I think both of mine are toast:

I can't sleep om my side.

I can't hold either hand over my head for any time at all.

They just f'ing hurt all the time.

So, has anybody had orthoscopic surgery for this?

Did it work?

Thanks

I have a torn rotator on the right side.
I did not have surgery. The orthopedist recommended physical therapy. He said that even with surgery, muscle is not like bone and will not completely mend. My tear may not be as severe as yours, and you may require surgery to heal. It has been 2 years, and I am about 75% back. It has been 2 years, and if I sleep the wrong way my shoulder will be sore for a week or two.
This is what has worked for me. Buy a lot of pillows. The only way to sleep comfortably and not aggravate your shoulder is to take your body weight off of the joint. I put two or three pillows under my head and leave a space for my arm and shoulder, then I put several pillows in front of my chest that I can lean on. You will need to find out what arrangement works for you, but keep the weight of your body off of your shoulder while you sleep. You will have to do a lot of exercises to strengthen the muscles. Go see a doctor and be prepared to bend over when they prescribe Celebrex.
I am sure that I have not covered everything. If you have anymore questions or want to ask anything else, just e-mail me.

Good luck.

ARH

In my right shoulder had to repair bankart lesion. A little worse than your situation.

Left shoulder , phys. therapy took care of it. Still weak...

I felt a sharp pain in the middle of a 205lb military press. I'm not sure if I tore mine or just strained it but I was put out of commission for a week and avoided any overhead stuff for a month.


This is a very common problem for weight lifters.  They gain muscle strength in their arms and shoulders, but never work their rotator cuffs directly.  This often results in injury from either a sudden "snap" during a heavy lift, or a chronic, degenerative pain from years of unbalanced muscle development.

I recommend working in just 2-3 sets of 10 of specific rotator cuff exercises on your shoulder day.  There are several variations.  Baseball teams usually do a lot of them.  

I usually take a light dumbell(5-20lbs), hold it across my chsst while standing, so the dumbell is in front of the opposite shoulder, palm facing down, elbow at 90 degrees.  Kind of like the beginning of a "Nazi salute".  Then, I rotate at the shoulder so my forearm is pointing up.  And lower slowly.  This is just one example.  Using cables works well too.


-Good luck

I've strained or had strained for me my right rotator cuff a couple of times. Two years ago I seperated my shoulder (2nd degree AC seperation) and that also zapped my rotator cuff. The shoulder seperation was by far the harder of the two to rehab. Luckily it was only a second degree seperation, so no surgery was required. It took over a year of physical therapy to get it back to where I could do scoop pushups and arm rotations without pain. It still is a bit uncomfortable to sleep on my right side. Long, slow physical therapy is the way to go, but you got to be patient. I also found that Glucosamine and Chondritin work well. I started taking them for me knees, and they helped a lot. I also notice a difference when I started taking them again regularly after my shoulder injury.