Rotator cuff ????

[pineywoods]

Didn't know I had a problem until I lay down in bed after a normal day's activities. Intense pain all over right shoulder and arm. I have read about rotator cuff tears and figured UH OH I have messed up big time. No way to sleep, the only relief was to get up and walk. I suffered through 2 nights of little sleep till Monday morning and then drove to the local clinic. Conversation with the Nurse went something like this. What did you do and when ? Me..have no idea but I could give you a long list of possibilities. After poking and massaging and viewing some videos, the conclusion is, I don't have a torn muscle (most common) but an inflamed, swollen muscle that is pinching a major nerve bundle. Steroid shot to address the inflamation, muscle relaxer shot to calm the muscle and 3 prescriptions to address follow-on plus a stern admonition to restrict all physical activity for 5 days. Results couldn't be better. Follow up visit tomorrow. Needless to say, my mill and shop are shut down for a week.

[thecfarm]

I wish you well and things be better in 5 days.

[Magicman]

Sometime following the Dr. orders is the toughest part of recovery because we start itching to do stuff.  :  I wish you the best.

[kantuckid]

Good luck on some relief. Ibuprofen is your best friend. Hope your kidneys are doing well for the NSAIDS as it's a two-edged sword. Aleve does me less good.
I self-healed when younger from several partial rotator cuff tears. PT clinics are full of kids who do sports with what they call "loose shoulder joints" and by toning the muscles they are good to go. The last one was a full tear, took titanium screws and cable plus sewing it back together. It is hands down the toughest PT I've done-full tears take a long hard bunch of work. The repair has worked but like the doc said, the arthritis is still in there. Now I get both shoulders get shot up with cortisone on the same 3 month cycle as my knees, but different doc.
The shoulder shots help with pain and make sleep happen better-BUT, the wired & screwed shoulder calls for laying that arm down my the top of my left hip as I sleep-> or the nerve gets pinched and I'm awake within minutes. The shoulder joint replacements are not such as they allow the motion as does other full joint replacements-far more limited.
No free lunch when body stuff gets far enough down the road to make for everyday work akin to driving a beater car to work.
Have you tried TENS treatments? I bought a TENS gizmo on Amazon for ~ a $100 bucks and it works great. Not the PT place for sure but does help. Mines compact about 2/3 size of a cell phone and rechargeable. 

[Don P]

The docs can feel free to correct this but I'm pretty sure an active man of some experience has tears in his shoulders. Those don't heal. You tore a little more and its pithed off. They can calm that roar down but the tear is still there and it is some degree worse than it was a week ago. When it calms down build muscle but don't poke the bear .

[doc henderson]

a strain is a micro tear if you will.  as we age things do not heal as well.  a scar after it heals does not contribute to work, so you redistribute what does the work.  the muscles are thin, but can be worked out.  the key is for people who do not normally lift, to work up to it gradually.  just like back injury/strains it can just be from an awkward movement or lift.  this is why very active people do better.  they have muscle memory for weird movements under weight, and have stronger muscles overall.  You really will not know until it does not get better and you get and MRI.  i thought I had a rotator cuff tear from a Sail boating accident correcting a tiller movement by a blonde headed collogue who is now a psychiatrist.  It was a Labrum tear, and I have never had surgery.  it hurts occasionally but not enough to be in a shoulder immobilizer for 6 weeks.

[Peter Drouin]

I had a Doc tell me once [The less you do, the less you can do]

[kantuckid]

I should have said, "minor tears will self-heal sometimes".  ;D 
In 1959 I tried a common, full forward roll escape from the wrestling down position. The brute holding my left arm seemed to think otherwise held onto that arm and I tore "something" and never saw a doc afterwards either. Same shoulder that's now wired/screwed from 2014 surgery. Extended rainy weather is nasty for some joints now. :D 
A rotator cuff tear does not typically heal itself, so I read. I tore mine COMPLETELY in 2014 while stupidly pushing on a log chain tensioner w/o my usual cheater pipe.
 For some color to the story: I was *pithed off as I'd returned from a trip to our oldest Marine sons home near Jacksonville, NC and a TN logger was supposed to have loaded me a trailer load of cedar logs. We got to his house and no logs, empty trailer I'd towed all the way to near Marysville, TN and he decides to not answer his phone either. I'm angrily cinching my chains down for transit and bang goes my shoulder. Wife said my face turned full white as it happened. I struggle along with it seeming to get better over about two weeks, then, as I'm talking football with a friend who was also our UPS man back then and I turn backwards talking & walking and trip over the plastic grass chute on a riding mower I'm repairing, fall forward on my elbow, it gets jammed into the gravel and my bad shoulder gets finished off. 
Between damages and arthritis my shoulder joint will never stabilize and will continue to deteriorate. The periodic xrays tell that movement as the joint worsens. Steroids do help sort of "lube them up". 

[kantuckid]

Thats why I'm climbing ladders and up onto my tractor with a purple leg that dislikes being used. If I sit around that leg will be worse off & I become dead in the water. 

[pineywoods]

I still haven't figured out what I did or when I did it, but like I told the doc, I could think of a long list of possibles. Top of the list is climbing on and off a tractor on the side where there's no step. Or yanking on the starter rope of a broke chainsaw. I'm being extremely cautious as I have a dis-abled wheelchair bound wife to care for. If I mess up to the point where I can't take care of her, we will be in a heap of trouble. So far, so good, no pain at all and I sleep well, but the honey-do list is growing by leaps and bounds.

[Magicman]

My torn rotator cuff was not caused by anything that I actually did.  It was cut/worn in two by a bone spur.  When it finally severed all of sudden I could not lift my arm.  I was sitting here in my chair and told PatD that I thought that I was having a stroke.  Stuck my tongue out, smiled, and did whatever else to see why my right arm suddenly would not work.

[doctorb]

Sorry I'm a little late to the shoulder party.

A word of caution....shoulder docs spend A LOT of time ruling out neck issues.  Cuff inflammation is one thing, and is a common overuse /degenerative disease.  But pain into the shoulder with radiation down the arm can be a cervical nerve problem, and it needs to be worked up if it persists.  Hope the steroid shot helps.  I assume you had an MRI.

[kantuckid]

I had the nerve test visits over 20 years ago, ala neuro surgeons when my then CTS hand surgeon checked out my hand nerve symptoms, had one since then about 5-7 yrs back and both with the "map pins" stuck in yer arm, etc.. I was told a long time ago, 20+ years that i'd lose sensation of touch and have nerve pain in the bad shoulder arm, still is sort of OK though. Not sure why they do it as no fix happens, just tell me what I know that the same fingers ahve the same symptoms, etc.. yes, my necks messed up too...
Many years ago I had several episodes of calcium deposits that caused mucho shoulder pain and a tiny pill Rx from my doc dissolved them both times and never had that since-was in the 1980's.
My current shoulder docs VG, he does lots of high level baseball Tommy Johns procedures and also more- lots youthful kids and a bunch of old farts like me.  ;D
Magic,. thats a cute story. :D

[Onthesauk]

Have had the steroid shots, do wonders but don't last long and can't get them very often.

Am a firm believer in PT.  Went through it 10 years ago and pretty much under control now.  Use a couple of different stretch bands, usually a week or ten days every 6 months, twice a day for ten minutes.  Allows me to sleep at night.

[Ed_K]

 Pineywoods, and to everyone else, I'm hopping the pain subsides and you can get better. I know the pain as mine is from the neck and has the burn down the arm. I wonder if it's from the radiation back the first of the year from the 2 tumor's on my spine. The only thing that's helped is stretching my neck a little at a time and all day long.