I've had 3 shoulder surgeries in as many years - all three on the right shoulder for instability. The third surgery worked like a charm, an open capsular shift. Since this last surgery, which was a about 2 years ago, my left shoulder started hurting - it started during the recovery phase of the 3rd surgery - compensating for loss of the right arm I imagine. Over the past 2 years, it has come and gone. About 3 months ago, I was playing on the monkey bars with my 5 year old (showing off) and ended up hanging suddenly using only my left arm and felt something pop/pull severly. Since that time, the shoulder pain has gotten worse and I'm showing signs of a torn/partially torn subscapularis - all tests are positive, waiting on the results of the MRI.
MY QUESTION (FINALLY): The 3 prior surgeries I had on the rt. shoulder were all soft tissue type surgeries, as in no anchors/screws of any nature, no work on the rotator cuff - and the recovery wasn't too bad/too painful at all.
I've heard rotator cuff surgery is a very painful recovery - I imagine from whatever anchor hardware is used and drilled in to the bone to secure the repair.
I'm just looking for an honest answer...is it a different "ball game" pain/recovery wise? I'm just so done with shoulder surgeries and to have this come up really has me taken back. To think of having yet ANOTHER shoulder surgery makes me sick, but I can't live like this - I've tried PT and anti-inflammatories but nothing really works - it really needs to be fixed I guess. Ugh.