Anyone suffer from bursitis?

[penguinsfan]

I developed bursitis in my left shoulder, about 5 years ago actually. I got physical therapy for it and it only got WORSE and I used to work in a therapy clinic so I am a big believer in therapy before scapels.

I got busy with work and life and didn't pursue a second opinion. Day to day, my bursitis does not bother me much, but it kills me during anaerobic resistance training, which I why I'm posted in S&P. If I bench press, 170 lbs is the limit---anything beyond that is extremely painful for the shoulder. If I do pushups, my shoulder is in pain at 17 reps, like clockwork.

Now that I've decided to study MMA, the bursitis is causing some minor pain again and I can tell it would be major pain if I did appropriate strength training. I would like to get back to the weightroom, or at least some form of resistance training. I'm wondering if surgery is my only option. I've heard rotator cuff injuries like bursitis require surgical procedures with sometimes a full year of painful rehab and there is no guarantee it'll ever be better. I hate the thought of all those problems, but if I can't whip the bursitis, my MMA will always be limited and I'm not going to get very strong.

Anyone go through this and have any thoughts?

 

[Donut62]

Youngstown State or Pittsburgh?

 

[penguinsfan]

Pittsburgh, where names like Lemeiux and Crosby are what Gracie and Couture are to Sherdog followers. :icon_chee

 

[Lorenz]

Hail Mario!

 

[oxcart]

I've had bursitis in both shoulders, more than once. Haven't needed any surgery - but I'm sure my cases were relatively mild. In my experience (and that's all it is - not a recommendation or anything) ultrasound is the best treatment. Amazingly so.

 

[Monger]

I got busy with work and life and didn't pursue a second opinion

Who gave you the first opinion? A therapist? If you haven't gone to an orthopedic surgeon, you need too.

I've heard rotator cuff injuries like bursitis require surgical procedures with sometimes a full year of painful rehab and there is no guarantee it'll ever be better.

Bursitis is not a rotator cuff injury. It's inflammation of the bursa sac. That's to say that you can't have other injuries as well, such as a tear in your rotator cuff... but they are not one in the same. I also believe that surgery for bursitis is fairly rare. An orthopedic surgeon can prescribe you an anti-inflammatory or give you cortisone shot to use in conjunction with therapy. Worse case scenario is that they may drain the bursa sac of excess fluid with a syringe. That would probably be done right in the doctor's office. The real question is this... Is bursitis your only problem? Many times, bursitis can be caused by another underlying injury.

Also, I've had plenty of surgeries on my shoulders and I can tell you that a surgery to fix a rotator cuff won't take a full year of "painful" rehab to recover. I was normally pain free with in maybe 2-3 months of therapy and back doing normal training in 4 months.

 

[BlondeWarrior]

I've had it in my hip. It sucks and it takes time to recover. In the meantime, you should work on taking some ibuprofen to work through the pain since the pain is caused by an inflammation. The burcitis that I had was caused from a pull/fall and ended up healing on its own. Have you given yourself any time off to heal?