Just had to vent a bit...

I've been struggling with an injured right shoulder since I hurt it before halloween last year. Had the steroid shots, corizone creams, MRI's, X-Rays, ultrasounds and PT. All tests were inconclusive and showed substantial inflammation of the rotator and bicep. But, it still hasn't gotten any better. I've pretty much stopped using my right arm for anything more than shifting my car which hurts BTW. To top it all off, at my last physical therapy appointment, the therapist freaking messed up my back. Now, it hurts for me to move my head side to side. So, I canceled the next few appointments I had.

I'm getting sick of this. My doctor says the next step if this round of PT doesn't help me is surgery. Fun. I just want to get better. If I needed to do any manual type labor, I would just take a mega dose of Motrin and hope it lasts. That was back in November. I stopped taking the Motrin because I kept having to take more and more for it to have any effect. Now, I'm back on Celebrex and have to take Ambien to sleep at night because of how uncomfortable it is.

I can't lift my arm out to the side or out front and definitely can't do any overhead work without pain. It sucks that I've become used to the pain and expect it when I do anything. I'm not getting better, just getting used to the pain.

I'm venting as I've been like this for over 4 months now and I'm really getting sick of it. Anyone else go through a shoulder injury here?

That's all. Now it's time to pop an Ambien and hope that I sleep for more than 5 hours tonight.

Bill

 

shoulder injuries suck dude, i'd have to say the shoulder is the worst designed joint in our bodies. And yes, I dislocated my shoulder last year while snowboarding, and it was awful.
I blame jack daniels !! i was totally sh!tfaced just bombin hills and the next thing i knew i caught an edge and ate it ril bad...
It took me about 1 and 1/2 months to recover from the injury enough to where i could resume working out at the gym and go back to work. But since then, it hasn't been the same. I gave a friend i hadn't seen in a while the SON OF A B!TCH (the firmest handshake known to man) and my shoulder slipped out.... i rotated it back in .. and it was soar for like 2 weeks....=\ ... sometimes it slips when i sleep on it n stuff...
Now, a year after the accident, i feel no pain and hardly ever does it slip or pop out like it did...
I'd say judging from your post that you are lacking your full range of motion.. Although im not nearly as educated as a doctor i feel safe in saying that you probably should do a lot of stretching.
Go in the hot tub and loosen ur arm up and slowly stretch it... take pain killers if u need to but the only way to make it normal again is to stretch it out and then strengthen it by doing light weight/ high repetition of various shoulder exercises.
thats just my take, good luck dude

Jon

 

I had a shoulder injury that took a year to recover.

I lucked out and found a decent PT, and with a combo of cold, heat, ultra sound, and exercises...I can say my shoulder is 100% now.

But it took time. KNowledge was key...figuring ou went went wrong, how I made it worse, and how I could make it better. There's a lot of muscles in the shoulder area...so much could go wrong.

good luck on the recovery bro.

 

yea, they super suck, my shoulders have never been 100% since they've been injured, and i'm scared to do certain rotations, such as throw a football.. atleast i can still play basketball and golf..

 

i broke my collar bone years ago, and it still clicks and grinds every time i articulate it. Doesnt hurt tho, im sure the shoulder injury is worse.

 

You may have a torn rotator cuff tendon. Steroid shots and physical therapy won't help, if that's the case. They can see a tear in the tendon with an arthroscopic examination (makes a small incision and a little scope is inserted to view the area). MRI or x-ray is not conclusive for this type of injury but can be used if arthroscopic exam is not practical.

--
0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush

 

Your symptoms sound identical to what I experienced 6 years ago. I had no strength in my shoulder (I could barely shift) and lifting my arm was painful as hell. An MRI revealed a partially torn rotator cuff. During my scope surgery, the surgeon found that it had completely frayed and had to cut an incision about 3" long on the top of my shoulder. Right after surgery, I was in a sh*tload of pain. After PT and doing exercises at home, my shoulder was pretty much 100% in 4 months.

You may consider getting a second opinion. My ortho surgeon diagnosed it immediately. Good luck.

 

I've been fighting with a shoulder injury for years. 2 different dr.'s have said surgery. 2 different surgeons said surgery. specialist etc.

Just get it fixed. my dad just did it. He let it drag on and on and on and finally got it fixed. They said had he just done it when he was suppose to he'd of had little problems and missed the 20 years of pain. Recovery SUCKS.

Me...I still need to do mine.


But I will recommend 2 things....massage therapy and accupuncture. Mine still bugs me but no where near what it used to. It doesn't pop out anymore and I have about 95% range of motion compared to about 40 when I started.

But I'd get the surgery man. If I had insurance that wasn't a pay as you go get by kinda deal I'd probably go do it at the end of the snowboard season....but I'm getting married and have a car to finish building this year. Maybe next year.

 

I have the same thing and I went to a specialist at santa teresa kaiser and found out that it is my ac joint that had torn and I have had about 3 steriod injections with no help and am due for surgery in a few weeks. I feel your pain man

 

I had really bad shoulder pain for a while when I first bought my WRX. The docs could not figure it out. X-rays, physical therapy and steroid shot - Nothing. I then bought an armrest for the car and the pain was gone in 2 weeks. I had long commutes so I figured I would try that since all my other cars had it.

How'd you hurt your shoulder?

 

I tried to clean my windows at the gas station and man did that light me up like the 4th. I've got another 4 appointments at the therapist to see if that will help any. At that point I will be close to 5 months since the injury. I've got an appointment with my doc at that time at which, if I don't see any improvement, she will schedule me for the scope. I just want this to be fixed.


Bout that. It's a funny story I guess. As I told my doctor when she asked, I was at a Halloween party and having fun. I could go into detail but I wont. The best part is trying to explain to people at work what happened. So far I've come up with that I was dancing.

Bill

 

My MRI showed a severely inflamed rotator. It was almost completely white on the film. My doc said that because I that, she couldn't make a determination if it was torn. More than likely, yes. That was back in December though. I've done some things that I shouldn't have since then and it has gotten worse.

Did you have the sharp pain at the outside and front of your shoulder when lifting out to the side or to front? For me, it also freaking hurts to pull my belt to latch it.

 

Yes, anytime I tried to lift just about anything or bring my arm up slightly, I felt a sharp pain that would start from the top of my shoulder and down through my arm. Normal, everyday tasks were painful...I started using my left hand/arm to do most things like bringing a fork to my mouth, brushing my teeth, etc. This went on for about two months before I had it checked out.

The doc said that there was no trauma nor was it a "tear" in the true sense...the tendon was frayed through wear and tear (I played a lot of sports when I was younger).

How did you injure your shoulder?

 

Just read how you did it...must've have been some Halloween party!

 

That is almost exactly how mine feels. I get a sharp pain at the top toward the outside of my shoulder. Things like opening passenger side doors for the inside hurt like a mother! I'm slowly turning into lefty too. From everyone that I've talked to that has had a shoulder injury, they tell me it's most definitely at least a partial tear of my rotator cuff.

And yes, it was a very, very memorable party!