Shoulder Injury

I concur with seeing a doctor. Couple of years ago I had mild shoulder impingement in my left side. Could not lift my arm over my head at all. Sleeping was painful especially with being a side sleeper. I received a referral from my primary doctor to see a physical therapist and they helped in getting better.

@Morgaen73 possible rotator cuff injury and/or tendonitis. I currently have tendonitis in my left shoulder and am seeing a physio for it. Best advice would be to book an appointment with a physio as soon as possible who will give you the proper stretching exercises to do. If you do OHP, leave it out for the time being and go lighter on other exercises about shoulder height or leave out altogether.

No doubt, get to a doctor. I dealt with shoulder impingement for over 10 years. It got so bad I couldn't throw a ball or if I did yardwork, I could barely pull my seatbelt over to click it in. Last year They went in & resected my collarbone & cleaned out my shoulder. It's incredible being able to lift, swim & do anything I want with no pain.

Morgaen73 wrote: »

I'm seeing the Doc tomorrow

Good!

Been there, done that. Have had 2 rotator cuff surgeries, 1 that was misdiagnosed and delayed for over a year as a result.

If you have to go thru a PCP, you need to ask for a referral to an orthopedic surgeon and an MRI. Only the MRI will reveal sny tears. In order to get them more quickly, make sure to tell your PCP that the injury occured over 2 weeks ago and thay, despite rest, OTC pain killers and other efforts you've taken, the pain hasn't gone away.

Good luck!

Tomorrow follow the doctor's advice to a TEE. I developed shoulder impingement in both shoulders at the same time last summer. Tried working through it, no go. Went to a doc for x-rays, was lucky to not need surgery or physical therapy just follow doctor's direction regarding medication, exercise restrictions, etc.

For sleeping at night I took a spare pillow, folded it in half, and when I slept on my side I would hug the pillow to my chest and wrap my arms around it. Not squeezing-tight, but my top arm stayed mostly front-facing not rotated in due to gravity.

It took me about six months to regain range of motion, another few months to stop wincing when I did stretch. I'm now about 14 months post-injury and am back to 100%, full range of motion, no pain, full strength returned. I'm now far more intelligent when it comes to planning my lifting routines, getting enough recovery, and doing exercises to strengthen my shoulder and protect from future injury.

I developed adhesive encapsulitis, or frozen shoulder, without recalling how I hurt it. It started out with A LOT of pain if I moved my arm in certain directions. The pain gradually went away but the shoulder became more and more stiff. My ROM became quite limited in that joint. I went to physio for several weeks with only minimal improvement, then went back to the orthopod, who injected steriods right into the affected joint. Within two weeks I had regained pretty much complete ROM.

Morgaen73 wrote: »

OK just a bit of an update. My shoulder is MUCH better now. Apparently I hurt the muscles in the joint which caused my shoulder muscle to pinch and that became inflamed. So, between my PT and the physio they have me going back to basics. No more lifting heavy. Basically I need to build up the muscles in my shoulder joint again. Sucks but better than nothing lol

Congrats, that is the best diagnosis you could have. If you're interested, check out some of the free articles on Eric Cressey's site. Cressey is a strength and conditioning guy who has specialized over the years in the shoulder. Works with many Major League baseball players.

http://ericcressey.com/

This takes you to archives of stuff he's written back to 2002
http://ericcressey.com/baseball-content

Scroll down the page, archive on the right. I've been to several physical therapists in my community that specialize in athletic rehab and they all read Cressey's stuff.

Best of luck.

Yep we've all been there and decided to soldier on when in fact seeing a professional would've been the best bet. Hope it's nothing too serious. Good luck with recovery. That'll definitely be on the agenda.