It really is all going wrong.....

[T40ORA]

Had an ultrasound scan on both shoulders today.

The long and the short of it is that in the shoulder that I thought was relatively sound (the other one has resulted in a separated long head proximal bicep tendon)the radiologist tells me that it looks like I have a complete tear of both the infraspinitus tendon AND the supraspinitus tendon.

I'm not happy as you can imagine - but as I have only just returned home I haven't had time to research on the net, or speak to a consultant.

What does this mean? Is my shoulder totally FUBAR? Will it degenerate further? As I have absolutely no idea when these separations occurred, are they repairable?

Any information that can be shed will be gratefully received. I think :-(

Also I have a huge worry as to why this is happening. Is there some known condition, whereby ones tendons and associated material deteriorate rapidly? I have had both knee cartilages trimmed, both shoulders repaired, a hip replacement and now a snapped bicep tendon, infraspinitus tendon and supraspinitus tendon.

Edited because I need to manage this proactively too.

Edited by T40ORA on Monday 29th October 17:42

[goldblum]

Have you had your blood tested to see if there's anything else happening?

[T40ORA]

goldblum said:

Have you had your blood tested to see if there's anything else happening?

Not for a few years. I've been under the knife three times in the last three years, so I guess standard tests have been done.

Might be worth a chat with the GP. But I still don't know what could be causing it.....

[Lgeni1664]

Do you do loads of high impact excercise?

[T40ORA]

Lgeni1664 said:

Do you do loads of high impact excercise?

Not really. I mostly lift weights in a controlled manner, and quite light. Both shoulders have suffered skiing impact injuries, and both have been repaired - supposedly successfully. The infraspinatus and supraspinatus damage is weird though, as I haven't had any significant pain since my repair in December 2010.

[goldblum]

How did you do your hip? Skiing?

[T40ORA]

goldblum said:

How did you do your hip? Skiing?

The hip was just wear and tear; very arthritic. The other hips seems fine, at least at the last X-ray earlier this year.

I guess that there may be some congenital aspect to all this, but who the hell knows. Medicine is such a bloody imprecise science that most of it is guesswork. I take glucosamine and chondroitin, and I'll add MSM to that too.

[goldblum]

No proof either of those work. How old are you?

[T40ORA]

goldblum said:

No proof either of those work. How old are you?

52. Fit and healthy - haha, what am I saying! Obviously not that healthy....

Possibly it is due to 30 years of training poorly, working through pain and not knowing what damage I was doing. The wear in the shoulders is exacerbated by dodgy shoulder movement. Scapula setting exercises are underway big time.

Not sure if I can have the supra and infra spinitus' repaired as it may well be over a year since they were snapped.....

[BlackVanDyke]

Do you have anything that suggests dodgy connective tissue? Scar easily or bigger scars than you'd expect for the injury? Loadsa strains and sprains? Turn your ankle over often?

[mattnunn]

If it doesn't hurt and you have full use of your shoulder don't let them operate on you.

[T40ORA]

BlackVanDyke said:

Do you have anything that suggests dodgy connective tissue? Scar easily or bigger scars than you'd expect for the injury? Loadsa strains and sprains? Turn your ankle over often?

No. I actually heal really easily, and the scars I have are really neat and tidy.

mattnunn said:

If it doesn't hurt and you have full use of your shoulder don't let them operate on you.

I am rather of that opinion. My main worry is what issues I will get further down the line. I expect/hope to live an active and healthy life past my centenary (optimistic maybe, you a man has to have a plan!) and I don't want to suffer inoperative shoulders because I chose to avoid the knife now.

My chiro is very anti knife too.