experience w/cortisone injections for torn rotator cuff?

There are several factors to consider when dealing with a tear. Cortisone injections are a bandaid at best. Maybe helpful for inflammation but will do nothing over time. Repeated injections do weaken the tendon, and can negatively affect the cartilage in the joint. Plus it should be done under imaging guidance.

I guess you had a mri? Any other findings?

A tear will not heal itself, but the pain and dysfunction can be overcome with PT, sometimes. Usually surgeons are eager to jump to surgery, so it is odd that he says that it is a last resort. Yes it is a painful surgery and long rehab, but again, most surgeons do not even mention this! It seems that there is some reason he is avoiding surgery as a reasonable alternative. That would make me wonder.

Have you considered a second opinion? If this OS is not a shoulder only specialist, i would recommend finding one who is. A surgeon might be hesitant if he feels the tendon is irreparable, but usually they at least try.

Good luck.

Talon has it right.

Is the tear complete? If that's the case you need surgery as soon as possible to prevent permanent retraction of the muscle involved. Depending on which muscle it is, you may get away with leaving it alone, but you will lose the strength of that muscle.

If it's partial I'd get it repaired if it's a bad tear, before it becomes complete.

I had a supraspinatus tear, thought to be partial at first. I did shots which helped a little, briefly, PT didn't help at all and hurt. I got my supraspinatus repaired when MRI showed a complete tear, and the doc had a hard time pulling it back together. My husband ignored his same tear and now has permanent weakness and a noticeable dip in the shoulder. It isn't painful though.

It's a long recovery, but I'm happy I did it.

Correct diagnosis is the key!

Thank you so much for your replies. So far I'm just into the very beginning of this thing. I haven't seen ortho yet. PC doc referred me to PT for their evaluation. PC doc only said it's probably torn, don't know how much, and that conservative Tx is best as shoulder surgery is a edit to recover from. This is fine with me as I've had so many surgeries I really don't want to go thru yet another along with recovery. I've only had an x ray so far, which didn't show anything. I'm not keen on cortisone injections. A person at my gym told me about some sort of alternative type of injection that isn't a steroid but is something like a lubricant for the joint. She had it done on her knees and found that it was effective. I don't remember what it was called.
What's annoying is the wait time for PT. The shoulder pain comes & goes, but can really get in the way when it's bad. I wish I could take NSAIDS because I have a feeling they'd help. In the meantime, I'm just alternating heat & ice and trying to use the other hand for work tasks as it really gets aggravated when I do things that require the arm to be raised. I'm continuing cross training, but I need to know what exercises to avoid so that I don't make this worse. I've read that strength training can actually help a torn rotator cuff. I just need to know what to do.
Should I push for a referral to ortho right away, or wait until PT takes a whack at this? My PC doc wants to see me again in a few weeks.

I had to edit out a word in your post, even though you tried spelling it as you did. Healing Well has a rule concerning language. Since anyone can read the posts at Healing Well whether they are a member or not, we never know the ages of our readers. Thanks.

Post Edited By Moderator (straydog) : 11/22/2014 1:01:04 PM (GMT-7)

Yes, get to the ortho as soon as you reasonably can. If you've got a complete tear, it needs to be repaired while it can be repaired. Recovery isn't fun, but it sounds like what you are going through right now is about as bad. It's only the first days that aren't fun, and there are nice drugs for that. I had one shoulder done twice. The first doc missed the torn tendon. Get a good one the first time!

First of course, is getting an MRI. Your PCP can order that and then you could have it before seeing the ortho, and you wouldn't waste a visit and another co-pay.

Even MRIs are not infallable. They don't always show everything. The ortho can do a few tests, maneuvers with your arm, which are quite good at detecting which tendon is torn and if it's complete or partial. Actually, your PCP or the therapist can do these tests, but they don't have as much training and experience as a top ortho in doing and interpreting them.

You can google "tests for torn rotator cuff" and see what he's going to do.

I'm thinking of pushing for the MRI. PT is scheduled way out to Dec 8 which is putting me in a tough place as I still do cross fit but I'm not sure what to avoid &/or what to do to help and don't know how bad this thing is or what sections are torn. It seems like PCP (especially w/HMOs) take a very slow wait & see attitude unless you're dying or screaming in pain. It comes & goes. Yesterday was a bad day but I woke up this morning & it had calmed down. Back to work today so we'll see how the day progresses. Is this to be expected with a rotator cuff tear?