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Riding with a Rotator Cuff Problem

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Riding with a Rotator Cuff Problem

Old 04-13-22, 09:15 PM
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You should take 5 minutes to read the entire thread. You might learn something.
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Old 04-14-22, 05:34 AM
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Second the advice to find a true shoulder specialist, the local one who does all the sports stars. I can't speak highly enough about mine. I could not lift my arm and it hurt all the time and eventually it got so bad, I could not ride. He perfectly fixed my rotator about 4 years ago and recently, I busted up my scapula and clavicle with some tears on the rotator. I saw him post accident when it seemed not to be healing and he said that this will just take time, you are not where you were 4 years ago, "trust me"........and, he was right. It isn't hard to find such expertise, just look and research. Well worth the time.
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Old 04-14-22, 07:31 AM
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Carbonfiberboy I tried your hanging suggestion - HOLY COW! At this point I don't have extreme pain doing anything that I have tried - UNTIL THIS. I have my own personal formula for 'when is discomfort that I can work my way through' worth working my way through and when is it probably doing damage. This one definitely fell in the damage camp (although that is nothing more than my best guess).

camillo and DeadGrandpa A recumbent has crossed my mind. But at this point I will be going the indoor bike route if cycling ends up being ruled out on a temporary basis. I do have a Nordictrak S22i (paired with Garmin Vector pedals) bike that is a good ride. I kind of like the 'map your own ride' feature that allows you to define a route and ride it to Google images (updated every 1-2 seconds). Fun to re-ride some of the rides that I did back in the Bay Area in the 1990's.

I rode 3 straight days the previous 3 days and could ride again today if I chose with manageable (and not alarming) discomfort (although I have not gone more than 35 miles since this issue popped up). But I am playing golf tomorrow and my sense of things is that I must have a 'shoulder rest day' if I am to play tomorrow. The golf swing motion is not a game stopper issue for me, but impact is. And you kind of need to hit the ball to play the game :-) .

I will be discussing this with my trusted personal doctor the first week of May. I will not be looking to him for a diagnosis (other than I am sure that he will do an X-ray just to rule out some obvious issue). I have a shoulder guy picked out but want his input (and need his referral, I think) before I go that path. Based on what I have read here and in my research, my level of discomfort is quite mild compared to what many have endured.

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Old 04-14-22, 11:35 AM
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Originally Posted by DaveLeeNC
Carbonfiberboy I tried your hanging suggestion - HOLY COW! At this point I don't have extreme pain doing anything that I have tried - UNTIL THIS. I have my own personal formula for 'when is discomfort that I can work my way through' worth working my way through and when is it probably doing damage. This one definitely fell in the damage camp (although that is nothing more than my best guess).

camillo and DeadGrandpa A recumbent has crossed my mind. But at this point I will be going the indoor bike route if cycling ends up being ruled out on a temporary basis. I do have a Nordictrak S22i (paired with Garmin Vector pedals) bike that is a good ride. I kind of like the 'map your own ride' feature that allows you to define a route and ride it to Google images (updated every 1-2 seconds). Fun to re-ride some of the rides that I did back in the Bay Area in the 1990's.

I rode 3 straight days the previous 3 days and could ride again today if I chose with manageable (and not alarming) discomfort (although I have not gone more than 35 miles since this issue popped up). But I am playing golf tomorrow and my sense of things is that I must have a 'shoulder rest day' if I am to play tomorrow. The golf swing motion is not a game stopper issue for me, but impact is. And you kind of need to hit the ball to play the game :-) .

I will be discussing this with my trusted personal doctor the first week of May. I will not be looking to him for a diagnosis (other than I am sure that he will do an X-ray just to rule out some obvious issue). I have a shoulder guy picked out but want his input (and need his referral, I think) before I go that path. Based on what I have read here and in my research, my level of discomfort is quite mild compared to what many have endured.

dave
Well that's not good but it's another data point! I wonder if it's tendonitis or a tear. Those are common among golfers. Good luck. Maybe don't play for a couple months.
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Old 04-14-22, 04:18 PM
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Originally Posted by Carbonfiberboy
Well that's not good but it's another data point! I wonder if it's tendonitis or a tear. Those are common among golfers. Good luck. Maybe don't play for a couple months.
Unfortunately it is (in my case) more likely to be a don't ride for a couple of months. If the shoulder feels fine going into a round of golf, it will feel fine at the end of the round. OTOH, at the end of any outdoor bike ride my left shoulder is going to be uncomfortable regardless of how it felt at the start :-( Indoor riding is an alternative (or something like a recumbent).

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Old 04-14-22, 06:28 PM
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Originally Posted by DaveLeeNC
Unfortunately it is (in my case) more likely to be a don't ride for a couple of months. If the shoulder feels fine going into a round of golf, it will feel fine at the end of the round. OTOH, at the end of any outdoor bike ride my left shoulder is going to be uncomfortable regardless of how it felt at the start :-( Indoor riding is an alternative (or something like a recumbent).

dave
But here's the thing: the first thing I ask myself is "How'd I do it?" You sure didn't do it planking. That just happens to be something which activates the already-damaged tendon. A "rotator cuff" isn't a cuff, it's simply a collective term for the 4 tendons which move your upper arm around. Unless you crashed, that didn't happen on the bike either. So that leaves . . .golf, and rotator cuff injuries are common among golfers. It's like you said: it's not the swing, it's the impact.

Way too many athletes don't back up their sport practice with strength work. When's the last time you did lat pull-downs, benches, overhead presses, seated rows? Those work the 4 rotator cuff tendons and muscles and you can bet your bippy that Tiger has been religious about doing those things and more. But once you have damage, you have to go all the way back to doing passive, no load movement work and proceed slowly from there.

As they say, the first rule is do no harm. I wouldn't do any thing more interesting than swinging my arms until I had a PT program in place, and from someone who knew what they were doing. Go for nice 6 mile walks. Degree of damage is unknown, could be from strained a muscle to ruptured a tendon. Not being able to hang from your hands is really not good.
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Old 04-14-22, 09:37 PM
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Originally Posted by GhostRider62
Second the advice to find a true shoulder specialist, the local one who does all the sports stars. I can't speak highly enough about mine. I could not lift my arm and it hurt all the time and eventually it got so bad, I could not ride. He perfectly fixed my rotator about 4 years ago and recently, I busted up my scapula and clavicle with some tears on the rotator. I saw him post accident when it seemed not to be healing and he said that this will just take time, you are not where you were 4 years ago, "trust me"........and, he was right. It isn't hard to find such expertise, just look and research. Well worth the time.
I was lucky enough to get hooked up with a shoulder doc who was with a group that did pro teams, recommended by an ER doctor I know. Nice person as well as the surrounding staff.

Last edited by Camilo; 04-14-22 at 10:02 PM.
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Old 04-15-22, 06:17 AM
  #33  
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I am a bit worried about my prognosis here, as my anecdotal data is all over the map. My wife had a shoulder issue (ultimately a tendon issue) that took surgery and literally 2 years off the tennis court to resolve (and it is resolved). A childhood friend decided not to go down the surgical path in his case and he spent 3 years playing tennis left handed before he got full use of his right arm back. He is even back in the gym doing weight work although now using lower weights/higher reps.

The guy behind the desk at our golf club took 18 months away from the game to solve his problems. Then there is my neighbor who is also a golfer and he got a cortisone shot a full year ago and 'is thinking that maybe he should get another one before long' (he is being treated by a shoulder specialist).

I don't play much golf any more so am more worried about the cycling. I suspect that riding this year's Tour de Moore (local century) is out and that now that riding weather is about perfect I will be stuck riding indoors. OTOH, I had serious wrist pain a few years ago where toward the end of a ride I could pretty much not shift (mechanical ultegra RD in one case and Chorus in the other) due to wrist pain. Better padding in my riding gloves and that disappeared. We never found the source of that problem definitively but added carpal tunnel syndrome to my list of structural deficiencies to be addressed when/if those symptoms become problematic. So maybe better padding or possibly a fit tweak to my bikes ...

I have had this 'issue' for over 10 years. It was like #5 on my list of "things that hurt now that did not hurt when I was younger'. As I told my doctor long ago, as long as I don't need to throw a baseball lefthanded, this has virtually no effect on my quality of life. The planks moved that up to #1 in a big hurry (for very mysterious reasons my spinal stenosis symptoms are close to gone for now). We'll see where this goes and it is 'use my best judgment' between now and my doctor's appointment.

dave

ps. My view of my shoulder showing up when the spinal stenosis symptoms disappeared is the 'conservation of pain principle' where at some age the total daily pain that you experience is a constant no matter what you do. Or then there is a friend's symphony metaphor where your pain is like a symphony where each performance has a different 'featured soloist' (shoulder in my case right now) but the entire symphony is always available and on-call.
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Old 04-15-22, 08:20 PM
  #34  
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Originally Posted by DaveLeeNC
Carbonfiberboy I tried your hanging suggestion - HOLY COW! At this point I don't have extreme pain doing anything that I have tried - UNTIL THIS. I have my own personal formula for 'when is discomfort that I can work my way through' worth working my way through and when is it probably doing damage. This one definitely fell in the damage camp (although that is nothing more than my best guess).
That's why one should take advice from the internet with a lot of skepticism. Amateurs reading words without some sort of actual assessment to compare to your actual assessment are very unlikely to have beneficial advice. One person's injury, is likely nothing like another's. Hanging/stretching might help lack of range caused by unuse, but will not help a tear, and could make it worse. And making a tear worse can cause retraction which can in turn make surgical repair difficult or impossible. At least consult with a good PT who can probably assess the injury and recommend stuff that won't actually harm the injury. A good one will also be able to advise you if you need to see a physician who can order diagnostic studies (X Ray, MRI, and such).
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Old 04-16-22, 06:04 AM
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Camilo I agree with you that you have to be careful with info gathered from places like this (WRT medical issues). I still find that getting experiences and opinions from others in this manner has a value if you use good judgment in how you process that information (IMHO).

dave

ps. BTW, my statement cannot possibly be wrong. If you get info from places like this and it misleads you, then you did not use good judgment. And if it was spot on then you did use good judgment. So my statement is indisputably and prove-ably correct (despite having come from some unvetted internet source) .
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Old 05-30-22, 04:00 PM
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Well, this should be interesting. I did finally have my shoulder specialist appointment (note that at this point it is with his PA). No MRI (yet) but the best judgment here is that my primary issue is osteoarthritis as opposed to softer tissue issues in the rotator cuff (rotator cuff most likely a secondary thing and not the source of my discomfort). The judgment is that my risk of meaningful further damage due to the activities that affect the shoulder and establish my quality of life (cycling, golf, and guitar) is quite low. So I rode outdoors today (30 miles) and will continue to do that and see what happens (I have only done four outdoor rides since mid April). Then I have a follow-up appointment in late June to see if this is manageable/acceptable.

Toward the end of today's ride I was not cringing when I needed to signal a left turn. But this was my first outdoor ride in 2 weeks so we will see how this holds up this time next week.

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Old 05-31-22, 11:55 PM
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Originally Posted by DaveLeeNC
Well, this should be interesting. I did finally have my shoulder specialist appointment (note that at this point it is with his PA). No MRI (yet) but the best judgment here is that my primary issue is osteoarthritis as opposed to softer tissue issues in the rotator cuff (rotator cuff most likely a secondary thing and not the source of my discomfort). The judgment is that my risk of meaningful further damage due to the activities that affect the shoulder and establish my quality of life (cycling, golf, and guitar) is quite low. So I rode outdoors today (30 miles) and will continue to do that and see what happens (I have only done four outdoor rides since mid April). Then I have a follow-up appointment in late June to see if this is manageable/acceptable.

Toward the end of today's ride I was not cringing when I needed to signal a left turn. But this was my first outdoor ride in 2 weeks so we will see how this holds up this time next week.

dave
Good - hope it works out well. Before I had my shoulder surgery, one of my main complaints was that I couldn't make a good left turn hand signal on the bike. Sort of a half mast signal was all I could muster. I'd say I can do a 90-95% signal with the fixed shoulder as with the other one now.

After my surgery, i could do certain things that i couldn't do before, but if I over did it, it got sore. So the lesson was not to over do it and build up. That might be what's happening with you since you haven't made many left turns for a while. Maybe only signal if you have to and briefly until it gets strength back a bit? Good luck with whatever course you take.
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Old 06-01-22, 05:34 AM
  #38  
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Originally Posted by DaveLeeNC
Well, this should be interesting. I did finally have my shoulder specialist appointment (note that at this point it is with his PA). No MRI (yet) but the best judgment here is that my primary issue is osteoarthritis as opposed to softer tissue issues in the rotator cuff (rotator cuff most likely a secondary thing and not the source of my discomfort). The judgment is that my risk of meaningful further damage due to the activities that affect the shoulder and establish my quality of life (cycling, golf, and guitar) is quite low. So I rode outdoors today (30 miles) and will continue to do that and see what happens (I have only done four outdoor rides since mid April). Then I have a follow-up appointment in late June to see if this is manageable/acceptable.

Toward the end of today's ride I was not cringing when I needed to signal a left turn. But this was my first outdoor ride in 2 weeks so we will see how this holds up this time next week.

dave
Very good news there.

I forget all the details of the thread but I know from experience that impingement and bone to bone rubbing due to arthritis in the shoulder is a relatively simple arthroscopic procedure. There is a shoulder surgeon who wrote a book on this issue......he recommends hanging. I have the book, I'll see if I can find it. Painters are here today and nothing is accessbiel.
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Old 06-01-22, 06:12 AM
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Camilo I don't think that signaling is causal in my case. My sense of things is that it is vibration. I just finished adding a bunch of extra padding on the hoods and bar on the left side - we'll see if that is helpful.

GhostRider62 The 'clean it out arthroscopically' option did not come up in my last appointment. I will be questioning that in my follow-up. Thanks for the reminder.

dave
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Old 06-01-22, 08:35 AM
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They make you do a bunch of stuff first. I had to do two rounds of PT. Then, the Doc shot some lidocaine or something into my shoulder. He was surprised to see that I could then lift my arm up (my wife had to dress me, that is how bad it was). That shot test got me an MRI from the insurance company. Then, some steroid injections IIRC and then after 12 months of pain, I simply told the Ortho Surgeon Doc that I was not leaving his office until he agreed to do surgery. He laughed and said they would work it out with insurance or something along those lines. Saying all that so you follow the steps they want you to take, some of it unfortunately is to satisfy the insurance company, but hopefully conservative treatment will work for you. I even tried accupuncture, chiro, massage, etc. Nothing worked.....until I had surgery, I am so happy with my result but getting there was not so quick.
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Old 06-01-22, 01:50 PM
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Originally Posted by GhostRider62
They make you do a bunch of stuff first. I had to do two rounds of PT. Then, the Doc shot some lidocaine or something into my shoulder. He was surprised to see that I could then lift my arm up (my wife had to dress me, that is how bad it was). That shot test got me an MRI from the insurance company. Then, some steroid injections IIRC and then after 12 months of pain, I simply told the Ortho Surgeon Doc that I was not leaving his office until he agreed to do surgery. He laughed and said they would work it out with insurance or something along those lines. Saying all that so you follow the steps they want you to take, some of it unfortunately is to satisfy the insurance company, but hopefully conservative treatment will work for you. I even tried accupuncture, chiro, massage, etc. Nothing worked.....until I had surgery, I am so happy with my result but getting there was not so quick.
I am 'ahead' of your situation in the sense that my current problem is not as bad as yours. I am mostly anticipating (assuming a surgical solution) the inevitable outcome of a significant loss of fitness during recuperation. And at age 72 I have no doubt that I will never get all of that fitness back. So I am trying to get ahead of the curve if that is possible. Quite frankly as I interpreted what I heard at my first shoulder specialist appointment the only meaningful changes will be surgical. So I am seeing just exactly what I am willing to put up with. It is not NEARLY as bad as what you described. However, if playing baseball left-handed is ever a requirement, I am totally screwed.

dave

ps. Surprising to me, physical therapy was not recommended.
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Old 06-01-22, 02:02 PM
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Originally Posted by DaveLeeNC
I am 'ahead' of your situation in the sense that my current problem is not as bad as yours. I am mostly anticipating (assuming a surgical solution) the inevitable outcome of a significant loss of fitness during recuperation. And at age 72 I have no doubt that I will never get all of that fitness back. So I am trying to get ahead of the curve if that is possible. Quite frankly as I interpreted what I heard at my first shoulder specialist appointment the only meaningful changes will be surgical. So I am seeing just exactly what I am willing to put up with. It is not NEARLY as bad as what you described. However, if playing baseball left-handed is ever a requirement, I am totally screwed.

dave

ps. Surprising to me, physical therapy was not recommended.
GL with it. I totally get your concern with losing fitness. I'm a little younger but had two big injuries last year. I did everything I could while healing to keep fitness. You might be able to use a treadmill or climb stairs. I rode a recumbent on and off the trainer with the shoulder deal. I had a bad crash injury last September, they said I'd need a year to recover at "my age". I showed them. I have been beating some of my hill climbing personal bests and just did my best 5 minute power test in ages. My advice would be to figure out what you can do because at our vintage, use it or lose it for good is how I feel
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Old 06-01-22, 08:30 PM
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I have a pretty badly torn cuff in my right shoulder. Last year riding seemed to practically cure it, many things I do seem to aggravate it, but riding is not one of them and seemed to be what it needed to feel better. Over the winter it came back, but am hoping the summer riding season will work like it did last year, and if I get to a point where it feels good then I will try some mild weight lifting to build the shoulder up and maybe get some muscle to do the job that the cuff is no longer able to do. If I get surgery on it someday I will certainly time it so it is in late fall so I don't miss riding. I can always sit on my trainer setup and ride hands-free while it is healing, and it is snowing outside.
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Old 06-01-22, 09:54 PM
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Originally Posted by GhostRider62
Very good news there.

I forget all the details of the thread but I know from experience that impingement and bone to bone rubbing due to arthritis in the shoulder is a relatively simple arthroscopic procedure. There is a shoulder surgeon who wrote a book on this issue......he recommends hanging. I have the book, I'll see if I can find it. Painters are here today and nothing is accessbiel.
Here's the book. I bought the Kindle version on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003ICWIUM/
I bought it in 2015 after at least a year of my doctor and a PT messing with my shoulders with no result. Turns out that a lot of time when they "diagnose" a rotator cuff issue w/o getting an MRI, it's not a rotator cuff issue after all, it's impingement and IME hanging is the only way to cure that latter. My shoulder pain was gone maybe a week after I started hanging. I kept up the hanging for a couple years, stopped, and the pain has never returned. It's weird that docs and PTs don't know about this.

The OP said he tried hanging and it was extremely painful. That might indicate a valid tear somewhere - or maybe not. When one first tries it, it's quite a sensation having all that stress put on shoulder muscles which have been perhaps dormant. There was a world class powerlifter at our gym back then. He'd carry huge weights around in his hands to strengthen his grip. I suggested hanging instead. He tried it but couldn't do it, didn't say why. It's not all that easy to hang for a minute and repeat. The book thinks you should get special gloves with hooks in them so you don't have to use your hands, but as a person who believe stronger is better, I just hung by my hands and they got stronger. It was fun to be able to play on the monkey bars again.

The question not answered by the OP's docs is . . .wait for it . . .what is the diagnosis? Getting a doctor to actually diagnose something instead of guessing at it, based on their perhaps flawed experience, is something which I've found very difficult. They just don't want to do it. They'll give opinions just fine, but an opinion is not a diagnosis. Why? Because diagnosis costs time and money and as doctors have straight up told me, their time is more valuable than ours. So they guess. Drives me nuts, because a wrong guess is harmful, not helpful. This thread is now over 2 months old, no diagnosis as I understand it.

I really don't think that osteo would cause pain when hanging. Doesn't make any sense.

Here are a couple of orthos saying that hanging also fixes rotator cuff issues. I hadn't heard that before:

As an aid for the OP's own guessing, google "shoulder impingement symptoms." Besides the usual stuff they say, IME it gets painful to sleep on one's side and raising one's arms particularly after getting out of bed is especially painful.

For the rotator cuff hypothesis, google "rotator cuff tear symptoms" and then "rotator cuff tear test at home." The symptoms of a tear and impingement are very similar but the test won't generate pain in case of impingement..
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Old 06-02-22, 02:18 PM
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GhostRider62 Here is a relevant fitness story. Back in 2018 (turned 69 that year) my riding had dropped off some (25%'ish). While I did no real tests I did not sense having lost anything and I was both pleased at that and felt like it was because I had been careful to (kind of randomly) throw in some short/hard efforts on most rides.

Then there was a 3-4 week period where personal circumstances dropped my riding down to once or twice a week. When I came back I found my fitness had fallen at least 25% (based on power). "Recovery level" power output was suddenly more like moderate to hard effort. I was pretty shocked (and I never got all that back).

Carbonfiberboy I don't have a good 'hanging contraption' but I do have access to the underside of an open stairway where I can kind of hang. I did not even get my feet off the ground and the feedback that my body was supplying was "do not do this!!!!". From what I understand position pain in rotator cuff issues often starts mid-range'. In my case it starts pretty late in a range of motion exercise. I can lift my left arm up to or slightly above vertical - MUCH harder to get higher than that. The medical best guess (all that I have right now) is primarily an arthritis problem.

I have arthritis in my wrists (just like pretty much every other joint that has been x-rayed lately). A couple years ago I was having real problems shifting (RD) toward the end of rides. (Expecting nothing) I replaced my cheap riding gloves with the best padded gloves my LBS had. Instant solution - I was shocked and I assume the issue was vibration. Clearly that won't solve the shoulder/riding issue (which I also believe to be a vibration thing) as I still use high quality gloves. But today I rigged up extra padding using foam water pipe insulation stuff. I am optimistic that this will be significantly helpful given the results of the first ride using that stuff earlier today.

Regarding diagnostic resources I believe that in most cases it is test resources rather than physician time driving that (plus what insurance will and will not cover). I have spinal stenosis and we still don't know (even after an MRI) whether it is the central cavity stenosis, the foraminal stenosis, or my forminal cyst causing the problem. Given that nobody that I have talked to thinks that surgery in my case is a good idea given that the symptoms right now are manageable, there is actually no reason to spend a bunch more testing time/resources to ferret that out.

dave
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Old 07-03-22, 10:20 AM
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Well, here is the straight scoop I got: I had rotator cuff surgery in early January for a full, large tear. Six weeks in a sling, and at the 7th week I fell at 2 AM (I was half asleep!). I re-tore the whole thing! So in mid-March I had the surgery all over again except this time he had to do an open surgery rather than arthroscopically. AFter the same 6-7 weeks in a sling, basically 24/7, I started more intensive PT. The doc, the PT, and the PA explained that because I was dealing in a re-tear situation, coupled with my age (76), it could be 16 weeks before riding my bike on a trainer. No outside riding until at least the 6 month mark (prior to that, if I had a crash and landed on the repaired shoulder I could do extensive damage).

Now that I'm at 14 weeks post-surgery, I've improved immensely with great strides in terms of range of motion. BUT, certain movements do cause some pain. I was told very clearly that at this juncture I'm at about 40% strength in the repaired arm shoulder.

I really, REALLY miss my 5 days per week cycling (14-15 miles each ride), but I will get back to it and am being very patient and sticking to the plan. I am finally allowed to us 1 or 2 lb. weights for certain exercises, e.g. bicep curls.

Sorry for the long note.

Best regards

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Old 07-03-22, 05:16 PM
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flan48 what a horrifying story! I just hope that my situation never gets anywhere close to that.

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Old 07-05-22, 12:29 AM
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Originally Posted by flan48
Well, here is the straight scoop I got: I had rotator cuff surgery in early January for a full, large tear. Six weeks in a sling, and at the 7th week I fell at 2 AM (I was half asleep!). I re-tore the whole thing! So in mid-March I had the surgery all over again except this time he had to do an open surgery rather than arthroscopically. AFter the same 6-7 weeks in a sling, basically 24/7, I started more intensive PT. The doc, the PT, and the PA explained that because I was dealing in a re-tear situation, coupled with my age (76), it could be 16 weeks before riding my bike on a trainer. No outside riding until at least the 6 month mark (prior to that, if I had a crash and landed on the repaired shoulder I could do extensive damage).

Now that I'm at 14 weeks post-surgery, I've improved immensely with great strides in terms of range of motion. BUT, certain movements do cause some pain. I was told very clearly that at this juncture I'm at about 40% strength in the repaired arm shoulder.

I really, REALLY miss my 5 days per week cycling (14-15 miles each ride), but I will get back to it and am being very patient and sticking to the plan. I am finally allowed to us 1 or 2 lb. weights for certain exercises, e.g. bicep curls.

Sorry for the long note.

Best regards
Get yourself a recumbent "tadpole" type tricycle. They are a blast and will safely get you through the rest of your recovery. Sell it when you're done, the net cost will probably be just a few hundred dollars.
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Old 07-05-22, 05:22 AM
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Originally Posted by Camilo
Get yourself a recumbent "tadpole" type tricycle. They are a blast and will safely get you through the rest of your recovery. Sell it when you're done, the net cost will probably be just a few hundred dollars.
Just want to say.....don't get a regular 2 wheel recumbent. Falling to the side is pretty common while stopped or riding very slowly on one of these things when new to them. And, it really, really hurts when you do that 3 days post surgery......trust me. A trike would be great to recovery on
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Old 07-05-22, 06:46 PM
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Originally Posted by GhostRider62
Just want to say.....don't get a regular 2 wheel recumbent. Falling to the side is pretty common while stopped or riding very slowly on one of these things when new to them. And, it really, really hurts when you do that 3 days post surgery......trust me. A trike would be great to recovery on
Indeed. When I had my shoulder surgery, I was predicting exactly the same issues as the poster - not being able to ride a two wheeler for at least 2 months after I could do other things. The three wheel tadpole recumbent was actually fun to build up (I bought a Performer kit) and fun to ride. Not fun enough to find garage space for a long term relationship, but I was very glad I had it for almost three months until the surgeon said my shoulder was as strong as original if not stronger. I was able to easily sell the trike for about $500 less than it cost (Priced for quick sale) which was totally worth the fun I had with it.
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