New Arm Problem--need thoughts

[vineyridge]

I have a fairly crippled right arm from a failed rotator cuff surgery so I have come to depend a great deal on my left arm for lifting.

So I woke up yesterday to an odd and very localized pain in my left arm that definitely affects lifting and stretching the arm. It’s right in the middle of my biceps area, and I can’t lift the arm above horizontal without a huge twinge and it really doesn’t want to go there. It also doesn’t want to stretch out to the front. AFAIk, I haven’t tried to do anything especially stressful in the past two days except drive a tractor mowing.

Anyone have any idea about what I might have strained or torn? Is it worth going to a GP immediately. Should I just give it tincture of time? I’ve found that NSAIDs don’t do much for the lack of lifting, and hydrocodone doesn’t do much for the pain.

With my right arm not having any ability to lift weight above horizontal, the left arm is truly needed to work at full function.

[draftxfan]

No advice to offer other than to baby it for a few days and hope it improves. I’ve got two trashed arms too – the left one had two very bad humeral fxs fifty years apart, with a couple of severed RC tendons thrown in for good measure the second time around; the right one had a long-ago “both bones” fx and now boasts a full-thickness tear in the supraspinatus tendon, probably from overuse while the left arm was completely unusable. It really, really blows, doesn’t it?

[Zu_Zu]

I’m hopefully wrong but here it is

Hopefully I’m wrong but what you have described was exactly how my rotator cuff tear presented ``` I know I know

but I said it … Dr. did not think mine was torn as I could do most everything with (some adjustment)

EZXCEPT Ride my unicycle = arms need to be held out to maintain :lol:balance
:eek:

• In addition in the middle of my bicep there was a HUGE purple and [B]black bruise…

Dr. saw the bruise and gasp :eek: " YOU ruptured your bicep ?!?!!"

[/B]Thank god I had not but I had completely torn my rotator cuff `````

I truly hope my post is erroneous in regards to your arm,:yes:
I’d ‘baby’ the hell out of it
[U][B]ICE the hell out of it and give it a complete break ```
hoping it is only a strain ~

[/B][/U]Good Luck ~

[Zuri]

Sounds like biceps tendinitis. You can get it from sleeping in a funny position. Treatment per DH MD: Ice 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off. Aleve 2 tabs every 8-12 hours. When pain diminishes, PASSIVELY grab onto a door knob and lower your body so the arm passively moves above your head. HTH

[Manni01]

Oh no I also think it Sounds like tendenitis. To heal it you just have to keep Quite.
Best Wishes for recovery!!

[JBD]

That’s exactly where my arm hurt when I had a shoulder problem. After seeing a GP, then a back specialist, an orthopedic shoulder specialist injected the shoulder joint and the lidocaine stopped the pain. Therapy and additional injections weren’t successful long term and I had surgery where they removed adhesions.

I recommend starting out with rest, ice and anti-inflammatories

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=JBD;7687542]
That’s exactly where my arm hurt when I had a shoulder problem. After seeing a GP, then a back specialist, an orthopedic shoulder specialist injected the shoulder joint and the lidocaine stopped the pain. Therapy and additional injections weren’t successful long term and I had surgery where they removed adhesions.

I recommend starting out with rest, ice and anti-inflammatories[/QUOTE]

Could be referred pain, but better let a specialist in shoulders tell you what is going on, if a bit of rest and ice doesn’t help.

[vineyridge]

what is scary is that it seems to have affected the strength in that arm enormously. It certainly acts like a rotator cuff problem with the lack of strength.
I couldn’t wash my hair or scrub my back with a scrub brush with that arm. The other arm isn’t much good for back scrubbing either.

If it isn’t much better in a week, I guess it’s orthopod time again.

[Zu_Zu]

I was like a Marionette with cut strings !

[B]

after I got off the ground !!!

I noticed immediately my arm did not work :eek::lol:

i was like a marionette with cut strings :lol:

but

it was not really funny

• the nexzt time i require shoulder surgery of any type
  i have decided to

chew my arm off and live without !
or have a coyote chew it off and live without ! [/B]

[vineyridge]

right arm was completely unmoveable when I ruptured 3 of the 4 muscles in the rotator cuff. This is nowhere near that bad. But I tried a shoulder circle and couldn’t go all the way round. When I hit the “bad spot” the pain was in the middle of my biceps, a bit toward the rear. I know one of the rotator cuff muscles inserts to the bone at about that spot.

But I’m so old, the surgeons won’t want to work on me; and anyway, the other shoulder surgery was possibly the worst thing I’ve EVER experienced. If the pain goes away, I’m going to try PT before surgery.

One thing I don’t understand is why orthopods here don’t use ultrasound before MRIs.

[QUOTE=Zu Zu;7687923]
[B]

after I got off the ground !!!

I noticed immediately my arm did not work :eek::lol:

i was like a marionette with cut strings :lol:

but

it was not really funny

• the nexzt time i require shoulder surgery of any type
  i have decided to

chew my arm off and live without !
or have a coyote chew it off and live without ! [/B][/QUOTE]

[Zuri]

Viney, I spoke with DH MD again today about your symptoms. He was totally impressed with your torn rotator cuff surgery story. He said not many people would have been able to handle the pain as you did. He said your GP could put you on a course of steroids in the short term and prescribe a stronger anti-inflammatory and pain med. He suggested continuing with the ice to the sorest part of your left arm. Bio Freeze (topical) also might help. He said it is important to do PASSIVE movement, not active, meaning don’t you try to lift your arm up. Either have someone else raise it or place your hand on a coat rack or door knob and lower yourself.

Hope you feel better soon.

[Zu_Zu]

Looking in on you Viney ~ hope you’re feeling better today ~

• Looking in on you ~

Hope you’re feeling better today ?

[vineyridge]

It wasn’t much better this morning. But I started a medrol dose pak this morning because I got into poison ivy last Sunday. After only three pills, the pain is almost completely gone, and my arm seems to have regained close to full function (albeit with the painful spot still there) but not quite full strength.

Might, indeed, be tendinitis, because I just remembered that I spent a lot of time recently pumping a handheld pressure sprayer.

At least I know I’ll be comfortable until the dose pak runs out. It’s amazing. Nothing hurts; not my arm, mostly; not my sacro-iliac; not my coccyx; not my back. It’s far better than pain medication.

[Zu_Zu]

Good good good ! Jingles & AO ~

Good good good !

Whatever works !

Jingles & AO ~

[Zuri]

Glad you are better viney. Don’t overdue!

[Zu_Zu]

Saturday update ? Hope you’re progressing ~

• don’t mean to bother but

looking in on you and that arm ```

better ``` sure hope so :yes: