Question - Rotator Cuff (decreased pain before surgery)

Sounds like by the time you get this, I would have already had my surgery, but I would still like to know the answer. I'm a massage therapist and have been for 21 yrs. I have also been an avid weightlifter for 24 yrs. along with swimming between all this for about 16yrs. I'm 41 yrs. old now.

I remember having shoulder pain and pain going down my arm for about 2-3 yrs. now. Notthing set off my problem....just years of abuse. I finally went to an orthopedist 2 weeks ago. He gave me a x-ray and it showed I had a hooked acromion.

Oh, i guess I should mention, it got to the point I could not do my full workout in the gym. My right arm was sooo much weaker anytime I tried to go heavy. I got a sharp pain down my arm to where i couldn't even bring dumbells up to do flat chest press or shoulder dumbell presses. I also had all the signs you mentioned .....could't lift my arm to comb my hair, wakes me up when I sleep...can't throw normally etc.

Anyway, I got a M.R.I and it did show what my guy said was a partial tear "at least" I had alot of fluid in there and major impingement. He said he won't know how bad the tear is until he gets in there. I have quit lifting and have noticed my pain in my arm and range of motion ( lifting my arm out to the side, up over my head) is actually better and the pain is hardly even there.
I'm still doing massages...that doesn't seem to affect it too much.

My question is... I know the M.R.I showed a tear (tears) ...plus my hooked acromion...why is my pain gone that I had 1 week and a half ago...extreme pain raising my arm...getting dressed you know, putting a shirt over my head ect. Could you have tears and not have the pain???? I'm not taking any ibuprofen pills of any kind . Especailly now.

I'm having surgery Sept. 30th. How can it be that I have all this stuff with my shoulder and the pain is getting better?? my left arm is actually more painful than my right arm now. I don't have the hooked acromion in that shoulder. I haven't gotten an M.R.I on that one yet.

It does have severe impingement issues. They are going to try to fix my left one with p.t.

Sorry, I got off track....... As i'm typing this I'm moving my right arm every which way and I have little or no pain.... like I said before, I know the M.R.I. showed tears....my Doc. showed me. I'm just 2nd guessing the surgery because I have less pain.

I did go do a small shoulder workout with weights just to test it..if I put resistance on it... It did produce shooting pains down my arm. Maybe my tear only shows up when I put resistance on it and just "free" moving it with body weight doesn't effect it anymore????? I know it used to....bad. It doesn't make sense to me.

Like I said earlier, By the time you get this I would have already had my surgery, I just wanted to see if you could explain it. I had one friend said that even if I had full tears many of them because there are so many tendons that support the rotator cuff I could still get by with hardly any pain because the other tendons make up for it??? is this true?????

thanks for you time!!!!!!!

Tina Tilghman