I'm certainly no medical expert, but if you have a tear, I imagine cortisone isn't going to fix it. My point was that you can have pretty severe shoulder pain without having a torn cuff. Of course, a frozen shoulder can get so bad that surgery is required, but it's not necessary in most cases.

It's funny, a bunch of the guys around the office (all in their 50s) had this same condition about the same time. We all work at computers and push a mouse around all day. It's repetitive motion, albeit slight. I was getting a little stiffness in the shoulder pocket, and then I took a fall and jammed the shoulder at an odd angle. The pain got my attention then.