Hi everyone,
I'm new to the formums but have been reading a lot of the posts related to shoulder injuries over the past week or so (first found the forums searching for information on shoulder impingement). I am a lifelong competitive swimmer, and swam through college. This is my fifth year out of school, and my fifth year swimming Masters. I have been one of the lucky few to get through my swimming career with no major injuries, but unfortunately, I started having pain primarily in my right shoulder this past October. It also occurred very minimally in my left shoulder. When it continued to reoccur and gradually get worse, I tried two weeks of rest in Dec. The pain worsened during the rest period so I finally saw a doctor at the end of January. At that point my right shoulder was so painful that I was barely using it. Predictably, I was diagnosed with bilateral shoulder impingement and prescribed PT, and told to ice when when it was painful, but try to stay active as long as I wasn't in serious pain. On my own, I cut out butterfly, kickboards, diving off the blocks, and pulling (all painful things). I was told to stay away from NSAID's because they delay healing.
Up until a week ago, my shoulders had been improving gradually and I had been doing PT and targeted rest pretty strictly. The right one was still very mildly painful, but just barely. Then, a couple of things happened. Over the past two weeks, I've had to do some heavy lifting for work, and I also stupidly decided to do a fun dryland-integrated practice where we were starting off of the blocks and repeatedly climbing out of the pool. I also pulled with small paddles. (yes, I know... dumb). My left shoulder hurt during this practice but I figured I'd just ice it and take the consequences, because I was enjoying myself.
Now, my left (not the original one) shoulder has been in pretty bad pain for the past 4 days or so. I can feel what I think is it subluxating with certain motions (particularly if I squeeze my lats together and pull my shoulder back), and I get a popping sensation inside the joint. It hurts with almost any motion, even washing my hands. The worst is how it aches inside the joint; that is keeping me up at night. Icing makes it a little better for half an hour or so. I also started taking ibuprofen, which helps a little, but not much. I'm worried about a SLAP tear to my labrum because of these symptoms.
This is a lot of background information.... but what I want to know is how long I should wait before I go back to the doctor? I am trying to see if rest, PT, icing and NSAID's will help. Unfortunately getting time off from school/work is very difficult for a doctor's appointment so I don't want to go unless it's really serious. I'm pretty strongly anti-surgery if there is even a slight hope of medical management improving things, just because I know surgery is not benign and requires a long recovery time.
