Had a shoulder injury, thoughts?

[Izzyreal]

Hello everybody, recently I started doing some Martial arts, i go in for my first day and end up hurting my shoulder pretty bad. The only way i can describe it is that my shoulder mildly came out of the socket, then went back in. It was insanely quick and brief and left my arm shaking afterwards. Didn't bother me too much in the class, but I have been feeling it for quiet a bit now that I am home. So I am looking for opinions, I am pretty discouraged.

I have complete full range of motion, with very little pain. I think I damaged my rotary cuff, since the pain is right in the middle of the shoulder, where the rotary cuff is.

I started feeling better about it until I just got out of the shower, i was drying myself off with my right arm (The damaged one) and when I reached over to my lower left side of my rib cage my shoulder starting clicking. Or make this odd popping sound.

I am eighteen years old and never really had an injury like this.

All of this still sounds like a damaged rotary cuff, and since I still have full range of motion with very little pain, I'm not totally scared and discouraged. But I'm still mildly frightened in a way. Opinions? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Tez3]

Opinions?

Consult a medical professional ie a doctor or physiotherapist. There's no other advice anyone can give you, we could guess based on what we might have had, we could Google it, but what you need is proper medical advice from someone who can examine you, not guesses from people on the internet you don't know. Sorry but you did ask.

 

[Izzyreal]

You're probably right, and that would be something I would do, I was waiting for insurance to get approved. I don't even have a primary care doctor yet, so at most it will be a few weeks before I am even in an office for help. I am a very anxious person when my body doesn't work like it's supposed to and this was one of the only things I could think of in the mean time. Besides giving it rest and going easy on it. I would love a professionals help right this second.. It's just not available to me as of this second.

 

[JR 137]

I'm an athletic trainer. This is general advice, NOT personal/specific advice...

"Pain in the middle of the shoulder" doesn't say much. Middle in the front, middle in the back, or middle on the top? The rotator cuff muscles are on the scapula (shoulder blade). They attach on the head of the humerus (head of the upper arm bone).

Realistically speaking, the only way 18 year olds tear their rotator cuff is something as traumatic as a car accident, falling off a 20 ft ladder, etc. Rotator cuff tears are typically found in 50+ year old populations.

If you subluxed your shoulder (partial dislocation that went back in on its own), the first thing I'd check is the labrum. The labrum commonly gets torn in dislocations. It's donut shaped cartilage on the glenoid fossa (part of the socket part of the joint). Labrum tears often require surgery, but not always. If it needs surgery and you don't fix it, it can lead to further tearing, arthritis, and other things. Deep pain in the front and middle of the shoulder, along with grinding and clicking are common symptoms. That doesn't mean you definitely did though.

The biceps tendon can also get damaged during a subluxation. It won't typically tear in an 18 year old, but it can get stretched. Painful, but pretty much a rest it and it'll heal thing. Superficial (not deep) pain the the front and middle of the shoulder is common. Pain in the groove right in the front of the shoulder is common.

Rather than subluxation, you may have separated your shoulder. That's the ligament that connects the clavicle (collar bone) and scapula. That one's painful too, but generally heals on its own. Pain right on the top and middle of the shoulder (in the boney area) is common.

What's the takeaway from all of this? You need to be seen by a physician who'll put his/her hands on you, move you around, and X-Ray or possibly MRI you to determine what's going on. There's a ton of things you could've done; I'm only scratching the surface here. See a doc. Rest your shoulder. If it takes you 2-3 weeks to see one, then wait 2-3 weeks. If you don't, you could cause more damage that could not be repairable. If you rest it for that amount of time and the doc says you're fine and nothing's wrong, did you really miss out on anything worth risking your shoulder over anyway?

See a doc.

 

[DanT]

So weird, this happened to me Thursday. It was painful as hell, I got an x ray and the doc told me to take it easy for the next week.

 

[Headhunter]

Go to the doctor. All the advice you need

 

[Tez3]

You're probably right, and that would be something I would do, I was waiting for insurance to get approved. I don't even have a primary care doctor yet, so at most it will be a few weeks before I am even in an office for help. I am a very anxious person when my body doesn't work like it's supposed to and this was one of the only things I could think of in the mean time. Besides giving it rest and going easy on it. I would love a professionals help right this second.. It's just not available to me as of this second.

Coming from the UK this shocks me. I really hope you can get come help soon. Please try not to worry though, it sounds like an injury not a nasty disease, as JR says rest it until you can see the doctor. Then take their advice ( so many don't) you'll be fine I'm sure.

 

[Izzyreal]

Thank you for all of the replies, I especially appreciate the in depth one you gave me JR. Yea Tez, it does kind of suck that this is the way things are here.

If I can specify for you a little more JR; the pain is in the middle front area of my shoulder. Like if you put your hand on your arm pit, and went to the right, in that general area. Also if I do certain movements pertaining to the far left with my right arm, I get more moderate of pain.

I also can sort of recreate the initial experience of that weird dislocation thing, if I move my right arm quickly to my left side. Just figured this out last night, it was pretty painful.

All in all I am going to try and schedule an appointment with a doctor on Monday, I hope it's not too long of a wait.

 

[JowGaWolf]

After you see the doctor you'll need to give it some rest and time to heel. Don't rush the healing process. Martial Arts in general tends to put more stress on your body than what you would normally get. The mistake that I often make is thinking that feeling better for daily activities = feeling better for martial art activities. Because of this, I often get back into training sooner than I should, which usually results in reinjuring myself or aggravating the injury.

Do what your doctor says and let the injury heal properly.