After several years of on/off pain in my right shoulder, I finally had an MRI this morning. I told the doc I need the open MRI and he sent me. It was a breeze compared to those little tunnel MRI's. I will never get in another of those tiny things. Claustrophobia is real. Anyway, the tech showed me after it was finished and there is a nice tear in the shoulder stuff. I said I knew that already. I remember when it happened about 6 years ago. Lots of pain for 6 months and then it got gradually better, until recently. My bass boat did not quite line up just right, when I rode it up on the trailer...the wind was blowing like crazy. After pulling it out, I pushed on it pretty hard sideways, to slide it over a little. Yeowch! Pain is back. I saw the doc at SOS in Montgomery and he sent me to the MRI. I go back on Wed afternoon, to get the results from him. What is the procedure for fixing such a tear? Recovery time? How long before I can cast again, I am right handed. Heck, I've been throwing side armed for a couple of months since this happened. Got pretty good at the casting doing that. That arm wear out pretty fast and I'm done fishing, after about 2 hours. ugh. My favorite time of the year too. Thanks for any medical knowledge on this. I'm clueless.

Do yourself a favor. Have Dr. John Todd in Daphne handle the surgery. He is an excellent surgeon.

That's a bummer! I've not had any shoulder problems but one of my cousins had a bad tear plus he had a lot of arthritis in his.
They done a reverse rotator cuff repair or a reverse shoulder replacement on him. I talked to him 2 weeks after he had his surgery
and asked how he was doing and he said, "I'm on my way to get my tractor out of the shop". He probably shouldn't have been driving but
he felt good enough to be out and about. He told me the rehab is about half as bad as the regular surgery.
Google Reverse shoulder replacement. Hopefully yours isn't to that point yet.
Good luck!

It probably depends on what kind of tear you have as to how long your rehab and recovery to being good to cast again will be.

For me, I had a SLAP tear (superior labrum anterior posterior - essentially I tore the top part of the labrum in front and back). I had surgery and a week later started rehab and was kayaking by 12 weeks out.

Definitely depends on what type of tear and to what degree the area is torn. With either a labrum tear of a rotator tear, (or both), your looking at a few months rehab to well over a year.

Do you have a rotator cuff tear or a labrum tear or both?

Know the exact pain. On Nov 4th of last year i had a complete tear of my rotator cuff in my right shoulder then while awaiting surgery i tore my bicep tendon out of the same shoulder.. The arm was useless.. I will say the surgery and recovery both suck...Good rehab and at around 9 months later most of the strength was back, Dr Wilson said it would take a full year he is dead on and a great doctor.. Good luck with that!!

Get a triangle pillow to put under your right side to help you sleep. It will be the only way.

I've had a bunch of surgeries over the years. Firefighting was tough on me. The shoulder surgery was absolutely the worst and I won' t ever do it again if I can help it.

Furflyn and I both HIGHLY recommend Dr. Atkinson at St. Vincent's in Birmingham. My total right shoulder replacement back in July of 23 was a 6 week until fully released surgery. It never hurt. I had surgery on Wednesday, started therapy on Friday, was back in the office at work the following Monday. The brace came off on Friday morning, the first day of therapy and never went back on.

If it’s a labrum or rotator cuff tear you’re going to be out of work and all physical activities involving that arm for at least 2 months. Those take a full year to fully recover from. Be prepared for a lot of PT. Sleeping in a recliner helps. I highly recommended Dr. Cain at the Andrew’s Clinic.

Ice is your friend! Find a ice gel pack for shoulders. They last a good 30min of working cold. They are much easier than fighting a bag of ice to stay in the right spot and no condensation to wet your clothes/stitches. I used it through rehab and still use it when I've overdone it and inflammation flares.
Mine was a SLAP, rotator cuff (6 point re-attachment instead of 3) and tightened up the ligament (?) down the back of my arm to the elbow.

*When I had mine done the day Hurricane Ivan rolled through with sustained 60 mph winds in the Golden Triangle (ROUGH ride home with my wife driving...between the crosswind rocking and her finding every pot hole between Columbus and Starkville), my doc (team doc for M State at the time) sucked donkey balls at pain management. I recently had my other shoulder looked at and mentioned that I still fully remember the pain after and mentioned my docs lack of pain mgmt skills and he stated "we all sucked donkey balls back then and it is MUCH better, today!". Take it for what it's worth.

Posterior Slap tear labrum here. Rotator cuff was just frayed so he cleaned it up. My rehab was a 20 week protocol. I made it about 11 weeks and quit rehab. As for fishing goes the only way I could fish was a spincast in my left hand and the handle on the right. As stated above it depends on the severity of the tear and I have been told how many anchors it requires. Surgery is nothing. Ask for the pain block and you will have zero pain the first 24hrs. Then you will be hunting them meds! I cant take the Opiod crap very well but you will need them the 1st couple days. After that ask him to send in a script for Tramadol. Great drug without the side effects.

Too far for me to go.

When I saw him last week, they took one xray and said I have bursitis and arthritis in there. I did okay in the open MRI. I see the doc tomorrow on Wed afternoon to get the final diagnosis. ugh.

Wow, your doc must have done a great job to be doing all that so soon.

A year! I'm still trying to get over the knee replacement from a year ago. Still is painful and swells up, if I'm on it long.

Don't know what exactly yet. I'll find out tomorrow afternoon, when I see the doc for his diagnosis, and report back. Tech showed me the mri and it was very clearly a tear there and something else wrong in the joint. He wouldn't guess as to what it was. I see the doc again tomorrow afternoon.

I'll look into the pillow. I remember the torn bicep when you posted it. yeowch! Bet that slowed you down a bit.

That is why I am so thankful for folks in firefighting/police work. I could not even imagine the hardships of those jobs.

I'm praying it won't be shoulder replacement. Maybe just an arthroscopic job and done.