It's been several weeks since I started PT in late November, 2010. The exercises are gentle and I was told to not do anything if it hurts. I'm concentrating on squeezing the scapulas during the exercises, and now also while driving or while reaching. I'm still not doing any exercises or activities that hurt or may aggravate it. My desk at work was ergonomically evaluated to allow me to work at the keyboard with good posture.

Nevertheless, I now have referred pain below my elbow, and more tearing-type pain in the front of the shoulder where the humeral head meets the acromion. In addition, I now feel a little more fatigue in this shoulder, and now more mild pain (of the same type) in the other shoulder.

Pain still flares up the day after any exercise sets, no matter how gentle. The ONLY time I have NO pain is if I skip the exercises for 1 or more days.

My PT feels that surgery seems very likely since my symptoms have progressively worsened during the course of PT. My next appt. with the sports ortho doc is late Februrary, and the PT suggested I could continue doing the exercises on my own at home but terminate going to PT for now until rehab begins after surgery, since I am not progressing while continuing to pay $. I'm considering doing just that.

Today I bought the book Treat Your Own Rotator Cuff from Amazon.com to see if the exercises it contains might help. I'll continue the exercises on my own, and include pendulum swings in the mix, hoping for improvement when I return to the doctor in February.

What also makes my head spin is reading that surgery can be avoided through exercises --- so, what do I do but go from one PT to another until something works (if it does)? It seems like there must be something else wrong in addition to the tears, if I am doing exercises designed to improve this but my shoulder only continues to get worse.

I'm 54 and active. I'm wondering if I should give the PT more time to work before considering surgery. How much time is reasonable? When I read stories about someone's pain improving or disappearing after only a few PT sessions, I wonder if I'm doing the wrong exercises, or if my shoulder has issues that won't improve without surgery.