your not an idiot, you just are not a doc like i am not either. i learned by experience, which IS by the way a VERY good teacher but on the downside, you end up 'learning' by some pretty crappy stuff just happening to you along the way to even GET there,ya know?
just how large was/is that actual tear and in what particular tendon('small' tear is just pretty general and could mean from mms to actual inches depending)? do you have a copy of your own MRI report in your posession? if not, get one just so you have it, but more importantly to read thru it yourself just to see all the possible findings that would be listed in that very end of the report in the 'summary' at the very end? you can obtain a copy either from your primary doc or the actual place where it was done at, even if it was done at the ER the day of injury?
you just DO have the right to obtain your own copies of any and all medical records anytime and also the very crucial test results of any test done on you too. you just really need this in order to find out the very minimum of the extent of injury you had/have and just how extensive in size that actual tear is in what i am just assuming based upon what i mentioned before, would be the most likely torn and given your symptoms, that supraspinatus tendon like i tore in half?
the one huge thing about tears in any tendon or actual damge or even surgical cutting into any muscle is they both have a much more limited blood supply. what this means as far as healing is a more loner time frame since that crucial blood supply is simply NEEDED to heal. tendons have even less real bloodflow than muscle does. i am just really wondering about this actually 'healing' on its own? like i mentioned before,ALOT of how this will heal depends upon many different factors and how large and close togehter the torn edges really were/are together to even ALLOW true solid contact at least long enough to attatch themselves together at all TO heal.
the thing about any level of true tearing within a tendon like what just makes up mostly the top tendons in the rotator cuff is what would be referred to as more of a 'cumulative/repetive' ongoing type of tearing which is exactly what my little tiny tear that would have started MY snapping in half realistically would have started out as? over time anD repetitive use and wear and tear, espescially with what you have to do for your job and the constant straining and impact upon what IS supposed to be healing for you, i just really cannot see how that could actually happen? ESPESCIALLY IF THIS ACTUALLY is THAT VERY TOP TENDON THAT REALLY REALLY GETS OVERLY USED IN MOST OF US DAILY.BUT LIKE I MENTIONED WITH your ONGOING TRAINING AND JUST WHAT TAKES PLACE 'DURING' YOUR TYPE OF JOB? WELL YOU KIND OF HAVE TO LOOK AT THE OVERALL BIGGER PICTURE HERE? sorry, hit that stupid caps lock and i do not have the time right now to go back and change it.
personally given what you mentioned as symptoms here, i just really do think that that tear, instead of really healing itself, when you restarted training, actually could have torn even more? it can just happen, its just the way torn tendons can be. ice is what i used for my pain after the surgery but you also need some heat to just get that blood supply TO the tendon too? alternating ice for 20 minutes of an hour, then doing the very same thing with heat the next usually is a good way to kind of achieve the best of both? but in all honesty here if you are actually having what you stated just trying to put on a shirt? i really do think getting another follow up MRI really would be in YOUR best interest right now. it would show how well that clavical has pulled together and healed and more importantly show any further advancing of what was considered a 'smaller' type tear initially. it just needs some monitoring from here on out unless you just opt to have it sutured back togehter now? if this get done NOW vs waiting til you just cannot stand it anymore and the tearing just doing what it would naturally do in this type of situation, continue to just keep tearing, it would be just a matter of a good ortho going in with only a small scope right now and placing sutures in it and waiting for like maybe six weeks then doing some restrengthening types of PT to get it up and running to full capacity. if you let this go to the point the tearing either becomes very extensive or actually snaps on you like mine did( and you will NOT feel it comin til it just happens like mine did?) that becomes a much more in depth and more painful surgery/recovery only becasue the true extent of the whole injury. ya know what i mean?
i would really just obtain that follow up MRI right now and truely let that be your guide as to what the next step should be. you just NEED to know what you are dealing with right now. your total future in this whole thing kind of rides just upon YOU being IN the very best shape possible to DO your job. anything compromising that, which this type of injury would just do if left not sutured, would impact this greatly. it would be a very simple procedure now vs waiting ya know? just get this MRIed agin and see whaere you are REALLY at william. please let me know what you find out,K? good luck, FB