Rotator Cuff Issues

Kebabkid

Does anyone suffer from this or has anyone had treatment or an op?

Looks like that's where I'm at with my left arm and it seems to have developed or come to the fore ever since I shifted from guitar to playing more bass in the last 2 years.

Bloody cartilage in my left knee has also gone and majorly pissed off.

Anyway, I'd just be interested in hearing from anyone on the subject issue and what they did, recovery period after op etc?

Cheers

guitarfishbay

Didn't have an operation, just lots of physio starting with a really low resistance rubber band.  Took a while.  I'd see if you can see a physio first and get a proper assessment.

Myranda

99% of treatment will be in the form of Physio as the surgery is normally only done for massive tears.

As for treatment time and recovery ... mine took 3 months of physio and not working (or guitaring) and was still only good enough to go back to work. Mine was a bad one but not bad enough to warrant going under the knife.

With regular correct exercise prognosis is OK. But remember to keep those exercises up after you're better as wear and tear can re-bugger your shoulder later on.

dtr

Had rotator cuff problems in my left shoulder last year.  It was getting near frozen and bloody painful.  I saw a good physio for 3 or 4 months, and now have most of the mobility back and no pain (still aches).

Now I've got the same bastard thing in my right shoulder.  Hopefully catching it much earlier (I did the bloke thing of ingoring it the last time thinking it would go away by itself) before it freezes up will let the exercises work better.  It's almost stopping me play, and holding my acoustic makes me wince, but that's motivation to keep working on the exercises.

colourofsound

You sound just like me mate! I have reoccurring issues with my left arm where it kills if I lift it above my shoulder. Also my left knee is fucked from years of drumming.

I've been for physio and the knee can possibly be fixed by getting insoles. The Physio said my hip-knee-foot alignment was well out of whack and if I correct that with insoles I should see improvements.

However its worse in cold weather and I have arthritis in my family so it could be that

As for the arm, I haven't had that looked at yet as it's very occasional. 

It's fucking depressing, I'm only 31.

Kebabkid

Thanks everyone and reassuring to see physio has worked for people. I don't believe mine is bad tear (just had the ultrasound today) but I'll wait for the results. As mentioned, it does hurt more when I play bass, and acoustic for that matter, and I find both a little more physical than playing electric guitar and the issue doesn't really arise with the latter. 

Re:the knee, I use orthotics for my shoes as my arches collapsed but all my ailments are left-sided and I'm regularly out of whack.

I'm finding out that correct posture and core strength are so important for this, especially to musicians and correct stretching exercises too. I think years of playing lengthy function gigs probably didn't help.

Much appreciated folk

Myranda

Kebabkid said:

Thanks everyone and reassuring to see physio has worked for people. I don't believe mine is bad tear (just had the ultrasound today) but I'll wait for the results. As mentioned, it does hurt more when I play bass, and acoustic for that matter, and I find both a little more physical than playing electric guitar and the issue doesn't really arise with the latter. 

Re:the knee, I use orthotics for my shoes as my arches collapsed but all my ailments are left-sided and I'm regularly out of whack.

I'm finding out that correct posture and core strength are so important for this, especially to musicians and correct stretching exercises too. I think years of playing lengthy function gigs probably didn't help.

Much appreciated folk

Posture will help the shoulder too (long term)

Grunfeld

Kebabkid said:

Thanks everyone and reassuring to see physio has worked for people.

Definitely see a physio and see one who's up to speed with the latest approaches and treatments for shoulder pain. 
A lot has changed in the last few years.

axisus

You need to find a good physio. In my experience all NHS ones have been useless (about 5 different ones). I've also paid to see around 6 physios privately over the years and only two of them were actually any good. The best was an old semi-retired guy who used to work for top flight football teams and he could tell stuff just by looking at you, the way you stood or walked. 

boogieman

My wife suffered for years with it. She was a nurse and all the patient lifting in the bad old days of manual lifting has knackered her shoulders and her lower back to a lesser extent. She had treatment with a private osteopath for a while but eventually had to have surgery last year as there was a ligament tear. It's done by keyhole and the recovery time is pretty quick. Think she was in a sling for two weeks and she was pain free after about six weeks. She's got much more movement in the joint now, but it's shown up that there's a weakness on the other side that she'll probably need treating long term. 

Kebabkid

I remember there was a Musician's Clinic at St.Thomas's Hospital in London that you could get a GP referral for but a quick look now shows it to be at Guy's Hospital.

http://www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk/our-services/rheumatology/specialties/musicians-clinic/overview.aspx

@boogieman - that's a good recovery period and it looks to be curative as well.

Many thanks

Kebabkid

Apologies. I didn't do a search for this subject before putting up the post but can see that quite a few people have suffered with this and James @octatonic looks like you had a tough time with yours.

I suppose careful, correct and considered practise/playing is also needed rather than straightforward repetition of stuff.

breakstuff

I had relly bad pain and severly limited movement in my shoulder about three years ago.Put up with it for about a year and after several unsuccessful visits to the docs a cortizone injection was recommended,which pretty much sorted it,though I know this treatment doesn't work for eveyone.

octatonic

Kebabkid said:

Apologies. I didn't do a search for this subject before putting up the post but can see that quite a few people have suffered with this and James @octatonic looks like you had a tough time with yours.

I suppose careful, correct and considered practise/playing is also needed rather than straightforward repetition of stuff.

Yes, I've had both shoulders done.
It sucks- but I gigged 2 weeks after having one of them done- I just need help to carry my stuff to the car.
When I had hand surgery I couldn't play properly for 2 years.

Kebabkid

octatonic said:

Kebabkid said:

Apologies. I didn't do a search for this subject before putting up the post but can see that quite a few people have suffered with this and James @octatonic looks like you had a tough time with yours.

I suppose careful, correct and considered practise/playing is also needed rather than straightforward repetition of stuff.

Yes, I've had both shoulders done.
It sucks- but I gigged 2 weeks after having one of them done- I just need help to carry my stuff to the car.
When I had hand surgery I couldn't play properly for 2 years.

Wow. That must've been tough but glad all's fine now.

You also moved to those ergonomic Forshage guitars too.

marantz1300

My left shoulder if bad.

Done the cuff bench pressing three years ago.

Lighter weight and a lot of stretching have made it better ,but still not back to normal.

octatonic

Kebabkid said:

octatonic said:

Kebabkid said:

Apologies. I didn't do a search for this subject before putting up the post but can see that quite a few people have suffered with this and James @octatonic looks like you had a tough time with yours.

I suppose careful, correct and considered practise/playing is also needed rather than straightforward repetition of stuff.

Yes, I've had both shoulders done.
It sucks- but I gigged 2 weeks after having one of them done- I just need help to carry my stuff to the car.
When I had hand surgery I couldn't play properly for 2 years.

Wow. That must've been tough but glad all's fine now.

You also moved to those ergonomic Forshage guitars too.

I play a Forshage but I also play a Strat and a Tele quite a bit- I've owned other headless designs as well.

I don't want to talk too much about the ergonomic guitar thing because it might be easily misunderstood but IMHO some of the benefits of 'ergonomic guitars' are potentially overstated.

Posture is a complex issue and whilst a headless guitar can partially assist with some elements of posture, if there is a pre-existing condition in the player then that needs to be addressed separately.
Post-surgery I worked with a physio and then a kinesiologist.
I now do Pilates most days and my posture is much better.

This isn't a criticism of any of these designs.
I mostly thing of these instruments as 'headless' guitars, rather than 'ergonomic' guitars because the ergonomic label implies a therapeutic benefit and I have found no evidence to support this claim.

This is all very much IMHO.

Rocker

guitarfishbay said:

Didn't have an operation, just lots of physio starting with a really low resistance rubber band.  Took a while.  I'd see if you can see a physio first and get a proper assessment.

My story too.  I agree with everything you said about seeing a physio first.

Kebabkid

Rocker said:

guitarfishbay said:

Didn't have an operation, just lots of physio starting with a really low resistance rubber band.  Took a while.  I'd see if you can see a physio first and get a proper assessment.

My story too.  I agree with everything you said about seeing a physio first.

Obviously, I need to get my results but that would be my preferred route and going under the knife is a last resort for me.

Years ago I had RSI in both hands. The sadistic surgeon wanted to operate on them at the same time almost like some "2 For One" thing to which I responded "And how do you propose I wipe my backside"? Anyway, I had the op on just one of them and that didn't go so well (recovery period was unusually long - it took me out of playing live for 14mths - and it's still not quite right). Learning from that, I pushed for ultrasound and physio on the other one and that worked and all's absolutely fine there.

musteatbrain

I injured my rotator cuff in October 15 and have just had my last Physio session this week. I've learnt a lot about posture and it has been a painful process. unless you had a sudden injury to your shoulder there is a good chance your shoulder pain is a symptom of a problem elsewhere that needs fixing. 

TimmyO

Kebabkid said:

Does anyone suffer from this or has anyone had treatment or an op?

Looks like that's where I'm at with my left arm and it seems to have developed or come to the fore ever since I shifted from guitar to playing more bass in the last 2 years.

Bloody cartilage in my left knee has also gone and majorly pissed off.

Anyway, I'd just be interested in hearing from anyone on the subject issue and what they did, recovery period after op etc?

Cheers

Protecting your rotator cuff is about the smaller, supporting muscles.

There's an exercise that is good for rehabilitating them/helping prevent further injury : the L-flye

http://imbodybuilding.com/articles/shatter-proof-shoulders/