I have questions about an MRI after surgery, can you please help???

I had surgery for a rotator cuff tear in December. Was extremely painful afterwards. More so than before the op. I too had physio but a month ago my movement started to get restricted. My physio said I had a FS. My consultant agreed. I had an X-ray to rule anything else out. Today I am having hydrodilatation procedure on it. Not looking forward to it

Hi,

I sympathise with your predicament as I have found myself in a similar position more than once.

In a nutshell, it sounds like you want to get to the bottomof what's going on, you'd like to verify if there is a tear and if so, get it fixed. There is a route to doing this, but it this stage, it doesn't involve your current surgeon. Let me explain.

If your surgeon has been in and did not see a tear, then they will claim there was no tear. Sadly this sounds like they're putting their reputation before your wellbeing and I'm sorry to say that this is pretty much what each ofthe five surgeons I've seen have done with me at some point or another. This happens a lot with shoulders because they are the most difficult joint to treat - becasue there are so may thigs that can cause problems and the risk of getting it wrong is high.

If you want another MRI scan, you can get one done privately for around £250. However, no surgeon is going to take a scan done at 6 or 7 weeks seriously. You need to wait until between 12 and 16 weeks otherwise you're wasting your money.

Next question is how to get a referral. I've had my Osteopath do this for me. A Chiropractor, an Osteopath or your GP can refer you for an MRI. Only your GP can refer you for an NHS funded MRI, so you can speak with them about this.

Finally, some tears (particularly articular and interstitial tears) are difficult to see both on MRI and in surgery. The way around this is to have a contrast dye injected into the joint before the MRI, this is called an Arthrogram. This makes everything much easier to see as the contrast dye seeps into every gap. However, you're looking at about £550-800 for this privately and many providers of this service insist on a consultant's referral for this - though not all.

I don't know where you're based, but try contacting Vista Diagnostics in Waterloo, London as they do all of this, I have used them myself and are by far the cheapest provider. The likes of Bupa, Nuffield and Spire will charge a lot more.

You can also get a second opinion from another NHS consultant - speak to your GP about this, although this is likely to take longer. You might want to get your own private scan done, then take this along to the second consultant. It's up to you, but I find using the private sector for scans/diagnostics helps speed things up enormously.

Rgds, NICK

Ohh my 😁😝the nurse after my operation told me it was the most painful surgury

I agree with Nick in that it is too soon to have an MRI and that looking to have it done privately is the best option,I spent weeks going to my Dr lots of pain killers until they would refer me and when he did to a rheumatologist that was going to take 3 months min to get a first appointment by going private I had had a consultation scans and blood tests with in week and you cannot argue with the pics when presented the funny thing is if you go private you could meet the same Dr in the NHS

Iam now coming up to 4 weeks after op still in pain but trying to keep the arm moving keep dosed up to max hope all goes well💪

Hi am so sorry about all the trouble you have had. What surgery did they do if they said they didn't repair the tear?  I originally wrote on this site to see what experience other people have had regarding a rotator cuff tear. I have recently decided to have the operation, which is done with key hole surgery they said, as thought it would be better to have it done incase it tore more. Now hearing of yours and other people's experiences am rather worried. I  expect to have pain for a couple of weeks but was told it would be about 6 months before it was back to normal. My tear is not very big and was found on a ultrasound after mentioning to my doctor about my shoulder being painfull  on lifting etc. 

Would it be possible for you to go and have a second opinion with another doctor and explain about your experience.  I think there is also a patient group that you could approach with your concerns about your treatment.

Hope you can get some help soon.

You mentioned that you are here in the U.S. and that a 'hospital charge of 2000'.  I work as an MRI tech and if you go to a private clinic for an MRI or the MRI with Arthroscopic injection it will be much less expensive.   Hospitals always charge about 4 times what the private clinics do, because the clinics are all in competition and that makes the rates better.  I just had my MRI with injection yesterday.  It shows a lot of leakage.  But I am not a radiologist so I have to wait like everyone else to see what the leakage means.  My injury was work related so it's a conflict of interest to have it done where I work and have my radiologist look at it.  I did ask him about the various scenarios and he told me adamantly to avoid surgery at all costs.  The body has a great ability to heal itself given time.  We have seen MANY patients with shoulder problems that have come back after surgery with no relief.  In this, I agree with my radiologist.  But when you are in such pain, you are only thinking about immediate relief, not the long run. I hope I have helped in some small way.  I too have come onto this forum to find the 'real' results of all the treatments out there, and am waiting to see what my specialist will tell me once he gets the results.  

I have had two frozen shoulders. The last one I started physical therapy the day after surgery.  The result, no relief. The big indicator for me was poor ROM. 

Do you have limited range of motion? I understand you had surgery so it won't be 100%. Are your therapists saying that you are where you should be at this point in your recovery? 

I have had the same tendon repaired twice now and recover was 18 mths with physio.  Both times I had a full tear.  I can say recovery was painful and you should take your physio slow so not to risk damaging the repair.  Also I am now suffering a partial tear with another tendon and I have been told that this is stronger than having it repaired.  I am again in pain but my only option is a reversal, but as I am only 50 this is not an option.  Give it time and any improvement is a positive.