Kanzan
07-13-2008, 03:20 PM
About two years ago, after a long day of work delivering mail, and lawn work, my right shoulder became painful, remember not being able to brush my teeth, with right hand. I didn't go to the doctor right away, basically still worked, in degrees of pain, just tried to limit painful motions. Months later, when I finally did see a doctor, he diagnosed tendinitis though a physical exam( x ray's were normal ), and I went to rehab for stretching and strengthening exercises. The stretching helped the most, and I have most of the motion back. I've done the strengthening off and on. Since I deliver mail all day , my arm is tired, and more work(exercising ) is the last thing I want to do.
I still have a stiff, sometimes ache in the top,front part of my right shoulder. It's worse in the morning, and after a heavy work day . My shoulder pops , especially when I rotate my hand, with straightened arm down and a little behind me, thumb facing backwards, also when I stretch the arm from horizontal direction side of chest toward outside of body--pop . I don't think it's a typical joint pop, it's louder and can be quickly repeated (tendon)?. I have a low degree of pain, but the tightness, low ache, and popping noise bother me. My doctor thinks more strengthening exercise is the key, I disagree. I'm reading up on stretching exercises, (Kit Laughlin's book is good,) since stretching seemed to help the most. No real change yet though. I've guess I haven't pushed for an MRI, which I probably should. What to do next? Thanks in advance . 45 year male. Kanzan
I still have a stiff, sometimes ache in the top,front part of my right shoulder. It's worse in the morning, and after a heavy work day . My shoulder pops , especially when I rotate my hand, with straightened arm down and a little behind me, thumb facing backwards, also when I stretch the arm from horizontal direction side of chest toward outside of body--pop . I don't think it's a typical joint pop, it's louder and can be quickly repeated (tendon)?. I have a low degree of pain, but the tightness, low ache, and popping noise bother me. My doctor thinks more strengthening exercise is the key, I disagree. I'm reading up on stretching exercises, (Kit Laughlin's book is good,) since stretching seemed to help the most. No real change yet though. I've guess I haven't pushed for an MRI, which I probably should. What to do next? Thanks in advance . 45 year male. Kanzan
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MountainReader
07-13-2008, 03:58 PM
I started having shoulder problems about 1 1/2 years ago. I did the therapy thing first. Actually, it was my PT who first diagnosed me. Evidently, I have some subluxation happening when I move my shoulder. In essence, every time I move my shoulder, it comes out of place just a bit, then moves back in place....a kind of mini dislocation in a way. For me, I sometimes feel it as a "pop", the rest of the time I don't feel it directly. Because of the subluxations, I ended up having my tendons pinched between the top of the arm bone when it came up and the lower part of my shoulder bone. I ended up with constant irritation and swelling, tendonitis of the shoulder and bicep and bursitis. What they were doing during PT was to help me strengthen my shoulder muscles to try to keep the shoulder in place. I think it was too far past when I started the PT though and I ended up having arthroscopic shoulder decompression surgery. They went in and shaved down some of the bone under the shoulder to make more room for when my shoulder comes out of place so everything doesn't pinch as much. I am 3 months out and my pain level has decreased significantly. My Ortho says I need to constantly keep it strengthened to keep it from getting worse again.
I would suggest getting a referral to a surgeon at this point, but I doubt the PT is causing anything to get worse if you have a skilled PT.
I would suggest getting a referral to a surgeon at this point, but I doubt the PT is causing anything to get worse if you have a skilled PT.
feelbad
07-14-2008, 09:54 AM
i do think your next step here should be just simply obtaining that MRI. something is pretty obviously not right in there for this to keep on like it has for so long. the longer you go without really findingthe underlying causes of your situation,in some cases,the worse the damage can get over time. this was my case when my shoulder just "let go' on me one morning and i started to feel very strong knife jabs around the top of it? i had had alot of off and on again type problems with this shoulder and the blade for quite a few years. i had an MRI after my primary tried to do the ROMS on me and we had some problems and pain with them. while i expected to have some level of real damage i did not expect the severity of them to be there. i had torn the supraspinatus completley in half by that time and casued another partial tear below that tendon too. i also had alot of "clean up" that just had to be done along with like MR,a shoulder decomp too. the MRI is what will really show you what the problem areas are. an X ray really shows only the boney structures and not all of the rotator cuff area tendons and muscles that make our shoulder joints actually work for us. this just really needs a much deeper in depth look to really know for sure just what it is you are dealing with.
i was told by my ortho that there are MANY people out there who DO have some levels of rotator cuff tears that just have not yet gotten to the point where the pain gets them in to see their docs for that eval and MRI. this is just a very common type of injury. i would see your doc and get that MRI,just so you know whats up in there and let that dictate your next step after that. hopefully things are not too bad for you. please keep us posted. FB
i was told by my ortho that there are MANY people out there who DO have some levels of rotator cuff tears that just have not yet gotten to the point where the pain gets them in to see their docs for that eval and MRI. this is just a very common type of injury. i would see your doc and get that MRI,just so you know whats up in there and let that dictate your next step after that. hopefully things are not too bad for you. please keep us posted. FB