Rotator Cuff Tear – Preparing for your Appointment

Transcript

When preparing for your appointment to evaluate for a rotator cuff tear, it’s really important to pay attention to your symptoms. You want to know is it just pain that’s bothering your shoulder? Or is it pain and weakness? Are you having problems reaching up over your head? Are you having problems sleeping at night? Is the pain keeping you awake? These are all things that you want to pay attention to. Some of the things that you should also notice what makes it better? Does resting it make it better? Does taking anti-inflammatory medications like Ibuprofen, make it better? These are all important things for the doctor to keep in mind when evaluating you. One of the things you want to note also is how long has it been going on for? Did this develop as a result of trauma? Or is it something that has been nagging you for a number of years? All this information is useful in formulating a treatment plan for the patient and it’s usually useful if you think about these things before.