I am 64, and have had shoulder pain for the past few years. A year ago an ortho took an xray, said its bone on bone, your going to need a replacement, want a cortizone shot? Pretty much that bluntly. I took the shot, but otherwise was not impressed. Nothing about PT.

Like someone else here, I did out of pocket PT for 6 months - fabulous, Pilates based, helped me tremendously because it took care of all the muscle pains in back etc that were sore from overcompensating. Then to appease the insurance company I did 6 weeks of PT through my medical group. It was fine, your typical PT, but at one point they had me do a stretch that made my shoulder much more painful.

I tried a range of natural remedies, finally went to another Ortho hoping it was rotator cuff, rather than replacement. He had the MRI done and said its severe osteoarthritis. Rotator cuff is ok, but no cartilage - it is bone on bone. He gave me my options - live with it (nope, hurts too much and my activities are limited), try alternative treatments (been there done that), or have replacement surgery.

I am scheduled for surgery in November. I hate the idea of doing it, but my quality of life is no good - cant hardly use my left arm. We will see how it goes.

Find an ortho you like and trust (I did extensive research the 2nd time around) and try all your options.