Full thickness tear to supraspinatus tendon

After various visits now to the hospital, and numerous hold ups on their part, it seems I have a full thickness tear to my supraspinatus tendon, and the bicep tendon has some damage to it as well. The consultant I saw last week said that I will need surgery to repair both tendons, but what I am really worried about, is as the scan results he was working with are over 4 months old, and I have been in pain for over a year now, (which has got progressively worse) so I know the tear I have is definately more than 4 months old. I am now starting to experience, more pain in my upper arm and considerably more weakness, and I am worried that the tear in the tendon, may now be beyond repair. I can't get any answers to my questions from the hospital, and as I will be moving out of the area, all they will do is provide me with a cd of the scan and copies of my notes, for my new doctors to deal with.

I just wondered if anyone out there knows what would happen, if it turns out that the tendon damage is beyond repair, the pain I am in, is severe, and I can't face having to live with it for the rest of my life.

Hi Magzy01...first of, don't worry! We have all seen some pretty bad shoulders...at your age, i do not think yours would be beyond repair (that is an uneducated opinion though :)! )

In fact, we have all seen shoulders that have a full thickness tear and biceps tendon damage which do well without surgery...it depends on what you plan to do with your shoulder.

Your body is very good at dealing with pain - in all likelihood, you won't have this pain this bad forever...a bit of hard work, some rehab, perhaps surgery if required and you will likely have a functional shoulder again.