1. Can’t sleep
2. Pain is unbearable
3. Need to be able to throw inside left body shots and lead left hook if I’m to ever defeat my heavybag in a sanctioned bout
4. Can’t really raise my left arm above my head just now
5. — Which, how can I offer an Obama salute, should the dude win the election?
6. I mean, hell, I don’t want to get shot on a technicality
7. Because that’d be like having your first born taken from you by the angel of death on account of not having a step ladder and some lamb’s blood
8. Plus, Wii!
9.
wuss. if a high school girl can dislocate her shoulder just before intermission and finish the show, you can salute the Obamessiah.
10. Not enough exposure to extremely loud and annoying machine noises.
go right to the cortizone. Cheaper, faster. I had a 300 lb DT squish me into the frozen astroturf – elbow first – and it cleared me right up.
Now I’ll go back to writing my “Good Morning Barney” vignettes.
9. It might cause a rare genetic mutation that will give your left shoulder super powers — but only when you are nonchalant.
“Don’t make me laugh. You wouldn’t like me when I’m frivolous.”
Man-up, Nancy!
Pain = You’re Alive
Rub some dirt on it.
B.
Rotator cuff tear?
Wii is reason enough to get the MRI done and fix whatever issues you might have :-)
Yes, your youth and situation in life raise your need for MRI and maybe surgival vs. conservative treatment. Because it sounds like you probably have a traumatic rotator cuff injury, and you are in fab shape, young, and are lifting and socking and grappling things all the time. More aggressive treatment just after an acute injury is more common for someone who isn’t over forty, slobbing around and old and busted.
Physical exam will show your impairment. X-ray, mostly useless as it tends only to show a small spur for chronic overuse/wear and tear injuries. Ultrasound at least, MRI is best if physical exam is suggestive.
What did your doctor say? Also what is your date of birth and social security number, and days since your LMP.
“Now I’ll go back to writing my “Good Morning Barney†vignettes.”
Awesome. I can’t wait to read the one where you prove/disprove the existence of Barney’s teeth and what that might mean to any of his paramours.
Can’t really raise my left arm above my head just now
What you’ve got there is some PMS pains. Pre-election Maverick Sympathy Pains. Google it, people!
Oh, and Jeff? Choose something other than classical music through the headphones if you opt for them. Last MRI I made that mistake and had to hold perfectly still through 45 minutes of…Wagner. Yikes.
surgival vs. conservative treatment.
Ooh surgival. Sound painful and sexual all at once.
s
Maybe you just need to give it a rest.
Try switching hands.
I’m no sports medicine specialist, but I don’t think it’s rotator cuff. I can, for instance, do military (or, with dumbbells, Y) presses pain free. Likewise, tricep exercises that involve holding dumbbells over my head don’t hurt. Nor do scarecrows, which involve leaving the elbows up and out and rotating the weight from down to up at the shoulder.
Push-ups hurt. Benches hurt. Holding anything up in front off me away from my body hurts (like picking up my son). Sleeping is impossible.
The pain started in that spikey bone in the shoulder. My primary physician found nothing in the x-ray, suggested it may be bursitis, and told me that using it could often relieve the pain.
Now it’s gotten worse and seems to be tied to my trap muscle as well.
I’m hoping a cortizone shot will help; I have an instructional vid set to film in December, and I have to be not only in shape, but able to throw punches that could really do damage.
And right now, trying to throw a left straight (properly, directly out in front, not some looping haymaker) hurts like a bitch. As does keeping my left up to guard my chin.
Some of that though might have to do with wearing a 40lb weighted vest and 160z gloves while I’m hitting and kicking the heavy bag.
I like the dirt idea.
For some reason that reminds me it’s time to rent Pumpkinhead again. That’s the most Americanest Halloween movie I think. That and Blair Witch, but I need to give that one more time and see it later with my nephew when he’s older.
9. ???
10. Profit!
You ok, Perf? I have a delightful array of pharmaceuticals, if you’d like some.
I know, I know I said I would not come back until after the election but I am just too bored to stay away. I cain’t quit ye!
Hi PW’ers.
Give our blogostar an MRI, lumbar puncture, chest x-ray, and a CT scan and see what we come up with.
Hey you I have to go to a meeting but nice to see you
Hi Lisa! nice to see you.
Have a nice meeting Happy.
Sdferr! ((hugs)).
Rotator cup. Ouch.
Get your blaze of glory on!
If it’s a labral tear (doesn’t quite sound like mine, but they do hide from x-rays, sometimes), and you want to stay in the biz, don’t get the surgery. Even with a 100% successful fix, your shit will never work right again. Medical standards are lower than yours.
That’s one of two definite no-go zones: your labrum and your meniscus. Don’t let surgeons poke ’em. Squint and take drugs until your extremities fall off or your kidneys explode. Same ending. There’s no coming back.
Listen to the bossy one, JeffG.
Here, read this. There are pictures (scroll down) for at home assessment of impingement/rotator cuff injury.
As a member of the chosen, a “technicality” is not your concern…
Kinda sounds like something to do with the anterior deltoid…
Can you do front shoulder raises?
If it’s simply bursitis, or an inflamed ligament then the cortizone shot will do the trick; that, and takin’ it easy on it for a few days…
If all that doesn’t work, then your only recourse is…to rub dirt on it!
Hope you feel better…
I’ve found my right shoulder gets more mobile and feels better — temporarily — if I swing my arnm around a little until I hear a pop loud enough to set off car alarms in the nearest parking lot.
Am I just not rubbing enough dirt on it?
Hello, sugartits.
I can still do front shoulder raises, but that’s the most painful shoulder exercise. It’s worse if my hands are palms facing inward.
If sunshine on your shoulder makes you cry, get an MRI.
Jeff G – I vote on the better safe than sorry side. Always make your medical decisions with the most information possible.
I have an appointment with a sports med specialist Friday. Hopefully he’ll just shoot me with cortizone and hand me a bunch of Vicodins.
On the plus side, I shin locked a guy in class last night. He screamed.
I figured that was the same as a tap.
Go for the cortizone. Worked for me great about four years ago.
What’s up, Sugartits? Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!
What’s up, Sugartits? Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!
Sugartits, Sugartits, you are buxom,
And I could . . . what rhymes with buxom?
I got knocked out cold in fight class last night. Out cold. Never saw it coming. At least it did not hurt, until later.
Fucks bum
clucks dumb
Chuck’s cum
Your song started out dirty Dan, so don’t blame me.
Chiropractic – with a sports focus – I don’t know about these guys directly, but something like that.
Jeff, #1,2 and 4 all say go to an ortherpedist who specializes in sports medicine. Get the fucking MRI and find out exactly what’s wrong. Whether it’s a torn muscle/cartilage/whatever, this is not something you want to screw around with.
If it turns out to be nothing, great. But if it’s more than “nothing”, better to know it now so as to avoid making it worse.
I second Cave Bear – a sports medicine doc is the way to go. I spent six months screwing with regular doctors over my knee after a car accident about ten years ago, including a doctor that told me I had to wear a foam brace for the next several months, and that might not even fix it. Went to a sports medicine doc, who referred me to a sports medicine surgeon. That knee is quite possibly the only part of my body that works right these days. Which is a miracle considering I spent several months damaging it more and more by not getting it fixed.
Sports medicine docs are about getting you back to what you do, as quickly as possible, and from what I understand there are several good ones in the Denver area. (fortunately I haven’t had to use one since we’ve been here) Worst case, the doc tells you that you need extensive surgery or something, and you do your vid anyway, making an informed choice to really screw up your body rather than not knowing whether the next move you make is going to leave you bedridden for months.
orthOpedist…
PIMF
Sounds like traumatic bursitis to me too. PT will work it out, did for me.
The inflammation comes back now and then, I do the “super secret exercises” and it goes away.
Or I get nasty and fight with the wife, drink too much and alienate the kids. After the intervention, I’ll check myself in to Promises and a month later come home and try to act like nothing’s happened. Everything seems to be OK on the outside, but I’ve noticed my oldest son had what looked like eye shadow on when he got home from a party the other night. My youngest burns things and sons two and three have taken turns getting caught masturbating in public and fighting with the police. I spend most of my pocket money on club soda and lap dances, and my wife has taken to step aerobics like an olympic athlete. The other day I came home late, as usual, covered in glitter and smelling of Love’s Baby Soft, when I noticed a pickup truck parked at the corner and the lights on in our basement. So I snuck into the garden shed, got out the rake, and stuffed it tines up behind the passenger side front tire. Then I made as much noise as I could getting in the front door. She was up, looking kind of disheveled, and I swear I heard the basement slider squeak when it shut. She made noise about how late I was working lately and how tired I must be while I pulled off my tie and watched for movement out of the picture window in the front of the house. Not a minute had passed before I saw our neighbor’s son Frank, the Sheriff’s deputy, walk down his mother’s driveway, get into his truck and back right the hell over the rake. I got a roll of quarters out of the vacation fund and tried to go outside, you know, to help him fix his flat, but the wife suddenly turned all hands on me. She was rubbing my shoulders and asking why I’d been so tense lately. I told her I was a little stressed at work, but damn, didn’t it feel good to have someone rub my sore shoulder. She got me a cup of herbal tea and said she’d meet me upstairs after she cleaned up the mess and freshened up a bit, but I was out like a light by the time she made it up. I must have been more tired than I realized. I did notice my pillow smelled different, she said it was her hair new coloring. I guess it must be, but I’ve never smelt a hair dye that smelled like Aqua Velva.
I haven’t stopped working out during this, but as I say, it’s getting worse now, and I can’t sleep. Which won’t keep me from boxing today, or from lifting tonight.
And anyway, isn’t #2 supposed to be “Clowns might eat me”?
Clowns might eat me is a common theme in nearly every one of my nightmares. You are a bad person, mojo.
When I went to the sports medicine guy, he gave me the super ibuprofen anti-inflammatories they gave me after back sugery and physical therapy. The drugs knocked me out for a week, and when it stopped hurting so bad, the PT took care of the rest. I didn’t tear anything, so I guess I was lucky. If I bench heavy after taking a couple of days off, or if I don’t warm up before throwing BP for the kids or tossing a football it’ll spark back up.
Watch your shoulders, they can be as bad as knees. Or ankles, or backs.
You know, it felt like I had busted my collar bone when I first got it, but I could raise my arm without pain. it was the side to side stuff that hurt like hell.
I feel your pain, having nursed a bad shoulder for over twenty years. It can be done. However, when the effing thing falls apart at around age 40 (been there, done that, choking on the Happy Meal right now), you may regret that decision to fill the joint full of cortisone and keep punching. Multiple cortisone shots leave a goo-like substance in the joint and can weaken tendons. Just saying….
Here’s the deal–shoulders are tough to fix. A lot harder than knees. And you obviously use yours hard–you’re going to need a proper diagnosis and get the pro’s and con’s of both conservative and surgical treatment. Keep in mind that conservative can include
a. physical therapy
b. RICE (rest, ice, compression, and elevation above the heart…ok, RIC, then)
c. massage therapy (hard core, not that Swedish feel good crap–find a ROLF practitioner and prepare to cry with pain and joy when your shoulder starts to come back to life)
d. taping and stretching regimens (look at Kerry Walsh from USA Volleyball during the Olympics–kinesio tape is your friend!)
So I would absolutely recommend the conservative route while you go through diagnosis process. But if you’ve got a tear, it may impact you big time. You need all the facts–preferrably given by a sports med orthopedic surgeon–to be able to make an informed decision. And it doesn’t hurt to then get a second opinion.
It’s not all gloom and doom, however. If you are, indeed, in the Denver area, you are luckier than you know. Because you are within striking distance of some of the *best* orthopedic surgeons in the world. The Steadman Hawkins clinic in Vail, CO (with satellite practices in several areas incl. Denver) simply can’t be topped. World class athletes from every sport make the trek there for treatment with both the doctors and the top notch physical therapy clinic. If I were you, I’d make a day trip of it and go straight to the top of I-70 and see Dr. Hawkins in Vail (or whoever his current protege is). You simply couldn’t be in better hands–and I say that as someone who had five surgeries on my knee before local AZ doctors (including the pro hockey and baseball team physicians and no less than the Mayo Clinic’s chief of orthopedics) gave up on me. I saw Dr. Steadman and in two surgeries over three years I’m back to hiking and normal, non-athletic life. Which is pretty effing fantastic considering I was crippled by inappropriate and delayed treatment. If I had had early and skilled intervention I would still be jumping out of planes and planning my Everest trek in Nepal, but frankly, I’m grateful for what I have. Wish I didn’t have to settle, but once you’ve been to the freakshow the regular stuff looks pretty damn good. Don’t make the mistake I did, which was seeing a well-reputed doctor who was not skilled in my problem areas and then sticking with him too long…. “But he/she is the team physician for _____ (insert pro sport team name) and operated on ______ (insert big name sports player)” doesn’t matter for crap unless that sports star had your EXACT medical issue and the doctor treats dozens of cases of it per year.
So now I tell people to skip the training wheels and go straight to the folks who fix mistakes all the other surgeons have made–people like the doctors at Steadman Hawkins. You are incredibly luck to live in their backyard–I had to travel over 1000 miles to see them.
And when I finally decide I can’t baby my shoulder any longer, I’m booking a ticket to Denver and driving up the hill to Vail without a single regret.
www dot steadman-hawkins dot com Millett and Hawkins are the some of the well-known shoulder guys there, tho they don’t hire any dummies at that clinic. And there’s even a patient eduction section to help walk you through some of the FAQ’s and help tease out your symptoms. For example, how’s the reach into the back seat from the front action? Excruciating?
A good orthopedic surgeon with a backing crew of good physical therapists can make the difference in you continuing your sporty lifestyle vs. ending up an armchair QB. And not all O.S.’s will recommend surgery–it’s very appropriate to see one for conservative care as well.
In the interim, ice 4-6 times/day for 20 minutes (pref with compression provided by ace wrap or a professional shoulder icing pack with velcro straps). And, if your stomach can take it and your doctor says ok and there are no other health issues, 800 mg ibuprophen with a full stomach 3 times/day should help knock back the pain a lot. Also, ask the doc about an ibuprophen/acetaminophen cocktail (advil and tylenol alternated every 4 hours). Again, only if your doc or pharmacist says it’s okay with your other meds and whatever conditions you might have on top of a bum shoulder. I personally wouldn’t be able to walk without Celebrex, which requires a presciption, and it may be appropriate in your situation once you see the O.S.
Sorry to blather on, but you have a clean slate. I envy you that–you have a virgin injured shoulder and no one has mucked it up yet. That’s a beautiful thing, and it should only be handled by highly trained professionals who work on athletes all the time.
Good luck.
PS MRI’s aren’t the last word–too many ways they can miss details (you move, poorly calibrated machine, bad radiologist, etc.). A good doctor uses the MRI as a diagnostic tool, but the physical exam and functional limitations are just as important. In other words, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Whatever you do, keep us posted. My left elbow has been sore for the last few months – six months? – and it hurts just to lift the laptop out of the bag. I’ll ask my doc next time I’m in, and I’d like some more anecdotal stuff to tell him.
I tore both the super spinatus and the labrum. Idiot doc sent me to PT. They were cranking my shoulder around and it locked up. I would have punched the therapist in the nuts, if it had been a he. Mostly, I just cried a little and bit my tongue in half. I insisted on an MRI at that point.
LSS: I got a guy who works on hockey players and footballers. He went in and fixed it all back better than new.
My throbbing shoulder after posting my novel of a response has reminded me…keyboards and shoulder injuries do *not* play well together. Especially laptops. Make sure you are sitting at a proper desk set up with ergonomic positioning…and even that may not help. When the shoulder is flared, the only thing that calms it down is not doing the things that cause sharp pain during or shortly after. Think about your typing set up and workout regimen and consider setting aside (in the short run) things that make you go OWW! Heck, even the way you sleep could be causing you grief–that’s something physical therapists are great at helping you figure out. If you work extensively on a laptop…fess up to the proper medical personnel about it.
An option that has not been explored is to have your arm amputated at the shoulder and replaced by a big hinged 8 lb. sledge.
I like the sledgehammer idea even better than the dirt idea. Is 8 lbs. a lot?
I mostly hurt after sleeping — though last night even sitting on the couch before bed hurt.
Of course, it probably doesn’t help that I’ve been caught in (and escaped) several armbars on that side; though they tend to attack the elbow, escaping them requires some torquing of the shoulder (if you want to walk around and out) or — and this is what I tend to do — using my strength to curl the guy up and into me.
Curling a 200 lb human strains the shoulder more than you might think.
At any rate, my primary care guy thought it was bursa-related, but we’ll see what the ortho guy says Friday. I know this place works with the Avalanche hockey team, and I imagine getting board checked causes a number of shoulder impingements, but I’ll ask about experience.
Worked too hard to get into this shape (even fighting through a near-severed finger); I’ll be damned if I’m going to get sidetracked now.
It definately sounds like a an irritated tendon or bursa.
I wouldn’t worry about the cortisone as long as it’s in tissue and not actual joints.
If the sports Doc is worthy, they’ll look at you with an MRI to check for a more serious tissue injury…And then use cortisone if there are no structural problems…
Maybe you should cut back on the two-a-days until then!
Definately connective tissue relted if it hurts significantly worse after periods of inactivity…
Stick to the cardio and wierd calf shoe stuff ’til Friday though, to avoid making it worse.
Definately no curling 200 lb guys
They always have fun activities on the Lido deck too.
Definately no curling 200 lb guys
A lot of people don’t know how dangerous competitive hairstyling is.
not funny
al —
You could have gone to the broomsticks. Instead you went Zohan. There’s much to be said for that.
My husband has had insane shoulder pain radiating into his arm for a couple months. He had an MRI Friday and today they said he has spinal stenosis which can supposedly be temporarily or permanently “fixed” with a shot of cortisone. In his spine. Let us know what the doc says-my husband did go to the orthopedist(the one who replaced both of his hips. I sense a trend here). Best wishes!
Yeah, I was going to say that might be bursitis but it sounds more like a tendon issue if it’s involving your trapezius as well; IIRC you don’t get a lot of muscular pain with bursitis, as it tends to stay right in the shoulder. Also as I remember, when my mom had fairly severe bursitis on her right arm, it rarely hurt when she was at rest, just when she lifted anything.
But yeah, get that checked. Muscles mend; menisces, bursa, and tendons get kinda screwed if you let the damage worsen.
Shoulders are a bitch!
Two cents worth:
Hopefully it’s something small, with a painful blister-llke effect so that it will heal via some short term rest plus anti-inflammatories – including cortisone, but just once. If it is something small, I don’t think PT will produce any magic, except maybe longer term after things definitively quiet down as judged by pain.
But whatever it is, the question is what caused it? Can the cause be isolated to one kind of movement or training exercise – for example, sometimes it’s just a matter of one particular weight-lifting movement, bar shape, or machine – even just the way the grip makes everything alter upstream. [The latter also happens very frequently in the case of shoes, especially when someone gets new shoes, or the old ones wear out imperceptibly. All kinds of hell can break out elsewhere.]
Or is it due to general “overuse” wear and tear simply finally finding the weakest point? If it gets repaired, why won’t it most likely recur, unless something is changed?
PT Jeff. Find a good PT and work with him.
Don’t shoot the messenger, I say this out of concern and painful personal experience…ah…about half of all US pro sports “team physicians” earn that honor by paying the team in question, rather than necessarily being the best doc around. You can probably still google that scandalicious story from a few years ago (NYT 5/18/04–hold your nose long enough to read it, there’s even a Denver shout out, though it’s from a marketing perspective). So with respect to “official team physician,” as in most other areas, it’s caveat emptor.
FWIW, I could tell you a multi-surgery horror story about the Av’s team orthopod and a good friend’s formerly functional knee…wouldn’t treat a dog they way she was treated. Note: It was four years ago and I have no idea if it’s the same OS you’re seeing; given the body part in question, it’s likely not. Just an illustrative point. A surgeon friend gave me this great advice: Be informed, be an advocate for yourself, and tack the phrase “in my opinion” on the end of everything the doctor tells you. And keep in mind that another doctor, with equally stellar bona fides, may tell you the polar opposite. And that would be his/her opinion as well.
In sum, not every doctor is right for every injury. But team physicians are a good place to start–better, certainly, than the Yellow Pages. And you’ve correctly pointed out that shoulders are much more germane to hockey players than most other body parts. Knees are a unique area of specialization and as one of the few load-bearing hinge joints out there in nature, they require a special touch. Knees, hands, hips, spines, ankles, and shoulders are the main focus points of orthopedic specialists. So it’s a good idea to make sure your doctor does lots of shoulders, in your case. It’s even better if they ONLY do shoulders. That’s the definition of a true specialist to me–they do one or two body parts and don’t attempt to be a jack of all trades, master of none.
Anyhow, you’re doing your homework, it sounds like you’re doing everything right and are in excellent physical shape. That’s a huge factor in successful outcomes, so you are starting ahead of the curve. Just keep your guard up. It’s the punch you weren’t expecting and didn’t anticipate that lays you down.
Another tip–my torn rotator cuff and labrum also react VERY badly to dangling at my side without support. For example, sitting in a chair with no arms or arms that aren’t the right height to take the weight off of my arm will cause a gnawing ache after 10 mins or so. Ditto for reading in bed sitting up, or holding a heavy hardcover book while lying down. Same thing with typing and not having my arms properly supported. Oh, and sleeping. I sleep on the GOOD side only, with a very thick pillow propping up my bad wing and keeping it level–if the arm drops down toward the mattress with no support as I sleep on my good side, it puts a lot of torque on the torn structures in the back of my bad shoulder. Wakes me with monster aches. My injuries are right below the traps–supra and infra-spinatus down to sub-scapularis, through teres and down into the triceps. My damage was also a torque injury, done in a car accident with the pivot point helpfully provided by my seat belt. OUCH.
Unsolicited tip 3: Find a person willing to probe and see where your tender spots are on your back, shoulder, and arm–that’s important for icing and diagnostic purposes. Long-suffering spouses and significant others are excellent at this.
UT4: if you mouse with your left hand, don’t. Change hands–feels weird, but you will get used to it. Try to shift as many things as possible to the other arm. Understand with workouts it’s tough, but until you know what’s going on you could be further stressing an acute injury. Not good.
Take care of that shoulder. This is purely self-interest at work on my part. I can’t have one of my favorite iconoclasts not making blog updates in the home stretch of the election.
HEY! What’s wrong with bein’ over forty, slobbing around and being old and busted.
I mean, except for the sleepless nights of mind-numbing pain, the rest of it is pretty comfortable!
(When ya get past fifty, yer body starts remindin’ ya of all that fun ya had in yer yute. Ah…the memories… Well, there are three years that are a bit of a blank, but that was in the seventies…)
#53 HM:
When I use the laptop I have a 1″x1″ piece of dowel under the back to lift the keyboard – tilt it – so that my forearms and wrists can lay flat without the wrists or elbows having to be held at any angles. (I think it also helps keep the bottom of the laptop cool by allowing air to circulate under it.)
I used to do a lot of heavy lifting in my younger days – tent canvases, picnic tables, garbage cans (ex-55 gal. drums), parking rails, etc. It may be from that.
Just took a phone call from dad. Mom went in for knee replacement surgery today. She broke the knee about ten years ago, and the x-rays showed a lot of build up in that knee. Funny thing – they found one of her legs is shorter than the other, which may explain some of her back pain.
Anyhow, mom is doing good, just really in la-la land right now.
Uh, the sarcasm light was on in my last sentence. Seriously, tho, take care of that bad wing. PT is a good start as well, but that’s a whole other can of worms–avoid chain practices if at all possible. Like a certain Alabama based franchise which books 4-6 patients per PT per hour. They basically put hot packs on you at the beginning, watch you do simple exercises, and throw an icebag on you at the end. This does not qualify as PT in my book.
Again, look for sports medicine/performance enhancement PT’s who have qualifications in exercise physiology and things like myo-fascial release. That’s hands on tissue work, not supervising you doing arm curls with a 1.5 lb weight.
Yeesh, I’m opinionated today. Sorry. (Steps off soapbox.)
#64 J. Peden:
Any place is a bitch. I think the body ought to be thought of as a mast on an old square-rigger. There are a lot of stays and shrouds placed just so to keep the mast (body) upright, and moving any yard (limb) places a strain on all of that fabric, and if anything is damaged you will know it.
When I probe around, the only area that really feels anything is that spike bone at the shoulder crest. For the longest time I thought I was dealing with a bone bruise.
I think the arm bars worsened things — as did having guys hanging around my neck trying to choke me week in, week out. Now I feel sometimes as if I’ve thrown out my left arm (anybody who’s played baseball knows what I mean by that), but I’m not convinced it’s all connected.
Will see, though.
I overcompensated with my left for the 5 weeks when my right hand was out of commission due to a blender mishap. Might have something to do with it.
Could be a pinched nerve, also. Those fuckers hurt like hell and create some weird symptoms.
#70 HM:
Do not be afraid of having an opinion here! Just be afraid of having an opinion without anything to back it up with – and you got the back-up. A former solicitor general for Michigan complimented me for saying “I don’t know that” to a question, and he said it was always better to tell the judge that you don’t know than to go on the record with something you can’t support.
#9. You’ve got a no-deductible, no-limit, no-copay health insurance plan and a damned fine Jewish orthopedist to put you back into your as-originally-engineered condition.
Happy Yom Kippur, Jeff, a few hours early. Get well before the Oblowme thugs get to your street. You’re going to need that left. Me, I’m going for more firepower.
i tore rotator cuff, seperated shoulder and tore off my pec tendon. after 2 surgeries i had the pec tendon reattached and the shoulder fixed but kept having the same pain you describe above. it turned out i had a torn labrum – kind of looked like shredded wheat on the last mri. somtimes alot of inflamation can make it hard to detect. try and get inflamation as under control as possible before the mri.
Jeff, the “spikey” bone tenderness point, range of motion, and night pains say pretty clearly that you have a sheath inflammation of your primary biceps tendon (you have two of them). If you look at an anatomy chart of the shoulder, you’ll see that this tendon runs through a groove in the upper arm bone (humerus), passes through a sling-like passage over the shoulder joint capsule, and is anchored to that “spikey” bone (the coracoid process). Note that this kind of problem usually cause little or no pain in the biceps itself, although pain can radiate down into the muscle from above, especially at night, when it sears down from above with no notice just as you’re trying to get to sleep.
Typically, the sheath becomes inflamed from repeated forceful ballistic motions of the arm, rather than from static weight loads associated with normal weight-lifting. Once it’s inflamed, it chafes the tendon, inflaming that as well. The humeral groove and the space leading to the coracoid are close-tolerance to begin with, and there’s no way to accommodate the increased tendon/sheath diameter that result from inflammation. Fluid accumulates in pockets surrounding the tendon (clearly visible on an MRI) and can influence the glenoid and cuff ligaments. Now you begin to get pain and symptoms associated with cuff tear, although the cuff itself remains intact and free of injury.
It’s a positive feedback cycle. More use = more chafing in tight spaces = more inflammation = more fluid = I think you can see where this leads.
A further diagnostic would be difficulty with internal rotation of the shoulder. Reach back with the hand on your affected arm as though to pluck your wallet or Skoal can out of your butt jeans pocket, then slide the back of the hand up the spine. Should hurt like hell above a certain point.
There’s an excellent cure for this. It’s called time. Lay off any ballistic use of the arm. Cut back to lower weights. Avoid the bench press like the plague, and make up for it with dumbbell presses and fore-arm Swiss Ball push-ups instead. (Notice I’m not suggesting you do what we both know ain’t happening, which is lay off everything for a few weeks.)
The fluid isn’t going away soon, but it will go away slowly. Give it a few months.
How do I know this? Cuz it happened to me. Among other things, I’m a personal trainer, btw.
Let me know if you want some pdfs of what’s going on and how to deal with it. The good news is, once you break the cycle, your shoulder will be pretty much as good as it ever was. Mine did.
Jeff,
I had pretty nasty shoulder pain, trouble sleeping, couldn’t raise my arm above the shoulder as you describe. Absentmindedly stretching in the morning was a problem, made me shout out loud. It’s a nasty way to wake up.
It was severe for 6-9 months, and then gradually faded. I kept using it, though more carefully, so as to retain the movement. Now it’s completely cleared up, and I’ve forgotten I ever had it!
My right knee, now that’s another matter…
If you can do military presses, no way is it torn rotator cuff. I learned this the hard way, and made Little Girl Noises whilst doing so.
I overcompensated with my left for the 5 weeks when my right hand was out of commission due to a blender mishap. Might have something to do with it.
That’s the kind of sleuthing you need, which will perhaps find something simple and remediable and which might not need ever recur.
As to the feeling/actuality of your arm having been “thrown out”, that can be a sign of inflammation called “functio laesa” = loss of function. It’s a well-established sign but often forgotten as part of the picture involving inflammation. The involved part simply doesn’t work right, for good or otherwise unknown reasons as a response to injury – perhaps it’s some kind of nonspecific overall feedback response to injury, which you realize in this case simply by having that “thrown out” feeling or observation. Anyway, fwiw…
Mark H, you have described something very much like what I’ve been dealing with for at least the last several months. I’ve finally switched my wallet over to my left pocket to eliminate that maneuver (I don’t seem to have the option of letting someone else pick up the check often enough to make much difference otherwise) and things have been getting a little better over the last couple of weeks.