Rotator Cuff Tear/recovery

Anyone out there had rotator cuff surgery in the recent past? Recovery time and did you come back stronger? I just got diagnosed with a small full thickness tear and have surgery in a couple weeks. Kinda explains why my SS has deteriorated lately. Just wanted to get an idea. If this is in the wrong place please move mods. Thank you

Every case is different. Small tear should be no problem to recover from but depends on extent of surgery. Could be up to 6 weeks before you’re hitting left handed chips. I had 2 full tears and was over 6 months before I could play again. Now have very limited external rotation of right shoulder and have lost at least 15 mph CHS. Sucks but at least chipping got pretty good with all the left handed practice

Mines actually my left shoulder (right handed player). I have full range of motion right now, but I’ve had noticeable weakness developing.

If your injury allows, I would avoid surgery if at all possible and go the route of physiotherapy and targeted exercises. I have torn labrums in both shoulders, and have a partial tear of the biceps tendon in my right shoulder. Never got the surgery done and the most recent sports med doc I saw commended that decision (I was diagnosed 20 years ago with the first torn labrum)

Get a second opinion from another surgeon about if surgery is necessary. There are some success stories with the surgery for my injury, but most often I hear that the recovery was very hard and for not much, if any improvement.

I appreciate the insight, the ortho Dr. is one of the best in KC, and he is very surgery adverse. I have a slight tear in my right shoulder and he said just rehab on that. For him to say surgery for the left, and it is vital to my job I get back asap, says to me he believes I will come out better for it.

Because you are stronger now or because of the Driver??

A 76 year old friend of mine had the surgery last year. In his case, he turned a 4-wheeler over, knew the shoulder was hurt, self-diagnosed it to be minor, but it just would not quit hurting. He gradually lost range of motion and strength in his arm, finally went to a real MD, and got it fixed. He did all the rehab faithfully, has had no problems at all, and at the end of rehab, that arm was stronger than the non-surgical arm. If your doc thinks it needs fixing, trust him.

I had a small tear, also in my left shoulder (I am right handed) and did surgery in the middle of September. I am now hitting 80% strength nothing more than 7 iron and expect to be back to full strength in 1 month.

FWIW, it was the best thing for me lesson wise. I re-started regular lessons a month ago, working on punch shots and we were able to make huge progress. Not going at it on every practice shot has really helped all of my fundamentals, it’s been an unexpected blessing.

For background when I was 20 had surgery on my labrum, rotatory cuff and bicep for tears. Also my sister is a PT and my dad is a surgical tech who picked my ortho for the surgery and forced me to follow the protocol.

In short the surgery will be them repairing the tear and over tightening the area. Depending on the severity you'll be in a sling for some time. Try no limit all movement possible as it allows strengthening and healing of the tendons.

The most important, and I'll admit it painful part is rehab. Basically when they over tighten, your rehab is ripping the scar tissue til you get to the point of normal range of motion. This is done in cycles, get some range of motion then strengthen to prevent tears, more range of motion, more strength and on and on. The key here is to properly push yourself and communicate with the rehab people. They know the difference being an injury pain / limit and the pain from just properly gaining your range of motion.

In the end I was fine again full RoM and honestly stronger than before as I could push more weight without an 'unstable' joint. The big thing is to do the rehab properly and to your best ability. If you don't that's how you lose RoM

I had a right shoulder labrum tear back in 2009. Tried just PT but was too painful to keep playing. Surgery in July '09, was ready to play by the following spring (March/April). Painfree 10 years now...so glad I did the surgery

I tore rotator cuffs in both shoulders (at different times). I chose not to have surgery and they healed in about 6 months by avoiding all activity with the injured shoulder - no lifting, no carrying, no pulling, no throwing, etc. I also had a frozen shoulder about 4 years ago which required 5 months of extremely painful PT after which I have 95-99% range of motion.

Thanks for all the comments. I actually saw the GM of my course yesterday and I was telling him I wouldn't be back until after my recovery. He actually had the same thing done, but a much worst tear. He said he was back playing in 3 months...I know everyone is different so we will see, but it at least gave me hope of a quick return. Oh, and without prompting he said who is Dr was, the same guy I am going to. He joked I'd be back even sooner since I was in better shape. I know those first few weeks I'll be on WRX quite a bit.....

Interesting...3 months - don't think there's any way I could have been full swinging in that time. But I didn't push mine at all since it was winter and I had no intention to try and play until March.

Good luck to you

Just wanted to post an update as the surgery was Dec. 30. They went in and found no tear, but a bone spur was removed and cleaned things up. I've already been to PT 4 times and I am way ahead of schedule. Really hoping to see my swing speed get back to where it was before I was having these shoulder issues. Thanks for all of the insight everyone.

I had surgery for a torn labrum when I was 26. It really stabilized the area after multiple shoulder dislocations. I took probably 9 months off to rehab and get things right. I'm 44 now and very happy I did the surgery.

Ultimately, losing a year of golf or whatever to enable you for better health and golf for decades to me is a very worthwhile investment.

This is sound advice. I would always try to rehab first if you have the patience/time. I had my right labrum repaired back in '93. Trama from a dislocation. I wish I would've tried to rehab it first without surgery, but didn't want to miss too much baseball time. Mine shoulder never made it back. Dislocated 4/5 more times within the first year after surgery and it's pretty arthritic now. It doesn't cause me much if any pain golfing thank god, but range of motion and speed is affected a bit. The distance drop hasn't really got me, YET. It's coming. I have more pain/discomfort from sleeping than playing golf.