Shoulder Injury

[precision]

I know that I can't truly know what is wrong without the diagnosis from a doctor, but I'm curious to see if anyone else has experienced similar symptoms from a shoulder injury, what their problem was, how you dealt with the pain and what the solution was to fix it. I've been dealing with this injury for over a year and a half now and I'd like to be able to throw some possibilities at my doctor and maybe ask some different questions that I haven't before or request some different tests. I apologize in advance for the length of this post lol

In September 2008 I injured my shoulder riding a horse. Basically, my arm was pulled away from me in an upward direction very hard with my full body weight pulling against it. It never dislocated, though, or anything like that. But ever since then, many things have sent me reeling in pain, and it seems that just as I think I'm getting better, I'll be back at square one. In April of last year, while I was riding a horse who was pulling very strongly on the bit, my whole arm went completely numb and the shoulder pain got incredibly worse. I spent all of the winter leading up to that and several months after in physiotherapy and I never noticed much improvement, as the entire time between April after that incident to October, I would just be using 5lb weights (I don't know why they never gave me more than that) and never did much otherwise as I knew it caused pain. I haven't had any physiotherapy since October as I have been cut off by workers compensation (but that's another story).

During the last winter, I could barely shovel snow. I would basically be out of commission for a couple of weeks after shoveling it due to the pain in my shoulder. I've tried my best to just take it easy to avoid triggering anything, but in early May, after going 13 months without riding a horse, I decided to give it a try on a quiet horse, instead of a crazy racehorse, at a farm. I never even made it onto the horse's back, as my shoulder got pulled trying to get the horse out of the field (he was being a jackass and pulled away from me a couple of times) and ever since then I have been in absolute agony.

I have a great deal of pain along the front of my shoulder from my neck along my collar bone to my arm; all up the side of my neck; down my back and around my entire shoulder blade; all around the top part of my arm where it connects with my shoulder; down the back of my arm and into my elbow.

I'm very limited as to what I can do, but I have a fairly decent range of motion. I can't pick up anything even moderately heavy; I can't do anything overhead (the only motion I have issues with is bringing my arm too high above shoulder level); minor repetitious things irritate it, such as sifting through a box looking for puzzle pieces; I cannot lay on it at all, which has been ruining my sleep because I have to completely avoid that side.

After re-aggravating it as badly as I did in early May, my doctor is finally going to send me for an MRI, but I'm going to be a senior before that finally happens. It's taken me about 3 weeks to get booked in for X-Rays and an Ultrasound, which I'm required to have done before I go for the MRI and lord knows how long it will take until I get in for that. It'll be over a week before I finally get in for that, then another week for results before I then get booked for the MRI. None of these tests were performed when it happened initially (except an ultrasound), which pisses me off to no end. Everyone thought it was muscular and would heal with a few months of physiotherapy, but that obviously hasn't worked. My doctor currently thinks I have some microscopic tears in my rotator cuff, but we won't be able to find out until I get the MRI done.

So, bluelight, has anyone here had any experience with an injury similar to this?

What sort of things did you do to cope with the pain? I've only been given a very mild anti-inflammatory, which doesn't help in the slightest. Icing it is very hard to do as it's an awkward position and covers so much of my body and I find that about 15-20 minutes after icing it that I'm back at square one and am just really cold.

What were your steps after being diagnosed to heal/fix the problem?

Are there any tests or things that I should mention to my doctor? Or should the MRI be enough? If I need more tests, I'd like to get booked in for them sooner rather than later since it takes so god damn long to get in for anything around here.

Thank you for reading my novel of a post

 

[Amebix]

Vicious massage?

 

[michael]

i tore the labrum in my right shoulder in 2008 and spent about 6 months not being able to do much of anything above shoulder level with it. had the cartilage removed from the joint arthroscopically and did a few months of PT afterwards. i would like to say it's as good as new but it's not. too much of anything overhead and it becomes sore. can't do much overhand throwing either. or sleep on that side.

a diagnosis may be somewhat longer of a process than you are hoping for. MRIs are not particularly good at seeing inside the shoulder joint. my injury was not properly diagnosed until they had a camera in the joint.

 

[precision]

Thank you for the quick responses Unfortunately, massaging just irritates it even further, though I'm quite open to people giving me massages lol

Thank you for the information michael. I'm curious, though, after doing some reading here about one kind of labrum tear:

http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/generalshoulder/a/slap.htm

Did you ever have an MRI done with the injection of contrast? They say that helps to show the tear on the MRI, so I'm just curious to know if you tried that or not. At least I'll know to keep pursuing things if nothing shows up when I eventually have my MRI, thank you

 

[michael]

i did not have an MRI with contrast. by that point the ortho doc figured on it being a labral tear and that he might as well fix it asap. i had a type 1 slap tear in case you were wondering.

 

[moonyham]

Shoulder injuries SUCK. Both my shoulders are mildly fucked. They click and grind when i move them, and using them in awkward positions is quite painful. Lifting my left arm in the air causes pain in my shoulder but till now, just as i read this thread, i didnt actually realise this. Ive noticed the feeling before, but it wasnt until now that i clicked that it was pain. Im just like that, my brain blocks out pain after a while.. who knows how fucked my shoulder is.

I cant do pressups without intense sharp pain in my shoulders(not muscle pain). But thats the only thing im limited by.. and i dont really care cause i never like pushups anyway. All ive done to get it better, to the point it doesnt interrupt my daily life is:

1: Dont do any activities that might cause it to be jarred in an odd/awkward direction. Like fighting/sparring. Everytime i did that, it set my injury back who knows how long. Since i stopped doing these activities, its healed heaps. I cant even remember the last time i one one of those 'ah, yup, that hurt, bad, time to stop' moments.

2: If it hurts to do, dont do it. It hurts to lift my hand high up.. so i dont do it. It use to hurt more, so i figure eventually, it wont hurt at all.

3: do lots of weak/bitch excercise. My daily life involves me moving my hands/arms around alot, but not with much weight.. maybe 2-3kg items at max. I basically am getting physio as i see it everyday.

 

[tathra]

you might want to try asking for a nerve conduction test, as its possible you could have entrapment or some other nerve issue. the way your arm went numb and the pain radiating kinda screams nerve issue.

 

[precision]

Thanks I'll be sure to mention that as well when I see my doctor next.