Bad news & good news from the shoulder doc

The bad news is that  the MRI confirmed another re-tear of the rotator cuff. It's a full thickness top to bottom tear. Can he try to fix it again - yes. Would it tear again - probably.

The good news is there is a fix that he can do that will fix the shoulder permanently. No more arthritis, no more pain, more movement than I have now. It's called a Reverse Shoulder Replacement. It's for people who have no or very bad rotator cuff tendons. Instead of the socket being on top and the ball on the bottom, it's reversed with the ball on top and the socket on the bottom. It uses the deltoid muscle to raise & lower the arm instead of the rotator cuff.

The question is when it'll be done. My answer is not right now. There is only about 10 years of research on this surgery. They don't know how long it'll last. It could be 20 or 30 years but they don't know right now. I have limited enough movement to still do my job. I am experiencing relatively low pain (I do have my days though) and he says that he can put cortisone in it again later if it flares up again. The kinesio tape is acting like a tendon to keep the shoulder ball in the socket and my skin isn't suffering yet. As long as all these are working, I'm not going to do the surgery. It could be six months, a year or longer. For me, longer is better because I don't qualify for FMLA and the more hours you take off work, the equation working for raises & promotions goes down. I'll put up with what I have (unless it gets really bad****il I get to where I want to be at the bank.

In the meantime, the doc gave me exercises to strengthen the deltoid muscle. It'll not only get it ready for surgery but it might even give me more movement as it gets stronger. They're all done laying on my back so there's not too much pain but enough so that I don't overdo the exercise.