I am a pitcher. I hurt my shoulder about a month ago and I went to a shoulder specialist. He said he thought he was just swelling in my shoulder and he put me through physical therapy. Yesterday my physical therapist told me she thinks there might be a tear in it. I can move my arm and some movements hurt and other don’t. Does anyone know how much of a pain level a torn shoulder is on a 1-10 scale and how much movement is limited?
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Rotor cuff tears can be extremely painful and somewhat limiting. Some of them require surgery while others are able to mend on their own with a lot of rest. A lot of Dr’s disagree over the treatments and think that if you don’t intervene surgically the first time the cuff will always be unstable and eventually re-tear and need surgery then and the surgery will be harder and take the patient longer to heal due to the scar tissue of the first tear. This issue has a lot of controversy! You really need to see an orthopedic specialist who deals with sports injuries since that is the best person to deal with your specific injury. The amount of pain and the limited movement depends on how bad the tear is, where it is, how long it has been there, if it has kept tearing due to the physical therapy and a lot of other different things. Right now you are probably at the point where the movements that do cause you pain are about 5 to 6 on a pain scale but when it is in resting position it is about 3 or so. The limited movement will keep you from being a picher though so you will need to have it taken care of and quickly before the healing and the scar tissue issue is there. Best of luck to you.
In a young person, they tend to be much more significant…I can only assume because they perform higher level activities than an elderly adult. Many middle age and elderly adults (in fact up to half of all people over 65) have some degree of a rotator cuff tear…not all of them are symptomatic.
If you’ve got full overhead motion, chances are you do not have a serious rotator cuff problem. You could certainly have a small tear that might respond well to conservative treatment. The amount of pain one has and the loss of motion is quite variable.
Obviously pain is not something I can put to scale for you. I have a high tolerance whereas another in similar pain might consider my level to be unbearable for them.
Your pain tolerance is what it is… yours.
I can tell you however that rotator cuff tears can be career ending.
Now it’s your call.
If your symptoms continue you need to see the doctor again and they will order an MRI if they feel it is indicated. Rotator cuff tears are very rare in young people including throwing athletes. Therapist can sometimes give good advice but technically they are not allowed to make diagnoses
i just tore my rotator cuff on monday…my pain is about an 8-9…i cant move my arm very well…i can barely do anything myself…if you google torn rotator cuff it will show you symptoms of it