This week I will begin physical therapy. I can’t move my right arm without pain, but if I hold it still, it doesn’t hurt too bad. This is my third week post surgery and I still wake up in the middle of the night with pain. This is the time when the pain is highest, as well as the first few hours after I wake up.

On day 21 post op, I stepped in a hole in the yard and fell (Friday evening) and this caused my shoulder additional soreness. After this happened, I realized teaching the German Shepherd puppy to play frisbee this soon after shoulder surgery might not have been the smartest move. I will call my doctor on Monday morning and see what he says.

I am currently recovering from three types of shoulder tears; also a bursectomy, a Synovectomy (an operation performed to remove partial or all the synovial membrane of a joint), bone spur removal, and various other things:

1. SLAP type 2 tear is the commonest type of SLAP tear. The superior labrum is completely torn off the glenoid, due to an injury (often a shoulder dislocation). This type leaves a gap between the articular cartilage and the labral attachment to the bone. Type 2 SLAP tears can be further subdivided into (a) anterior (b) posterior, and (c) combined anterior-posterior lesions.

2. A biceps tear involves a complete tear of the main tendon that attaches the top of the biceps muscle to the shoulder. It happens most often in middle-aged people and is usually due to years of wear and tear on the shoulder. A torn biceps in younger athletes sometimes occurs during weightlifting or from actions that cause a sudden load on the arm, such as hard fall with the arm outstretched.

3. Rotator cuff tear. The rotator cuff tendons are key to the healthy functioning of the shoulder. They are subject to a lot of wear and tear, or degeneration, as we use our arms. Tearing of the rotator cuff tendons is an especially painful injury. A torn rotator cuff creates a very weak shoulder. Most of the time patients with torn rotator cuffs are in late middle age. But rotator cuffs tears can happen at any age.