United States
I am posting this to share my very positive experience in having my rotor cuff repaired. It’s been seven weeks and all is good with my shoulder. I was prepared for terrible pain, but it never came. I really didn’t have any more pain than I had with the original injury. Before the surgery I bought an ICE machine, stocked up on Tylenol, Motrin, Advil, Oxycodone and Celebrex. I didn’t need any of it. PT is a breeze. I am extremely confident that I will regain 100% of what I lost. I have almost everything back already.
The details (for comparison) - I had a 2.5 cm full thickness tear of my supraspinatus tendon, a superior laberal tear, AC impingement, Subacromial impingement and adhesive capsulitis (a frozen shoulder). The surgical team performed an extensive debridement on the lateral tear, removed 2 bone spurs and re-attached the supraspinatus tendon using the ArthroFLEX SpeedBridge knotless double-row technique with Fibertape and FiberWire sutures. They did all of this through 4 tiny incisions which are all healed now and hardly noticeable.
My recommendation for anyone facing the same dilemma is to find the right surgeon. I only went to 2, but it didn’t go as I had planned. I thought I would have the first surgeon who was local perform the surgery. He seemed capable and explained the risks, benefits and alternatives to surgery. I went to a second surgeon to verify what the first surgeon had said, However, I was so impressed with the second surgeon that I went from apprehension to wanting to do it ASAP. He was 100% confident that he could fix my shoulder and I would be 100% in three months. He didn’t say it may not work, or I might end up worse off, or it will be a long recovery, or you could try just doing PT first. All things I heard from my doctor and the other surgeon. There was no doubt in my mind that this was the surgeon I wanted to do the surgery.
It feels good to have my right arm back. It’s the little things like being able to reach behind your back to take something out of your pocket and being able to pull your pants up again. Not having the surgery would have been a huge mistake - at least in my case.
The details (for comparison) - I had a 2.5 cm full thickness tear of my supraspinatus tendon, a superior laberal tear, AC impingement, Subacromial impingement and adhesive capsulitis (a frozen shoulder). The surgical team performed an extensive debridement on the lateral tear, removed 2 bone spurs and re-attached the supraspinatus tendon using the ArthroFLEX SpeedBridge knotless double-row technique with Fibertape and FiberWire sutures. They did all of this through 4 tiny incisions which are all healed now and hardly noticeable.
My recommendation for anyone facing the same dilemma is to find the right surgeon. I only went to 2, but it didn’t go as I had planned. I thought I would have the first surgeon who was local perform the surgery. He seemed capable and explained the risks, benefits and alternatives to surgery. I went to a second surgeon to verify what the first surgeon had said, However, I was so impressed with the second surgeon that I went from apprehension to wanting to do it ASAP. He was 100% confident that he could fix my shoulder and I would be 100% in three months. He didn’t say it may not work, or I might end up worse off, or it will be a long recovery, or you could try just doing PT first. All things I heard from my doctor and the other surgeon. There was no doubt in my mind that this was the surgeon I wanted to do the surgery.
It feels good to have my right arm back. It’s the little things like being able to reach behind your back to take something out of your pocket and being able to pull your pants up again. Not having the surgery would have been a huge mistake - at least in my case.
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