My hubby had a small, full-thickness tear in his rotator cuff that was repaired arthroscopically last Monday. He took the sling off that they put him in that evening and has been improving fairly rapidly, easing off the pain meds to just ibuprofin now, 9 days later. He's been moving it gently around but not lifting anything.

He went in for a follow-up appt and to get the staples out, and the doc bitched him up big-time for not keeping his arm in the sling full-time. Doc said it has to stay completely immobile for 4 weeks. I always though gentle motion would prevent lock-up of the joint and scar tissue build-up. Is keeping this thing immoble really the right answer? It was described as a small tear, he kept going with pain for 6 months before getting it worked on, so it wasn't a huge, emergency-type thing. But the doc says it's only held together with thread, if he moves it, it could blow up and have to be redone.

Anyone got past experience? Doc Mark - your advice?