I am feeling a pain in the shoulder. Yes yes, I know there are millions of threads like this floating around, but I have to ask.
How can I distinguish between a normal shoulder muscle sore and a shoulder injury? Are there circumstances in which the shoulder hurts but for completely normal reasons?
My shoulder is having a dull sore, not a sharp pain. I happened last night. I was swinging my arm around with no apparent reason, and doing backstroking motions when I suddenly felt a pain on the top portion of my deltoid. If I were to draw a circle around the pain, the circle would face out and forward. When my arms are over my head, there's NO pain, but when my arms reach about 45 to 30 degrees to my body, the pain starts. The pain is mainly when I'm moving my arm.
Right now, there's no pain anymore. I gave it a night and today, and currently there's no acute pain, but just a dull soreness much like an aching muscle. However, last night I sensed a bit of pain while moving in the 45 degree zone mentioned above, but when my arms were above my head or even above horizontal I couldn't feel a thing.
When the arm's hurting, after a bit of rest it felt like it had been charged up with lactic acid and had that kind of sore feeling (my entire arm). Then it disappeared. Right now I can't feel any pain while moving my arms, except that very mild soreness. Oh yea, I sense no obvious weakness in the arm or inability to sleep on it.
So...what's happening? Any ideas?
Thanks a lot.
Parents
Former Member
Draconis,
you need someone knowledgable to look at your shoulder. I will digress for a moment, years ago in a far off place there was a man trekking in an area I was living in. He got acute upper abdominal pain with all the symprotms of appendicitis (quiet gut, hurts on release of pressure etc). At great expense he was bundled onto a yak then runshed to the city where they prepared im for an airlift to a hospital in another country. If I described his symptoms, the docs would all agree this was the right course of action. WHile waiting at the airport, the nurse deicded to lift his shirt and examine the patient's skin (out of curiosity) she found a large tick, whose venom was producing the other symptoms. Teh could have removed the tick in the field and treated him.
Before we airlift you off for surgery, you need someone to look at you who knows what to look for.
My experience is that a physical therapist or sports med doc can identify this best. I expect such a person to have me move my arm different ways against resistence. I also expect them to look at my arm (I once had a biceps tendonitis dx but the horrified pt found the "bulge was not a swollen bicep but the "head" of the shoulder displaced agianst the tendon). So go find someone to look. A PT might look wihtout an RX or you could call the original doc and ask for a pt RX. After that my own personal subjective finding is a swim coach can address the long-term solution in the water and the pt on dryland (unless it needs a surgeon). Your mileage will vary.
Draconis,
you need someone knowledgable to look at your shoulder. I will digress for a moment, years ago in a far off place there was a man trekking in an area I was living in. He got acute upper abdominal pain with all the symprotms of appendicitis (quiet gut, hurts on release of pressure etc). At great expense he was bundled onto a yak then runshed to the city where they prepared im for an airlift to a hospital in another country. If I described his symptoms, the docs would all agree this was the right course of action. WHile waiting at the airport, the nurse deicded to lift his shirt and examine the patient's skin (out of curiosity) she found a large tick, whose venom was producing the other symptoms. Teh could have removed the tick in the field and treated him.
Before we airlift you off for surgery, you need someone to look at you who knows what to look for.
My experience is that a physical therapist or sports med doc can identify this best. I expect such a person to have me move my arm different ways against resistence. I also expect them to look at my arm (I once had a biceps tendonitis dx but the horrified pt found the "bulge was not a swollen bicep but the "head" of the shoulder displaced agianst the tendon). So go find someone to look. A PT might look wihtout an RX or you could call the original doc and ask for a pt RX. After that my own personal subjective finding is a swim coach can address the long-term solution in the water and the pt on dryland (unless it needs a surgeon). Your mileage will vary.
