Understand the Phases of Rotator Cuff Surgery Recovery and Healing

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 Surgery

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 tips to follow that will speed up your rotator cuff surgery recovery right after the operation, which are imperative in the later stages, include:

-Ease your pain by taking your pain medications as soon as you feel pain in your shoulder.

* Try different combinations of pain and anti-inflammation medicines under the guidance of your doctor.

* Place an ice bag over your shoulder so as to lessen the pain and speed up healing.

* When sleeping, sleep in a semi-seated position with your elbows pointing down.

Phases of Recovery

Be aware that the stages of rotator cuff surgery recovery will be different for each person in regards to the time it takes to get from one stage to the other. Therefore, it is best to follow your personalized rehabilitation regimen.

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.

The second stage of your recovery involves you moving your arm on your own however; you should not be moving it against any resistance at all. This is what is known as the active motion stage that can go on up to 12 weeks from the time of your operation.

For the third phase, also called the strengthening period, you will focus on doing isolation exercises to provide strength to muscles that have been rendered weak due to inactivity. This is the most important phase in rotator cuff surgery recovery since full muscle function can be returned once this step is successfully done.

Throughout stage four, you can go back to using your shoulders as you always would. Certainly many things affect this stage that can go on up to 6 months after the operation and you will still have to follow the advice of your physician about going back to your old physical activities.

Lastly, your devotion to rehabilitation, the extent and location of the rotator cuff tear and your physical condition will determine how quickly you will recover from rotator cuff surgery.

Tom Nicholson spends his time caring for carpal tunnel sufferers. Please follow this link to find out more regardingrotator cuff surgery recovery.

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