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Oh yeah, I've been there (2 surgeries).Tore mine a little over two weeks ago. The first week was excruciatingly painful. The pain is a little better now, but still very limited range of motion.
Anybody here been through this? Did you opt for surgery or PT, and how long before you regained complete pain free range of motion?
The shoulder joint itself is not a per se ball-and-socket joint. IMHO, beside the elbows and ankles, the shoulders are the most complex joints. The rotatory cuff tendons keep the humerus correctly aligned with the scapula. The muscles connected to those tendons need to be CORRECTLY worked-out daily in order to keep that joint safe. Rehabilitation attempts before surgery is the call 95% of the time. Until you have one or both, do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT move your arm/shoulder around trying to "find the pain." Doing so can aggravate and worsen the injurie(s) to the tendons/muscles.
I had two surgeries mostly due to my insurance company not ponying up for a quality MRI at first. (Yes, I was surprised to find out there are different levels of MRI's and these are based on the price paid.) Besides the low quality MRI, which had the first surgeon short on time allotted for fixing all the he found was wrong once inside, he then decided to only fix what he knew was wrong FROM THE MRI in order, I think, to avoid liability from me or the insurance company.
If you go the surgery route, tell your doctor and the radiologist to do the best MRI possible.
Good luck.
PW