Shoulder Injuries?

[BT]

Originally Posted by Iceman

Based on extensive internet investigation, I would say that surgery is for people with out patience and recovery can be just as long regardless of treatment. I have had tears in the right and then a few years later the left. Alternating heat and ice is all I did, along with ibuprofen to reduce swelling and using my bad shoulder as little as possible. It seemed to take forever, but I am 100%

Yeah Andy, I am with you there. That is what I am going for. When I had my left shoulder done (labrum tear, torn rotator cuff) I had done rehab for almost a year before I would let the doc cut on me. And he was a good doctor too (sports doc for Chargers and is a shoulder specialist) because he didnt want me to get any surgery I didnt want. Let me PT it until we both looked at each other and figured it wasnt going to heal on it's own. After that I had more PT (8 months) and my left shoulder felt better than my right (before this injury). I know the left injury is worse than this one, just because of the nature of my accident (rolled a truck off a cliff).

I will most likely go and get an MRI to see what I am dealing with, but I have Kaiser now as my health care, and those M'er F'ers take forever, so even if I wanted surgery right now, it is likely a looong time before I get in for that.

So if anyone has any alternate medical advice (besides Hobies and the sticky icky), I would love to hear it. I got a few sports massages that alleviated the pain a bit, and I may try acupuncture next, but I have NO idea where to go for that. I just know that I would be out minimum six months if I had surgery, and I would like to work through it and strengthen it while coping with the pain then having a useless arm for all that time post op.

But in the end if it doesn't heal I will get the surgery. Just trying to see if I can avoid it this time since this one will make it my 6th surgery in the past 8 years.