Torn Rotator Cuff

I am sitting here with three friends all of whom think they have torn rotator cuffs. Any comments I can pass along to them? They've asked me to share this thread with them and appreciate your help.

 

YES, it's tms. I had it in both shoulders for over twenty years. When I stopped fearing the pain or focusing on my body and the movements of the shoulders they healed. I journaled about my tensive thoughts and used awareness in not reacting to triggers that set me off unconsciously and then two months later, both shoulders healed. I can do whatever I like with my shoulders now.

 

A few years ago I had what I was diagnosed by Kaiser-Permanente as a completely torn superspinatus. Here's a Wiki entry on the condition:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotator_cuff_tear

The diagnosis was based on the results of an MRI that was performed without any range of motion study. The old railroading ploy: Move from an MRI directly to orthopedic surgery. Next!

However, I thought I would check first with my old family physician, who wasn't just a GP, but also a world-renowned senior internist and lead man on the floor at Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, California. After he put me through a full range of motion studies (his standard protocol), he stated unequivocally that my rotator cuff was not completely torn because I could hold my affected arm out in front of me at a right angle. With a complete tear, I wouldn't be able to do that. However, Kaiser was ready to operate on an interpretation of an MRI without any direct observation how my shoulder was actually operating. My old MD told me that in about 6 weeks it wouldn't hurt nearly as much.

Sure enough, he was right and now my left shoulder where I had the tear is completely healed, stronger even than my dominant right shoulder. IOWs: Those rotator cuff surgeries are being performed on a mass assembly line basis. Seems like a clear violation of the Hippocratic oath about "doing no harm" to a patient since those muscles take forever to heal up after surgery. They don't mention that of course in the large print. There's also the danger of nasty little side-effects - like a stroke - in any invasive surgical procedure that the orthopedic surgeons tend to minimize.

In any event, I'm glad I sought the seasoned second opinion of someone with 50 years experience in these matters. It's like my old M.D. said: "I don't know about that operation, but if I were you, I sure wouldn't go and get it". I think the medical system just catches you when you're in pain and railroads you down the path to surgery in the wink of an eye, whereas if you just waited a few weeks, the pain would subside and surgery wouldn't seem to be such a nice option.

And yes I completely agree with Herbie: most rotator cuff tears are TMS pure and simple. Now that I look back, I see that I got the rotator cuff tear at the same time I was experiencing a lot of stress in my life and also just after I had beaten myself into a lather finishing a book. What's that Steve Ozanich calls that scenario, The Calm after the Storm TMS? Easy to see this stuff in hindsight though. At the time, all you want is relief so you go to the conventional doctors and believe whatever they say.

 

Thanks so much, guys. I've been putting up with this rotator cuff stuff from my near and dear for way too long and having 3 in the same room with me was just too much! I've had shoulder pain for 6 weeks or so (and known it was TMS) so sounds lucky I don't go to see doctors a whole lot.

 

Wish I'd never gone down that path at Kaiser, but my mother brought me up to be a "good boy" and believe whatever authority figures told me. Mistake! Should have toughed it out and just done a bunch of shoulder exercises with little 3 pound dumb bells after the pain went down.

 

I had never even heard of rotator cuff tears until I read Dr Sarno's books. Then all of a sudden I notice everyone is 'coming down' with this ailment. I believe a relative of mine had surgery for this. My mother was then diagnosed with a tear in one arm, started to use the other arm a lot more and eventually declared, without any medical investigation, that she had a tear in the second arm.

I'm like njoy. I don't go to the doctor unless I really really have to.

 

It's come up recently, maybe try a search under "frozen shoulder", I responded to someone recently with my experiences.

Misery loves company, TMS symptom du jour. Used to be ulcers, backs, migraines, plantar fascitis--TMS symptoms are like fashions, one comes into style and another goes out, no longer being cool, everyone's got it, "My pain is different--and more exclusive then yours." "I've got the best surgeon, he does pro-athletes." BMW's were in, now it's Audis. TMS pain symps go in and out of vogue--everything old is new again.

We're indeed fortunate to know about TMS and have the boards to keep us current on the latest-greatest psychosomatic symps.

 

My father used to complain he had lumbago. In the 1930s and 1940s that's what doctors called lower back pain.
You never hear the word anymore. He didn't know it back then, and I didn't know it until two years ago when
I learned about TMS, but his back pain was from emotional issues, not physical. His issues were financial stress
which led to marital stress and eventually to my mom divorcing him. They got back together a year later but
it was all very stressful for us all.

Tennis Tom calls it the TMS symptom du jour. I love it!

My dad seldom laughed. Nor did my mother, who also had migraine headaches from the same stresses.
If they laughed at home my older sister and brother might have thought they were bonkers,
but now I know it would have helped us all.

 

At least rotator cuff tears don't seem to be as popular as sore hips. It seems everyone over 50 who complains about hip pain is now given an MRI and told they have moderate to severe arthritic changes in their hip joints. This seems to account for the growing popularity of hip replacement surgery among otherwise health individuals.

I do know a woman who's had rotator cuff surgery, first on the left shoulder, then, a couple of years later, on the right. However, I also notice that this is the same woman who has had "back problems" for the last 30 years. Each winter she goes to chiropractors and massage therapists as part of her regular "tune up" routine during the off season. I did notice that she mentioned that her back complaints began in graduate school when she was researching her Ph.D. dissertation in biochemistry as part of a plan to escape the poverty of her huge Italian migrant family. Equipped with TMS knowledge, I now see that her whole pattern of migrating aches and pains is quintessential TMS. First, she put tremendous pressure on herself to excel in a field that would make her enough money to escape her family. Now, as she approaches retirement (working home alone, no longer in the lab with her peers), the same pressures are resurfacing.

It makes you wonder, doesn't it, whether these rotator cuff surgeries and hip and knee replacements are all part of a huge epidemic of PPDs (psycho-physiological disorders) sweeping the developed world? The thought certainly occurred to Dr. Sarno!