4 swim.
I always hesitate to respond to questions for medical advice. I’ve been on a roll the past few days, so I will add just a few thoughts to those above.
As mentioned, full-thickness tears do not heal on their own. Therefore, an accurate diagnosis with an MRI or arthrogram is necessary.
“Waiting to see how it does” in full thickness tears reduces the chance of successful outcome and makes these repairs more difficult. The muscles retract the longer you wait and become atrophied and less pliable. When you try to repair the atrophied and retracted tendons by stretching them back out to the original place and securing them to the bone, they can get tight. As you can imagine, this makes therapy afterwards more challenging.
Most of the info you read on the internet is difficult to decipher. Though it is often quoted 50% success rate with non-operative means, consider the outcomes they use. “Success” to many people means no discomfort and “reasonable” range of motion. Most triathletes would be quite unhappy if they didn’t hurt, but couldn’t lift their arm above their shoulder b/c of persistent weakness or loss of motion. Additionally, the success in this population is often referring to degenerative tears that may not be full thickness in older patients.
Recommend:
Make an accurate diagnosis with MRI/arthrogram.
If not a full thickness, then consider non-op.
If full thickness and you want OPTIMAL, not acceptable, outcome, see someone who routinely does a high volume of arthroscopic repairs.
Anyway…I wanted to chime in. I had a full thickness tear of my supraspinatus from a mt. biking incident. I ‘thought’ it was torn, since I couldn’t raise my arm above my head the next day (typical sign). But I got past that (probably recruiting other muscles) and even did some swim workouts and a sprint tri (the week after the injury). It continued to cause pain, so I got an MRI and there was the tear. (not sure how big the gap was, but pretty obvious, I’d say at least a cm.).
So…I had it repaired arthroscopically 13 days ago today. No labral tear, though the doc did do a little cleaning up of slight irregularity of the labrum. And he shaved off a bone spur from my acromion.
People kept telling me how hard rehab and recovery would be…I’ve had a few bad days but feel like I am progressing nicely.
I was in a sling 24/7 for 8 days. When I followed up with the surgeon last week, he said I can be out of the sling while I’m around the house, but keep it on if I’m out and about. I got (mostly) off of the narcotic pain relievers by the end of the first week. I am cleared to drive (too bad my car’s a stick, though, and it’s my right shoulder, so I can’t really drive MY car).
I started PT/rehab last Tuesday. I am doing passive range of motion work. My shoulder feels super tight, esp. at the top, but it is getting a little better everyday. Have not started back on strength yet…and I am weak as a kitten between my shoulder and elbow.
Agree with the other 2 medical posters who said that a full thickness tear most often will need to be repaired. My doc said that at my age (45) and with my activity level, I would do better over the long run to go ahead and get it repaired well now.
I can bike on the trainer or spin bike. No running for 8 weeks from surgery. Swimming in a few months (I hope to race with lowered swim expectations in April–not that my swimming was very fast anyway).
Sorry for the repeat answers folks. Just responded to the OP without reading everyone’s responses.
But FWIW, MR-Arthrograms are for diagnosing labral and capsuloligamentous tears so to save you from being “too smart for your doctor”, just ask for an MRI