impingement syndrome, rotator cuff (NOT a tear)

I would love to get some information from a climber(s) who has undergone arthroscopic surgery for impingement syndrome of the rotator cuff. Specifically I had bursitis that was cleaned and scraped. It ended up that I also had a considerably large bone spur that was shaved. My surgeon is affiliated with one of Pittsburgh’s leading sports medicine teams and he was well aware of my lifestyle and was extremely confident that I would I would recover 100%.
After 25 years of climbing several times a week and all year round (and playing competitive tennis) I ended up with chronic pain in my shoulder. Simple tasks like lifting a gallon of milk, reaching back to put my seatbelt on, trying to wash my opposite shoulder in the shower, getting my backpack on, etc. were painful. Last fall, after returning from a 2 month cross country climbing trip, I could no longer climb through the pain.
I stopped climbing all together and began several months of rehab 3x a week and also got a couple cortisone shots. As soon as I resumed climbing at a moderate level the pain returned and my surgeon recommended the surgery.
I had surgery on February 1st and the surgeon was very pleased with how things went. Following his orders, I did not climb at all for the first three months and did PT religiously (2 hours 3x a week). During those initial three months, the pain was subsiding daily and I had regained nearly full range of motion. My surgeon, claimed that my recovery was going as well as he had ever seen and that I could start climbing gently. He told me that within 4-6 weeks of strategically increasing my duration and intensity, that I would be able to resume normal training and climbing.
Again I followed his orders exactly. After two months of gradually increasing volume and intensity, I tried to edge closer to normal intensity (probably 80-90%). After the increase, the pain has returned. When I called him, he told me that some pain and soreness is to be expected and that it was ok to continue to climb and train through that. However, he did say that I should also “let pain be my guide.”
So I am trying to figure out a best strategy for rehab, with what seems to me to be absolutely contradicting positions.
If I have to abstain completely for another few weeks or even months to reach pain free status, I would do that. However, if the present activity and soreness is not going to impede my eventual recovery, then I will keep climbing (reducing volume and intensity) and deal with the soreness. I plan to continue the PT regardless of whether I back off the climbing or not.
Like I said at the start, I am looking for a climber that has gone through all this and would love some in-sight.

I have been through it. I am sure every case is different, so my story may be very different from how yours goes. I had adhesive capsulitis, bursitis, involved bicep tendon, and partial rotator tear. The surgery included removal of bursa, acromion ground down, capsular release (shredded interior cleaned out), and bicep tendonesis. Rotator cuff was not repaired. They felt it was minor enough to respond to post surgical rehab.

For me, the biggest thing was having to learn how to to hold myself back from pushing too hard too fast. Having been through tremendous pain for around a year prior to surgery, my pain threshold was very high, and I am not so sure that the doctor really understood how much pain he was recommending pushing through or whether he really knew climbing. So, I had to learn from my own longer term rehab experience. And I did push myself too hard and suffer from it.

Very frustrating, but it took a very long time. Every time I pushed too hard, it would flare. Every time I backed off, it would improve. One guide after around 8 weeks of rehab was, if I did anything that made me feel like I needed to ice it, i was doing too much.

I think finding your own tolerable level of "soreness" is good semantics, but if you start calling it "pain" you might be going too far.

The main thing through it all was working to keep the joint mobile, striving for full range movement while avoiding impinging. However had to learn to do so without setting it off again.

In terms of the pain vs soreness and how hard to push, the right PT can guide you. Over the course of the injury, surgery and rehab more than ten PTs worked on me. There are some i won't let touch me again. There are some that are gold. I learned it pays to shop around.

It was 6 months after surgery that I could do my first pull up and started to climb again. Then around two years until it started to feel pretty normal. Then a minor relapse for another year, though I believe it was from a prescription drug "side effect" which caused multiple tendonitisis in various joint areas, along with muscle wasting.

Now, 4-5 years post surgery, I need to keep up the stretchy band routine or it acts up, but it generally feels normal, and push ups and pull ups within reason help. Divebombers are still really hard to not impinge. But, I am no longer constantly afraid of re-injury, overhang climbing etc.

So, at least in my case, it took a lot longer than I wished for, and it taught me a new level of patience, but the shoulder works and is mostly pain free.

Thanks for the reply. It seems that you had quite a bit more going on than i did -i refer especially to the condition of the bicep tendon and the partial tear of the rotator cuff. One piece of information that i left out was that after the surgery he told me that the muscle looked "pristine" (his word). I think that fact put me in the ideal position of recovering on a very fast track. I think that was why i was given the go ahead to begin climbing 3 months after surgery.