Shoulder Tendonitis and "Rotator Cuff" ...

[cyberbay]

Is this one and same thing? Or does shoulder tendonitis lead to this notorious Rotator Cuff?

I ask because my shoulder feels sore, but not really painful, over the past few days. I do lift out water buckets each morning, altho I do this with care and the buckets are walked 5 steps to a wheelbarrow, then wheeled to the wash stall and dumped there. Im employed as a barn manager at a small barn and do the morning chores.

So, I have badly scared myself by looking this up on the I’net, and am now trying to figure out if this is the dreaded Rotator Cuff or simply shoulder tendonitis. The sore area seems to be where RC is most noted – front of the shoulder, kinda where the bra strap goes. I do not have any of the classic symptoms, like pain when the arm is raised over the head.

I have had tendonitis in my elbows for years, and I manage it with easy stretches and staying fit. IOW, it’s not a problem for me at all. But, given the spectre of Rotator Cuff, and needing to lift out water buckets (about 16/day), I’m trying not to freak out.

Any insights here? I will be making an appt. tomorrow with the ortho. Thanks!

[Bluey]

The shoulder is one of the more complicated joints, anything and all could be what causes your pain, from a spur interfering with a tendon, to a tear in a ligament or tendon, to a chip somewhere there, to who knows.

That is why getting a specialist to look at it is a good idea.

After you have a diagnosis, you may not have any other to do than some exercises, or they may inject the joint or, again, who knows.

Good that you are getting it tended to before it becomes a chronic problem.
Good luck!

[Laurierace]

The rotator cuff surrounds the entire shoulder hence the term cuff. I assume you are concerned about a rotator cuff tear which is a crappy thing to have so I don’t blame you for being concerned. Your description doesn’t scream tear to me though so hopefully the doctor will give you good news.

[goodhors]

Have an MRI done as part of the diagnosis, it shows much more than manipulation by the Dr or any X-rays.

Ask around for Orthopedic Dr recommends before picking someone. Dr’s who do a lot of kids with sports related injuries that go back to competition, are usually good choices.

Finding a good Dr can even make needed a surgery less of an issue in recovery time, rehab times. Family here has had 4 rotor cuff surgeries. Husband had both repaired, wear-and-tear from his Farrier job. He was back working within 3 weeks both times. He started exercises right in the recovery room, did them faithfully every day. Plus went to a sports physical therapy place for several weeks after the first week from surgery. Lots of stretching things there.

Both kids had rotor cuff repairs with DD having additional muscle repair needed because of bad coaching in the Swim Team. She took longer to heal after having to keep arm immobilized so bone screws could heal to hold muscles in place. Son healed slightly slower than his dad, but back to normal pretty quickly, maybe 3 weeks, but son is not a Farrier.

Best thing is to get in fast, get diagnosed, find the problem. Waiting can make an injury much worse, let you get hurt beyond repair or only 70% fixable. Shredding a tendon to the breaking point won’t ever let you heal 100% back to what you were. Had a friend put off repairs, no time to be fixed, too many things to do. This went on over a year of avoiding surgery. Finally shredded tendon broke, had to do emergency surgery. He now has about 70% of strength in arm, bicep is not fixable on that sholder and arm. He has been months healing, doing PT, so this is as good as he will get.

Get in, get diagnosed so you learn what you have to deal with. Guessing about your base problem may be far from what you actually have going on. Could be an easy, fast fix, not even a surgery issue. Best of luck.

[poltroon]

What kind of doctor is the right kind of doctor to see for a soft tissue shoulder injury?

[Laurierace]

[QUOTE=poltroon;8762277]
What kind of doctor is the right kind of doctor to see for a soft tissue shoulder injury?[/QUOTE]
Orthopedic surgeon.

[ThreeHorseNight]

I am not saying the OP has a “rotator cuff” problem but for those of you who find out you do and need surgery, do make sure you find a good surgeon. Go see two or three and talk to them about any special techniques they use and most importantly, talk to them about what happens after surgery. I had arthritis in the AC joint, a spur, and a tear of the supraspinatus tendon. I had open surgery (the surgeon went in arthroscopically to look around and confirmed he had to open me up to repair the tendon). I had to wear a sling for only a few days (mostly because I had a nerve block and couldn’t feel my arm) and started allowing my arm to dangle down and swing (passively) almost immediately, on surgeon’s orders. I started PT the next week and did very well. I had heard such horror stories from other people about wearing a sling for six weeks and not starting PT for many weeks. I didn’t even have much pain (but my surgeon was very good about providing pain control when I needed it). My experience was vastly better than that of the others I spoke with who had the same surgery.

I’m going to be needing surgery on the other shoulder and I will be going back to the same surgeon. I hope to have as good an experience.

Really, for any non-emergency surgery, you should get several opinions. You might be told by two or three surgeons that you need the same surgery but they might have different methods, offer you different options, or quote different recovery times or outcomes. Choose a surgeon you’re comfortable with. If you’ve got a primary care provider you like, ask him or her for advice. I was lucky that my primary care doctor pointed me to my orthopedic surgeon. Ask friends who have had the same surgery, do your homework and understand the surgery. You don’t want any surprises after surgery.

OP, again, I’m not saying you need surgery. My first sign that I had a problem was an inability to move my arm in a certain way. A steroid injection fixed that for a while but eventually things got worse and there were more ways in which I couldn’t move my shoulder, hence the surgery.

If you need PT, make sure you find a good physical therapist. There is a difference. I’ve had three physical therapists work on my shoulder and there was a world of difference between the best one and the worst one.

[Boo]

Have you injured it recently to cause pain?? If not and its sore at the front where the rotator cuff is id be think bursitis first and foremost.
Ihad it once years ago and a steroid injection and exercises fixed it. I have now had it nearly all year thanks to pregnancy in the other shoulder and injection took the edge off for afew weeks only ??

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=ThreeHorseNight;8762427]
I am not saying the OP has a “rotator cuff” problem but for those of you who find out you do and need surgery, do make sure you find a good surgeon. Go see two or three and talk to them about any special techniques they use and most importantly, talk to them about what happens after surgery. I had arthritis in the AC joint, a spur, and a tear of the supraspinatus tendon. I had open surgery (the surgeon went in arthroscopically to look around and confirmed he had to open me up to repair the tendon). I had to wear a sling for only a few days (mostly because I had a nerve block and couldn’t feel my arm) and started allowing my arm to dangle down and swing (passively) almost immediately, on surgeon’s orders. I started PT the next week and did very well. I had heard such horror stories from other people about wearing a sling for six weeks and not starting PT for many weeks. I didn’t even have much pain (but my surgeon was very good about providing pain control when I needed it). My experience was vastly better than that of the others I spoke with who had the same surgery.

I’m going to be needing surgery on the other shoulder and I will be going back to the same surgeon. I hope to have as good an experience.

Really, for any non-emergency surgery, you should get several opinions. You might be told by two or three surgeons that you need the same surgery but they might have different methods, offer you different options, or quote different recovery times or outcomes. Choose a surgeon you’re comfortable with. If you’ve got a primary care provider you like, ask him or her for advice. I was lucky that my primary care doctor pointed me to my orthopedic surgeon. Ask friends who have had the same surgery, do your homework and understand the surgery. You don’t want any surprises after surgery.

OP, again, I’m not saying you need surgery. My first sign that I had a problem was an inability to move my arm in a certain way. A steroid injection fixed that for a while but eventually things got worse and there were more ways in which I couldn’t move my shoulder, hence the surgery.

If you need PT, make sure you find a good physical therapist. There is a difference. I’ve had three physical therapists work on my shoulder and there was a world of difference between the best one and the worst one.[/QUOTE]

That.

A friend horse trainer had the surgery and in rehab, at the hospital, the therapist had him do too much and the repair tore loose.
They had to operate again to repair the damage, the hospital paid for it all, but it was a terrible experience.

I had an excellent surgeon, he sent me home with stuff to do the therapy myself, I live too far to drive regularly to town and you can’t drive for a while anyway.
The exercises were a few minutes every hour, ten times a day, which I did religiously, took all day just to do them, but had practically 100% use of the shoulder again.
He said he rarely trusts a patient to do them or do them right, but he knew me from reducing a dislocated elbow 25 years ago and that it would work for me.

My orthopedic surgeon is the one school sports teams send their injuries to.
You could ask your high school athletic couch what they think of several and so pick the one that will do the best job for you.

If you end up needing surgery, do a search here.
You will find the threads where Zu-Zu gives excellent advice on how to prepare and make it thru shoulder surgery.
Or pm her about this, she is very helpful.
Helped me tremendously.

[chalice18]

My shoulder just started bothering about two weeks ago. Pain in the joint, especially when I lift my arm up or move it to the side. Thankfully it doesn’t hurt to ride. I’ve been trying to ignore it and hope it gets better, but I finally made an appointment with my PCP today and will go from there. Good luck, OP. I hope your appointment goes well!

[IPEsq]

They are the same. And also not. The rotator cuff is made up of a group of muscles in the shoulder. They all attach to the shoulder via tendons. Any one of those can be irritated by barn chores. Tears are acute injuries that you hear about with people like baseball players having a rotator cuff injury. It means they tore something involving that group of muscles/tendons.

There are also joint issues that you could have including injury to the labrum or bursitis or arthritis or some joint laxity or separation in the shoulder or AC joint.

Since it doesn’t sound like you have “frozen shoulder” in which case you can hardly move and everything hurts, an orthopedic surgeon should get a pretty decent idea of where the problem is upon doing a clinical exam. From there, you may just get sent off to PT for a bit, maybe get some anti-inflammatories. Or, they may want to do an MRI.

If it is just a specific tendon being irritated, I have had great results with kinesiotaping. My supraspinatus tendon attachment at the shoulder joint gets angry. I probably have a labrum tear as well, but MRI was inconclusive and doctor didn’t recommend surgery in my case. However, that shoulder is always going to be weaker and not move 100% right, so the tendon pain flares up from time to time. A week being taped up and the inflammation subsides.

It’s been about 8 years since the initial injury, and I had to tape a lot more frequently earlier on to do a lot of pretty easy (non barn work) type tasks. I’m a lot stronger on that shoulder now than I really ever thought I’d be. I just can’t do a lot with my arm overhead.