Not sure where to post this...nagging shoulder pain
For the past several months (I'm not even sure how long), I've had this nagging pain in my left shoulder. I originally thought it was just muscle soreness from how I slept on it, but I'm pretty sure it's something else now.
It's not really sore, but it hurts if I move it in certain ways. For example, if I just move my arm up and down it's fine, but if I lift my arm and put it behind my head or back, it hurts, same goes if I cross it over in front of my chest.
I'll sometimes also have a sharp pain in the shoulder if I put enough weight on that arm (lifting myself up out of a chair for example) but I can lift weights and it doesn't really hurt.
I can't tell if the pain is in the muscle or in the joint itself.
My brother said he thought maybe the "soft tissue" was damaged and that it takes a long time to heal (of course, he's no expert, but has been into lifting weights for several years and knows a little bit about the muscle groups and such). Speaking of which, I moved a couple weeks ago, which of course involved a lot of lifting, and during that I really felt no increase in pain, nor any residual pain or soreness.
Re: Not sure where to post this...nagging shoulder pain
I think your brother is probably right; what you are describing sounds like symptoms of a rotator cuff tear (or perhaps a labral tear). Are you able to go to the doctor or a physical therapist for evaluation?
Re: Not sure where to post this...nagging shoulder pain
No, I don't have any health insurance at the moment (though I'm supposed to be getting some at some point before too long), so I can't afford it right now.
Re: Not sure where to post this...nagging shoulder pain
Hi ghunt,
Your soreness may be caused by muscular inflammation, or perhaps even ligament damage. Do you participate in any sports that use primarily your shoulders? Tennis or softball perhaps?
You brother also may be right. You could have pulled a muscle and the effects may only have become noticable recently. You might want to get an x-ray or something of the sort to rule out ligament damage.
I am speaking in this case from personal experience. My mom had shoulder pains which were initially caused by inflammation, but after several tests, they found out that there was some ligament damage. Now she still complains that it hurts, and can't play tennis.
I hope you catch whatever it is soon, and I hope it's not too serious! Best of luck with your shoulder.
Re: Not sure where to post this...nagging shoulder pain
I started getting shoulder pain in my right shoulder in February. My doctor originally thought maybe a pulled muscle, but the pain didn't get better. The shoulder hurt when I moved my shoulder in raised and cross-body motions. I finally went to a physical therapist. By examining my movements, he was able to diagnose a shoulder sublixation with a shoulder impingement. What this meant was that the muscles in my shoulder had loosened and my rotator cuff was coming slightly out of the socket every time I moved it. I didn't even realize this was happening. What eventually happened was that every time the shoulder came up out of the socket it was pinching the muscles in the shoulder between the lower and upper shoulder bones. This was causing the muscle that was being pinched to have some swelling. With the swelling came the pain. For me, the solution is regular therapy to tighten the muscles back up in the shoulder, using ice on the shoulder and taking an anti-inflamatory. For the exercises he gave me a couple therapy bands and lower and upper exercises to do. I also found these on the web with a search. You might want to search these conditions to see if they sound like what you have.
By the way, I had no injuries to cause this, it just started up one day.
