Hi all,
In September of 2018 I had rotator cuff repair surgery. At the time the surgeon told my husband that I had extreme arthritis for someone my age (I was 41 at the time) and that he scraped some of it out (he has since told me that the amount of arthritis I have is what he would expect to find in a 60 year old).
It's been 11 months now and I have had very little relief from the pain. It seemed like I recovered from the surgery and the pain was getting better (although it never went away completely) but then it started to get progressively worse again. My doctor sent me for another mri two months ago to make sure I didn't retear my rotator cuff (I didn't). He's given me anti-inflammatories, steroid injections (which help somewhat, but don't last very long at all) and I've done physical therapy. Nothing seems to help.
He's very reluctantly agreed to do a complete shoulder replacement, not because I don't need it, but because of how young I am (I will be the youngest patient he has performed this surgery on at 42 and he previously told me he wanted me to wait until I am 50). There is nothing else he can suggest that will eliminate/alleviate the pain I am experiencing.
So I guess my question is two fold...
1 - could the scraping out the arthritis during the first surgery be responsible for the pain I am in now? The timing seems very odd that I would start suffering from the arthritis immediately after rotator cuff surgery (unless I was in pain from the arthritis unknowingly while my rotator cuff was torn).
2 - I really do not want to continue to live with this pain, it's affecting so much of my life (what I can do with my kids, quality of sleep, etc) and I am in constant pain, but I am very worried about doing this at such a young age. I understand I will most likely have to have the surgery again in the future because I am so young, but I just don't see the point in living with this pain for another 8 years first.
Also, I'm not sure it's relevant, but just in case - I also have spinal stenosis (around c4 if I recall correctly). I only discovered this because i have been experiencing numbness in my hands since the rotator cuff repair. The timing on that also seems odd to me since I never experienced that prior to the surgery.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Stacey