What to Know While Recovering After Rotator Cuff
Even though many rotator cuff injuries can be treated with non-surgical approaches, your doctor might advise you to have rotator cuff surgery to fix the tears that are in the shoulder. The kind of surgery that will be performed on you will depend on many things, however no matter what kind of surgery you go through, the recovery for any rotator cuff surgery will be somewhat the same.
Day of the Operation
In most cases, you need not stay overnight in the hospital since this is an outpatient procedure. However, you will have to stay in the hospital until such time that shoulder pain is managed through home medications. Your arm will also be encased in a specialized protective sling. This way, your shoulder and arm muscles will be in a relaxed position, hence, facilitating the healing process.
Here are some hints to quicken rotator cuff surgery recovery throughout the first days after the surgery, which are crucial in the later stages, are:
-Ease your pain by taking your pain medications as soon as you feel pain in your shoulder.
-Try some different mixes of pain and anti-inflammatory medications with the advice of your physician.
* Place an ice bag over your shoulder so as to lessen the pain and speed up healing.
-When sleeping, sleep in a partially seated position with your elbows pointing down.
Stages of Recovery
It must be emphasized that the phases of rotator cuff surgery recovery will vary from one person to the next in terms of the time taken to progress from one phase to another. As such, it is best to comply with your personalized rehabilitation protocol.
The first part of your recovery will go on for about 6 weeks, where you will be asked to only do passive motions. What this means is that you must avoid any kind of work or stress on the rotator cuff tendons and muscles. For this part of the recovery, your physical therapist will do two things. He will move your injured shoulder for you and second he will give you instructions on the best way to move your shoulders with as little as possible muscle contractions.
On the second phase, you can move your arm on your own although you should never move it against resistance of any kind. This is called the active motion phase and can last up to 12 weeks from the time of surgery.
The third stage is considered the strengthening part of your recovery where you will concentrate on performing isolation exercises to give strength to muscles that have become weak because of lack of activity. This is the most important stage in rotator cuff surgery recovery because full muscle function can come back once this stage is completed well.
When you reach the fourth part of recovery, you will be able to go back and do all the regular activities you do with your shoulders. Definitely, some things will affect this part of your recovery that can go on for about 6 months after you surgery and you will still have to talk to your doctor about going back to regular physical activities involving your shoulder.
In conclusion, your commitment to rehabilitation, the size and location of the rotator cuff tear and physical condition will determine how well and how fast you can go through rotator cuff surgery recovery.
Tom Nicholson has spent years helping carpal tunnel sufferers. Please click here to learn more regardingrotator cuff surgery recovery.
