Shoulder Bursitis Treatment / Recovery?

After playing competitive tennis for 7 years 5-8 hours a week, I finally developed pain in my right shoulder at the bursa. The shoulder is slightly painful for a few days following play then goes away after ice, anti-inflamitories and rest (no tennis). Once I've given the shoulder this brief time to heal, I feel no pain during my every day activities. Question: How long do I need to avoid playing in order for the pain to NOT reappear once I do get back on the court. Would a cortisone shot - should my doctor give me one - keep any pain from reappearing? Bottom line, I'm devistated to not be able to play as tennis is my passion.

well at least it doesn't sound like you have a rotator cuff tear which would be much more problematic, nor does it sound like subacromion impingement which usually would cause pain which you move.
it does sound like that you have an inflammatory process, ie an inflammation of the subacromion bursa. so the mainstay treatments include rest, ice, anti-inflammatory medication (motrin, aleve, etc), and cortisone injections (probably should be done by an orthopedic surgeon because a primary care doc will probably inject into the should joint itself which would be the wrong location).
this can certainly become be a chronic nagging problem; so you may need to adjust your lifestyle, meaning not playing more than 2 hours at a time, taking anti-inflammatories before and after, perhaps rest for a prolonged period of time and get a cortisone to alleviate the problem completely.
good luck man

Everyone's body is different. You'll have to experiment with time off and see how fast your shoulder recovers. Cortisone could help, but the doc might tell you to just take ibuprofen and rest it. I'd take ibuprofen before I played if I were you. That can help some.

I really like Rocky R's answer, as everyone is different and you will have to experiment to find what works for you.

I just wanted to mention the stretches physical therapy suggests to maybe help keep it from recurring.

Good luck to you. I was diagnosed ten years ago, it was never a problem until about three weeks ago (it started hurting and wouldn't go away), and I finally went to the doctor's yesterday, got a cortisone shot and a rx to go to physical therapy for next week (for 3 weeks, 2x a week)... the doctor mentioned to continue the therapy to keep it from coming back... but I'll find out more at therapy when I go.

Good luck to you, I really hope you heal up fast.