Scary

Last Saturday I noticed a funny soreness in my left shoulder, although I don't remember doing anything particularly or unusually strenuous. I sort of ignored it, and it stayed with me through the weekend. It got worse, though, instead of better, and on Tuesday and Wednesday it hurt quite a lot. It hurt particularly when I lifted my forearm up, or moved it down and across my body. The motion to buckle my seatbelt in the driver's seat was particularly painful -- rotating up and behind me to grab the seatbelt, and then crossing it down and to my right hip. Ouch.

So I ignored it, and didn't do yoga, and wondered about it, and rubbed my shoulder with my right hand, and cautiously moved my left arm in a variety of different positions to isolate the pain, while rubbing my shoulder, until I could find the really sore places and positions. And on Thursday and Friday nights I lay in bed and moved my arm around and began to feel like I could do it almost without pain.

But today, sailing, it started to hurt again, and by the end of the day it hurt quite a lot. It's not fun to lift things or reach for things or move my arm around. It's astonishing the number of every day activities, even if you are right handed, that involve lifting and rotating your left arm. I am a little nervous about this. Someone noticed me rubbing it and began telling me horror stories about torn rotator cuffs and a tissue called the labrum, that keeps the shoulder ball from popping out of the shoulder socket, and how tears in that tissue mean the ball pops out and it sounds like that is my thing. I do not wish to have any such condition in my shoulder. I have a body that is wonderfully resilient and very sturdy and I don't have any aches or pains, thank you very much, and I do not wish to have a shoulder issue. I am going to take some Advil and not move my left arm very much for a week or so and see if this thing resolves itself. The prospect that it might not scares me to death.

Comments

[Dylan]

It could be a pinched nerve in your lower neck. I have a really screwed up neck from sleeping in awkward positions and reading on my side in high school.

But you say "soreness." Like a muscle? If it's a pinched nerve it will be more of a sharp, localized pain.

[M]

One of the best things about having access to healthcare is that you don't have to put up for long with you own negative fantasies about the worst case scenario. Nine out of ten times the only thing a health care professional provides is peace of mind.

But it's the tenth time that you're really thankful you went.

[anon]

why haven't you seen a doctor??

[TPB, Esq.]

When I was hit by a drunk driver a few years back, I separated my shoulder/tore the rotator. You may have stretched or damaged yours somehow, but I'm guessing you didn't tear the cuff. You would have a piercing awareness if you did.

[Scoplaw]

Please go see a doctor if this continues.

Anecdotal story: a friend of mine, T-Rex on the blog, had a condition where her shoulder hurt and kept dislocating more and more frequently over the course of two years. Things would get better then worse, then better than worse. She waited, took pain killers, waited, then went in to see a doctor. I’m fuzzy on the details, but basically she had a detached/chipped off piece of something hard grinding away her soft tissue in her shoulder joint. The surgery sucked and she had a long recovery time; had she gone in earlier (she was told) it would have been significantly less traumatic.

Sometimes things heal on their own – sometimes they get worse on their own.

[ogged]

I'll second calls to check with a doctor, though what you describe sounds quite similar to something I had a few months back, which turned out to be bicipital tendonitis (painful with certain movements and positions, and tender in parts of my shoulder; fastening the seatbelt particular torture). It took a couple of months of inactivity and treatment to regain full range of motion, and even now it's just a bit more sore than it ought to be, but overall, manageable.