About a month ago I started getting a sharp pain in my right shoulder. I wrote it down as sleeping on it wrong. It's progressively been getting worse to the point that I now struggle to put a shirt on in the morning. I really can't hold my arm straight out to the side without some really sharp pain. I can't push or pull anything without pain either. This is going to be a major issue with my job.
With the wife's $2500 ER visit a couple weeks ago I'm extremely hesitant to go to add any more doctor bills at the moment.
What can I do to try and get through this?
Chiropractor helped mine after the car accident.
However, what you described is what they did to me checking for rotator cuff damage.
Go to your pcp and talk with him about it. Might be some physical therapy that'll make it better.
Good news is that it sounds like rotator cuff and not labrum. See your doctor, a jacked up shoulder saved my life.
Rotator cuff caused me some trouble. My left is still tender in certain positions. There are a series of stretches I did that help a lot. Physio didn't do me a world of good, other than getting the info about the stretches. Probably worth an x-ray to be sure you don't have a bone spur rubbing on the muscles. I do, and I can really feel it with my arm held out to my side, elbow bent so my hand is ahead. My physio said, if it hurts bad, don't do it. If it just has the nice ache of a well stretched muscle, go ahead.
Try googling biomechanical shoulder class stretching exersizes. No IP address on my sheet.
I had the very same symptoms, and it was a major issue with my job (electrician). TL/DR I’ve been off work since January and it took surgery to get me back on track. Slipping and falling in the snow was the breaking point for me.
After several doctor visits and imaging sessions (x-ray and ultrasound) along with 4 unsuccessful weeks of PT, I ended up with a surgeon who ordered an mri. He was convinced I had torn my rotator cuff. So arthroscopic surgery was the answer.
Once he got in there though, the problem he found was not a tear, but calcifications in my supraspinatus tendon, and tendonosis. To put it in terms I could understand, it was like having sand in my shoulder joint. And the stuff in there was constricted, so there was nerve pain too.
So all that crap was burned out with a laser, a bone spur was removed, and I was sent back to pt after a couple weeks. My surgery was May 11, and my 2 pound lifting restriction was lifted just this week. And this is an “aggressive” recovery.
Go get it checked out. I ignored my rotator cuff injury for years, ended up with a total reverse shoulder replacement. My shoulder ended up bone on bone.
In the mean time, heat and rest. Be careful with how much NSAIDS you take. PT will help, but go to a Doctor.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
Thanks, I'll look into those stretches. After years of putting up with bad knee and back pain I finally found a Physical Therapist that gave me some stretches that has practically eliminated those issues aside from when I over exert myself. It's been a drastic transformation.
In reply to paranoid_android :
Ouch. None of that sounds good at all. Glad you're recovering.
In reply to Dirtydog :
I very rarely take any medications and I haven't had to for this yet. I'll try the heat however the rest hasn't done much good. I just returned home from a week away and it's hurting more now than it did when I left. My son grabbing my arm and yanking it backwards earlier today is probably a big culprit in that though.
I know everyone is saying go to the doctor but I'm really trying to put that off as long as possible. This damned insurance I'm stuck with now is not only 4X more expensive but it also doesn't pay E36 M3.
This site here is much of the stretching I’ve been doing before and after surgery.
My big thing is bad posture from protecting a hurt shoulder. Scap squeeze is a big one for helping that.
I have similar pain. Mine is a large ball and small socket issue. The ball is too large for the socket and doing repetitive things can actually cause it to pull in too tight and get inflamed causing pain. The good news for me was no need for surgery, just do 5 different stretches 3-5 times a day and take tylenol to help with the inflamation until the pain goes away, then do 3 different muscle building exercises to keep it there.
My father has had 4 shoulder surgeries. I can tell you that this should be the LAST option if possible.
paranoid_android said:
Once he got in there though, the problem he found was not a tear, but calcifications in my supraspinatus tendon, and tendonosis. To put it in terms I could understand, it was like having sand in my shoulder joint. And the stuff in there was constricted, so there was nerve pain too.
So all that crap was burned out with a laser, a bone spur was removed, and I was sent back to pt after a couple weeks. My surgery was May 11, and my 2 pound lifting restriction was lifted just this week. And this is an “aggressive” recovery.
Similar to mine, the MRI showed the slight spur and calcification on both shoulders. It had hurt like hell to raise my arms up. So I had the arthroscopic surgery to scrape the spurs and calcification out. That was 5 years ago and no pain since.
I'm going to have to get mine looked over at some point... I'm pretty damn certain that both rotator cuffs have damage from a fall about a decade ago that frequently makes raising my left arm over my head spike my shoulder with pain. Unfortunately there have always been other medical issues that have taken precedence.
My wife was recently diagnosed with a partial tear in the rotator cuff of her left shoulder, and the stretches and exercises they gave her to do at home daily have greatly reduced the pain and greatly increased her range of motion. I know she has a paper with all of them on there.
Get it looked at.
I tore my rotator cuff working in Afghanistan. By the time I got it operated on (roughly 8 months later) I had lost use of most of my left arm and was generally pretty miserable.
If it's minor enough the orthopedic surgeon toss you some anti-inflammatories and give you some exercises.
I was stupid and kept working for months. Ended up doing enough damage that laparoscopic wasn't an option which required the doctor to flay me open in order stich everything back together and grind down bone spur impinging on the nerves leading to my hand.
I'm about 90% of where I was though it took close to 4 months of physical therapy to get me moving around and another 8 months to get the strength back. It still hurts to sleep on and the surgery was 4 years ago.
As others have noted, go to the doctor. If it is just minor with swelling, rest and physical therapy might be the answer. Only the Doc can give you the paperwork you'll need at your job to go on light duty.
Ignoring it will only make it worse.
I did several rounds of PT over many years before getting an MRI from a specialist. Turns out I had a partial tear in my rotator cuff, bone spur, and the tendons were stretched. Surgery fixed it up and a couple more rounds of PT to rebuild strength and it is normal again.
I have a very small partial tear in the right rotator. Been there for 30 years. Doc basically told me they could fix it easily enough, but at this point it's not worth the pain. It doesn't usually bother me, so I am not too concerned except for when I stretch and makes enough noise for everyone around me to look in my direction
Seems like a timely place to ask about loose shoulders. Deucekid#2 has told some stories about his "shoulder popping out" causing my eyes to roll a very long way back in my head. Well.....yesterday he yells from the living room that his shoulder is out and I'll be damned, it was. I had my hand on it when he moved just right and I felt it slide back in. That was weird.
Any experience strengthening a floppy shoulder on a 14 year old computer nerd?
mazdeuce - Seth said:
Seems like a timely place to ask about loose shoulders. Deucekid#2 has told some stories about his "shoulder popping out" causing my eyes to roll a very long way back in my head. Well.....yesterday he yells from the living room that his shoulder is out and I'll be damned, it was. I had my hand on it when he moved just right and I felt it slide back in. That was weird.
Any experience strengthening a floppy shoulder on a 14 year old computer nerd?
That doesn't require web sites he shouldn't be looking at?
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
In all seriousness, a Doc visit may be in order. At 14 everything is still growing. Internet diagnosis should be a guide at best.
In reply to Dirtydog :
We're planning on it. High liklihood that it's inherited as my father in law grew up with a similar issue that wouldn't resolve itself until surgery in his 30's. Thanks.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
My wife's shoulder pops out all the time. She said it always has. I've seen it come out just opening a car door, or reaching for something. As far as I know she's never had it looked at and just lives with it.
