I am also a 20 year cancer survivor as well as a long time medical professional (talk about terrifying!) who has to read this stuff all the time in my line of work.
What I’ve learned in my almost 40 year career is that
these things can be interpreted differently by different doctors and the plan of care for each individual patient is unique based on their own circumstances. That’s why second, and sometimes third, opinions are a good thing. With my cancer, for instance, I was given several choices for surgery and I had to choose which one worked best for me. Each of the doctors I saw offered something different based on the same results they saw on my testing. I must’ve picked correctly as I’m still here.
I also don’t always buy this “runaround” business. There’s are reasons for things happening the way they happen. Is it a perfect system? Of course not. And I have personally experienced that with myself and family members, believe me. But medicine is not an exact science - it’s an art, as well, often in as much as in an approach to things.
Surgeons are surgeons - they operate. When one tells you they want to try conservative treatment first, then believe them. There’s an immense amount of information that they understand best when they make that recommendation. I once wound up at a surgeon’s office where I was referred to take out my gallbladder. All of my testing had been negative, but the doctor I was seeing said, “Let’s just take it out”. This surgeon, who I knew and respected, said no, he wouldn’t do it, and explained his reasons. I later found out I had biliary colic from a medication I’d been prescribed. He was right and I was always thankful to him for that.
Btw I have never looked at my own patient portal where I work for my own results because that’s what I hire a really good doctor to do for me. I learned during my own cancer experience that the written word can often be worse than the actual interpretation (for a whole lot of reasons). We need that interpretation by an experienced practitioner to apply what we’re seeing to US. I often said that after my breast cancer treatment was finished I wanted to take all the books I’d studied and burn them in my driveway in a massive fire pit. On the one hand, I had to educate myself and hear various thoughts and experiences on the matter; on the other hand, I had myself dead and buried because of those books. So, IMO, they’re both a blessing and a curse. I always felt so much better when I talked to my oncologist.
So not a doctor and more just curious since AI has been discussed a lot in my house recently. I took the text from the original post and asked ChatGPT: Here is a reading from a shoulder MRI. What does it mean?
Here is what it had to say (fascinating to me):
This MRI report indicates several issues within your shoulder:
- Supraspinatus Tear: There's a tear in the tendon at the top of your shoulder (supraspinatus). It's on the upper surface and measures around 1.9 x 8 mm. This could potentially cause pain and limited movement.
- Infraspinatus Tear: Another tear is found in the tendon of the muscle at the back of the shoulder (infraspinatus). This tear is larger, around 2.3 cm, and extends to where the tendon attaches. Scar tissue is present, indicating some healing.
- Subscapularis Tendinosis: The tendon of the muscle at the front of the shoulder (subscapularis) shows signs of mild wear and degeneration but no tear.
- Acromioclavicular Joint Degeneration: The joint where the collarbone meets the shoulder blade (acromioclavicular joint) has moderate degeneration. This might cause pain and limited movement.
- Humeral Head Articular Cartilage Degeneration: There's moderate cartilage degeneration on the upper arm bone's joint surface, which might cause discomfort and restricted movement.
- Biceps Tendon Issues: Mild inflammation (tenosynovitis) and wear (tendinosis) of the biceps tendon are observed. This might contribute to pain and limited range of motion.
The tears in the tendons, along with the degeneration of various joints and cartilage, could cause pain, reduced mobility, and potentially impact daily activities. Treatment might involve physical therapy, medication for pain and inflammation, and in some cases, surgery. It's crucial to discuss these findings with a specialist to determine the best course of action for your specific situation.
Haha this is great! And pretty much what I said.
OP, I haven’t had a chance to post but what I would ask the surgeon you see is whether a surgery will completely rid you of pain, or to what degree would it help. What I would be worried about myself would be whether I’d still have pain after the surgery due to the degeneration of the other structures in the area (and on the other shoulder). If he says it will make you feel a lot better than you have your answer. It sounds like you want to have surgery.
Just one last word about weight loss that everyone seems to get so upset about. (Yup, sticking my neck out here for the slaughter!) We tend to personalize when a doctor tells us that weight loss will help an issue. “They told me I’m fat and blew me off.” (Not attributing that to anyone specifically, just a general statement I often see.) But weight loss
will often help an issue, from a physical standpoint. Try not to personalize it as an insult. We see a lot of people here say their doctors never mention their weight. Probably for that same reason, they don’t want to upset anyone. But it is just one bit of the puzzle that can be part of a treatment plan. Just saying. (And not insulting anyone!)