Question
I had a "frozen shoulder" as a result of a serious accident followed by two long surgeries & a month in a cast & it only took me less than three months to recover. If I knew then what i know now, I'm sure Icould have cut that time further.
Your frozen shoulder is likely caused by active trigger points in your Infraspinatus Muscle. Suggest you locate a copy of Clair Davies' current book on trigger points/myofascial pain, specifically pages 86-88; over a year is a long time to wait for pain relief.
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Frozen shoulder sounds right but I'll just add that when I was in my twenties (competitive swimming alot) I had the same symptoms and it was a calcium deposit. The doc wanted to cut me open and scrape it. I went to a chiropractor and he took care of it without invasive sugergy. Just a thought....Tagger
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I had something very similar happen to me. It could be related to the repetitive motions of lifting.
I had done lifting & shifting of heavy material (a pallet load) that triggered a repeat stress injury, shifting the objects forward, to the left and right using both arms. The second day after the strain (which slowly crept up on me-no shoulder or arm pain until the second day). Realizing, the shoulder pain started to surface because I kept taking anti-inflammatory (overdosed). The pain grew steadily worse. I called the doctor on call & told him the story, was in a makeshift sling and needed something for the unbearable pain & was trying to avoid going to the emergency room. He issued a generic of vicodin...
Note: I had carried heavy material 15 feet and did not see the 2 x 4-could not see beyond material in hand, stepping on it-twisting my right ankle, dropping the stone and broke my fall with (full force of bodyweight) on the left hand/arm. That was the straw that broke the camels’ back. I took the medicine, it did not help. The pain brought me to tears. Usually extreme pain will make me feel faint and queazy, cause ^bp, shock, so that was excruciating.
A long story longer, called doc again, medication isn't helping, he gave me something else. The combo knocked me out finally. Next day did not help and finally went to the ER. They took exrays of shoulder-no calcifications or bony changes. At this point it was extremely difficult to dress or do anything. With the hurt arm, hardly. I could move it a bit bringing the arm forward. From the elbow to hand it was fine. It was the shoulder. The doctor told me to relax my muscles. As I did this, he lifted my arm and asked me to hold it. I could! How strange was that? He told me it was bursitis and tendonitis. They gave me an injection of an anti-inflammatory, put me in a sling and wrapped a wide ace bandage around the body with this in place to keep the shoulder immobilized. They iced the shoulder. He asked if I had a tetanus shot, no-so he gave me one. He told me to avoid the vicodin as it is addictive and gave me a script for a different medication. It did'nt ocur for me to tell him about the fall because I thought it was due to the lifting. Forget sleeping. I had to sleep on my stomach with ice packs under that shoulder carefully to find a comfort zone where I could get shut-eye.
The medications eventually took the edge off with minimal pain reduction-out of commission. I used ice, gel, pain patches, medication, immobilization, rest-you name it. The wrist then started to bother me (a day later). I could not keep the wrap on without that wrist hurting. I had placed a rolled sock a closed hand to keep the wrist somewhat mobilized. That's when I knew it was the fall that did it. I think I sprained it. That did not bother me while in the ER. Then a day after that my neck hurt like mad-bought a c-collar. That could have been from the strain of the sling portion wrapped around neck. What a mess. Took Celebrex for that. This pain was up there with the pain of a fracture, sprain, dislocation, torn ligaments or a broken ankle in 2 places. I think when ligaments or tendons or muscles rip it is injured until it heals-so the pain reflects that trauma.
As I learned, lifting is not too good for the bursa. Athletes suffer repeat stress injuries and frozen shoulder. I still have problems and don't have full use of the left shoulder. The deltoid and nerve in the underside of the upper arm are still problematic. This was in July. I did follow-up with a newbe doc. I was given a referral for pt. I will be going to the doc and asking them if it could be a result of a tare not healing or if I just need pt. The other shoulder has been barking. I'm sure this is from that lifting. I was helping family out. Nice present ay?
You may want to consider an alternative to weightlifting. I have retired from lifting rocks .
Peace ! G
ps: If prescribed constipating medications be sure the doctor includes a script for a stool softener (that is customary-so I've read) to avoid becoming impacted. Trust me. Nuff said!
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Do you have a good referrence for a chiropractor? Mine has done wonders for me, as well as deep tissue massage. Accupuncture would definitely help the healing process.
I suppose dealing with it from all angles of medical intervention would be an assett.
I wouldn't suggest any "exercise", maybe mild stretching until you know what you're dealing with.
Just out of curiosity...what is your job/profession? Have you had problems with your neck or shoulder in the past?
Hope it gets better soon.
quincy
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Here's my story:
Woke up around 2am in September with bad shoulder pain. Thought I'd just slept on it wrong. Went back to sleep, woke up at 6am and thought "hmmm, this hurts but it will go away"
Throughout the day instead of getting better, it got worse...a LOT worse. I just kind of lazed around all weekend thinking I pulled something. By Monday it wasn't any better OR worse. I noticed it got worse at night. I could barely dress myself, tying my tennis shoes was a chore...forget lifting my arm to do my long hair---toooooo painful. I managed to get things done by holding my arm to my side (thereby never using the shoulder right). By the next weekend I KNEW it wasn't my muscles.
I made an appointment after 2 weeks into the pain. My primary care doc referred me to a ortho. He said I need an MRI to rules things out and to confirm to things but with my HMO, an ortho has to authorize it. He did send me with an X-Ray for the ortho to read.
Ortho was weird. His assistant checked me out, he came in barely touched my arm and said "You have 2 things arthiritis and bursitis" I asked him about the MRI and he said I didn't need it. Ooookay. I finally asked what can I do about it, I can't live like this. He referred me to a PT, said to take Motrin twice per day and nothing I can do about the arthiritis. OOOoookay. I said "what caused all this" He started talking greek then asked what kinds of repetitive things I did. I said how about sports. He said yes. I said how about softball or baseball? He said Yes, that's how you got it and it came on slowly over a period of time. Our family plays baseball and softball about 4-5 times per week plus games on the weekends.
Finally got in to see the PT 3 weeks later (gotta love the HMO's) I've had 6 appointments and showing no signs of improvement. When I mentioned to my PT that I never had an MRI the entire office was gasping and shocked. Now, yesterday a rep came in and they were discussing my ortho in the next room and were saying how flaky he is and talking about his flaky staff. I was sitting next to an older lady and she mentioned her broken wrist and (again) my flaky ortho. She said he's nothing but a quack and she thinks he's the cause of her having limited use of her thumb...GRRRrrreat!
I go back to him on December 22nd and I'm scared he won't do anything about it. I'm stuck with him as he's the only ortho in my network. Should I call the HMO and say something or should I just be pushy and ask for an MRI? Will the PT send their findings to the ortho? 2 of them agree I'm not improving and don't know why, they said I should show something.
It's so miserable right now...dressing is a chore. I CAN NOT lay on my side and sometimes wake up in pain because I've rolled over on that side. I can hardly sleep and the anti-inflams are NOT working worth a damn. Forget playing ball and you might as well ask me to pull up a wheelchair now. My son played winter ball and it KILLED me to have to sit in the stands and just watch. I can't sign up for a team myself because it starts in February and I don't think it will get better by then...I'm miserable can ya tell?
