torn supraspinatus

Sadly, I have a full or nearly full tear of my supraspinatus due to a mountain biking crash (it's dangerous...stick to climbing!) at the age of 52. It's been a few months and the PT has helped - no daily pain with most normal (non-climbing) activities, but any kind of pressure on the shoulder with the arm overhead and out of line with the body is a no go.

My doc is hesitant on the surgery, especially with a goal of steep climbing again, as she's seen a lot of re-injuries. As it is, I can putter around on 5.10, but cannot push (pull?) myself on anything harder.  Needless to say, I want to keep climbing at the highest level I can.

I'm not looking for medical advice (I have a great doctor for that), but more long-term experiences both with and without surgery.  

I'll copypaste my response from the locked thread so that anyone using the search function later might find the info easier.

I had a torn infraspinatus (not supra) when I tore my labrum and biceps tendon (dyno off of a gaston) and needed surgery repair in July 2021 for all of it. Started easy gym climbing again ~4 months most op, still have to do a lot of prehab but if I do ~20 minutes of shoulder work 2-3x/ week I don’t feel at risk of re-injury. That includes external/internal rotations w/dumbbells and bands, overhead press, one-arm hanging rotations and weighted scap pulls/shrugs, and bandwork/stretches. 

There’s a bunch of scar tissue in there that will always make that shoulder feel stiffer and fatigue more acutely with repetitive motion (I can’t drive with only that arm on top the steering wheel, for example, my shoulder is on fire within 10-15 minutes of making those micro adjustments), but as for climbing I basically don’t have to think about it at this point. 

I was 32yo when I had the surgery, btw, I imagine ymmv with age.

I'm just a med student so take everything I saw with a grain of salt since I am not practically knowledgeable, just book knowledgeable, but theoretically the supraspinatus should be quite a bit less involved in climbing than your infraspinatus.  Your supraspinatus is primarily used for reaching directly over your head, not the action of pulling your arm back down (like a pullup motion).  Obviously there's going to be pressure on it since its in the rotator cuff but maybe its not quite as important. We're taught that because of its smaller attachments it definitely is more likely to get reinjured than the infraspinatus, but probably less likely to reinjure it climbing than mountain biking?

Thanks for the input Brennan. The role of the supraspinatus as it's impacting me was explained to me as: 

the supraspinatus plays a vital role in stabilizing the shoulder joint during pulling activities. It keeps the head of the humerus (upper arm bone) properly positioned in the shoulder socket

And that mirrors what I feel. When pulling hard (especially at an angle not directly inline with the body or if my shoulder rides up at all) it feels like the humerus is going to pop through the top of my shoulder. Very disconcerting! 

I'm hoping with a bunch of PT and strengthening that I'll be able to compensate. Yesterday's PT session was the first time I felt like I might be able to climb hard again at some point without surgery.  So...progress!

Longitudinal supraspinatus tear end Feb 2023 (i was on levofloxacin which weakens tendons - I didn't know). I had a trip to Margalef all booked so went anyway - stupidly -  and while I started the trip OK by the end I was so weak I was projecting the warm-ups. Got an MRI and Dr said longitudinal tear was not operable so I did focused PT for a couple months and light climbing for a couple months and by the end of summer 2023 was back to doing easy 12s. The PT I used treats a lot of college baseball pitchers/Tommy Johns rehab so more vigorous and progressive (rather than the EZ bands style PT). I kept some of the PT exercises as part of my normal gym workout and so far no problems (well, in that area!). Shoulder presses feel a little weird still but no climbing issues. 

MRI showed supraspinatus partial thickness tear in my left shoulder after a hard fall on ice while trail running New Year's Eve 2023. It definitely sucked. Fortunately ortho said no surgery recommended. I was climbing fairly hard within 6 weeks, doing PT and strengthening exercises as well. A year out things are okay, but it's hard to separate long term impacts from an acute injury versus overall age (I'm 60). For all climbers, as a general rule, if you want to keep climbing hard past 50, I  recommend watching out for your shoulders over everything else combined. Nothing else will be as debilitating, as difficult to heal, or just annoying as weak, injured shoulders. Older climbers might want to seriously consider stepping away from activities where falling to the ground is typical such as biking, snow sports, and trail running, to name a few, or at least dial back the commitment factor. Obviously bouldering can be problematic for numerous reasons, especially dynamic problems where hard landings on one arm are common both while climbing and when hitting the pads..

2012, 5 tendons in the left rotator cuff, then 6 months later, 4 in the left, including the supraspinatus, which were surgecially repaired. I made the mistake of waiting 3 years to do a repair, but they all seemed fine. Got a lot of routes in and have done PT for it the entire time with a few exceptions as I will note here. Fast forward 10 years and as covid was ending and I was 10 lbs heavier, I got out after a long hiatus of not climbing or doing anything (including PT as the gyms were closed and I was lazy) during the pandemic. Ripped 3 tendons in the right shoulder first time back out. MRI showed that the supraspinatus was fully torn off the shoulder attachment point. Orthopedic said unable to repair for 3 reasons. 

1st) - Age- (70 now, turn 71 this year). 

2nd ) Previous repair (2nd repair is usually probmatical and more easily torn)

3rd) Extensive and serious arthritus.

It was semi-managable until last September.  In fact, the arthritus did me in when I was in Yosemite last Sept and seriously ripped the already torn tendons when my right knee refused to bend enough to get on a hold so I used the left foot and in so doing overweighted my hands -thus tearing the already torn shoulder tendons. 

Now I have daily pain, difficuly sleeping and will often wake up at odd times in excruciating shoulder pain. It hurts in the morning, it hurts all day, it hurts at night and it hurts when I'm sleeping. It just fuc***ing hurts.  I rub diclofenac on it and also have an appointment for a steroid shot later this month. My climbing grades have dropped dramatically lower than they already were:-), I haven't gym climbed for a long while and it's not as much fun when I do get out, but I like to get out anyway and lap a local 5.7 multipitch. 

I'm not complaining, it's great to be on this side of the dirt for a while yet. 

Get the surgery.  If you're surgeon is good, it'll last a long time.