Shoulder bursitis or rotator cuff tear?

[danacat]

Three weeks ago out of the blue my shoulder started hurting – no injury I can remember, just ususal farm work.

I had deltoid pain even at rest – mostly back of deltoid. Also, if I pressed on the point of my shoulder towards the front (bursa) it REALLY hurt. Couldn’t lift arm above head or out to the side without debilitating pain. No swelling.

Just as it started to feel a bit better I fell asleep on the couch on my side (that side) and when I woke up from this hour long nap the shoulder was worse than ever. Raging, constant pain now! NSAIDS barely take the edge off.

It’s been four days since the nap episode – not getting any better. Doctor visit + MRI is next step. Not sure how long to wait though. Of course I’m hoping this is just common bursitis and will get better on its own. But I fear the worst.

If you have had shoulder bursitis or rotator cuff issues like an actual tear – surgery or other remedy – please share your experience. Thanks!

[MissCoco]

I’ve had shoulder bursitis as a complication of another shoulder injury, but I’ve been lucky and never experienced a rotator cuff injury.
I can say that the bursitis did not get worse with raising my arms. It hurt quite a bit regardless of movement, other than getting worse after I continued to do the overuse that was causing it in the first place.
On the other hand, I had bursitis as part of a set of long-term overuse injuries, so my shoulders were just pretty painful all over, and this was a several years ago, but I do think I’d remember if it got markedly more painful with a specific motion.
I found ice much more helpful than NSAIDs with all my shoulder injuries though, so if you aren’t already icing it might be helpful to start.
If it were me I would try to get to a Dr. sooner rather than later, especially because at least in my experience, getting in to see a specialist can involve a bit of a wait just to get an appointment.
If you are lucky you will just get a rest and physical therapy regime, hope your shoulder is feeling much better soon!

[BUSY]

Dr. & MRI …so you ‘know’ … as soon as possible. ‘Search’ this = tons of Cothers’ experience documented on this forum.
Jingles !

[Color_of_Light]

I had similar pain for years. Had an MRI of my shoulder, spine and neck. One doctor said it was my rotator cuff, that my neck was fine. Turns out he couldn’t read the MRI properly. Saw 3 spine surgeons. Not one ever touched my neck or did an x-ray. In the end it was my neck and thoracic spine causing the problems because C1 and C2 were out of alignment, and then a few others. For years! Got that straightened out, and no more shoulder pain. Nothing short of a miracle! So glad I didn’t have that disk replacement surgery that the first surgeon said I needed.

[cnigh]

I’m following this for advice.

I hurt my shoulder getting off my horse. I had my right hand on the seat of the saddle while jumping down. My horse took one step away from me. And my whole arm got pulled up and out.

No swelling or brushng, just pain. Most of the time it feels like a tooth ache. Until I use it the wrong way.

[cayuse]

I have had bursitis in both shoulders several times caused by the type of arthritis I have. They were able to diagnose it with ultrasound so I did not need MRIs. Cortisone injections fixed me up pronto. I have found it is better to go get it checked out sooner rather than later or you risk having a “frozen shoulder” and those are a true PITA.
What sets my shoulders off, almost every spring, is lunging the horses. It took me forever to figure it out!
Color of Light, I also have neck issues that they think might exacerbate the issue, C6 IIRC.

[danacat]

@MissCoco

I found ice much more helpful than NSAIDs with all my shoulder injuries though, so if you aren’t already icing it might be helpful to start.
If it were me I would try to get to a Dr. sooner rather than later, If you are lucky you will just get a rest and physical therapy regime, hope your shoulder is feeling much better soon!

Icing through the night really helped! Allowed me to get some sleep.

Making appointment with ortho dr. today – hopefully they can see me right away due to the excruciating pain I’m in.

I’ll report back with findings once diagnosis is firm.

[EKLay]

I had something similar when one of the bicep heads slipped out of the groove on the humerus. Took my MT maybe 30 seconds to slip back in, and went from “I can’t lift my arm” to “full ROM, no pain”.

Might be worth having someone check if you have a good MT locally that knows how to look for/fix this?

[RMJacobs]

@cayuse, do you have a round pen so you can free lunge your horses instead of using a line? I found even 15 years ago, I could not hold a lunge line, so I taught all of mine to free lunge.

Rebecca

[danacat]

@EKLay

I had something similar when one of the bicep heads slipped out of the groove on the humerus. Took my MT maybe 30 seconds to slip back in, and went from “I can’t lift my arm” to “full ROM, no pain”.

Might be worth having someone check if you have a good MT locally that knows how to look for/fix this?

Interesting how ‘things’ are connected – referred pain etc.

[Zu_Zu]

never underestimate the relief and benefits from ICING …not need to ask me how I know :lol:

[cayuse]

@RMJacobs

@cayuse, do you have a round pen so you can free lunge your horses instead of using a line? I found even 15 years ago, I could not hold a lunge line, so I taught all of mine to free lunge.

Rebecca

I do have a small paddock that works fairly well to free lunge the minis in but the welsh pony goes on strike and won’t move past a walk unless on the lunge line. That little devil has me outsmarted!

[danacat]

Seeing doctor today. But yesterday I tried some trigger point releases just for the heck of it – found many painful spots and worked on them. Remarkably this alleviated all my pain ‘while at rest’ – unfortunately it did nothing for ROM pain; still hurts; can’t raise arm – but at least I got some much needed relief and pain is more localized rather than all over.

[Bluey]

@danacat

Seeing doctor today. But yesterday I tried some trigger point releases just for the heck of it – found many painful spots and worked on them. Remarkably this alleviated all my pain ‘while at rest’ – unfortunately it did nothing for ROM pain; still hurts; can’t raise arm – but at least I got some much needed relief and pain is more localized rather than all over.

Document that and let the Dr know, may help with the diagnosis.

I had an accident that dislocated my shoulder decades ago.
That healed fine, never had any trouble.
Then was getting on a horse from the mounting block and he pulled away at the wrong time.
I strained with my right arm and tore the rotator cuff loose while all stretched out.
Was thinking for a second I would go splat like in a cartoon.

The surgeon first injected the joint, as a diagnostic procedure.
It didn’t do any at all, pain and loss of range the same.
At the same time he did an MRI and x-rays and decided I needed surgery after all.
There was a spur there that had almost cut the bicep main tendon in two, which was more important than any other damage there.
If that tendon had broken loose, I would have lost use of that arm and the surgery to recover and reattach would have been a real emergency.
Surgery fixed that tendon, cut the spur off and tacked the rotary cuff back on, best he explained to me.

Until you have a good diagnosis and with shoulders some times they have to go in there to see what all is not working right, you won’t really know what is wrong there.

MRI helps see what is going in there.

Good luck it is an easy fix and you may not even need surgery.

[danacat]

Wow @Bluey - that’s quite an ordeal! I had a similar experience years ago with a ruptured disc in my neck that nearly severed a nerve – would have lost the use of my arm in that case too, but surgery fixed it just in time.

[Bluey]

@danacat

Wow @Bluey - that’s quite an ordeal! I had a similar experience years ago with a ruptured disc in my neck that nearly severed a nerve – would have lost the use of my arm in that case too, but surgery fixed it just in time.

That was not the whole story.
Two days before scheduled shoulder surgery, I ended up in the ER in the middle of the night with a gallbladder attack.
So, that surgery came first, shoulder surgery postponed until next spring.

Next spring, three weeks before again scheduled shoulder surgery Dr found abdominal mass.
Dr said, forget the shoulder, if that is cancer, as we suspect, the shoulder will be the least of your concerns.
So, abdominal surgery first, mass was not cancer, lucky there.

Finally, a year after “you need shoulder surgery as soon as we can get to you”, I finally had shoulder surgery.
That shredding tendon made it fine thru all that time, the rotator cuff just hung on.
The shoulder surgeon did a beautiful job, had guessed I get 70 - 75% back to full use, got 100%, everyone very pleased.

If someone needs shoulder surgery, PM Zu-Zu.
She gave me so many tips and ideas, I was so well prepared, it was a non-event, all went super well.
She knows her stuff, ask her all about it.

Now, that neck surgery, that was really serious stuff!
Glad your surgery went well, those are really tricky.

[danacat]

@Bluey

That was not the whole story.
.

You’re not kidding! But you made it through. Fantastic!

I had a great surgeon too for my neck. I travelled to Pittsburgh (my old home town) in order to see him. Same surgeon featured in the movie Concussion – he was on the 'unsupportive’ side of that issue though.

Off to my ortho doctor – hope he can just do an ultra-sound and that it’s just bursitis.

[Bluey]

@danacat

You’re not kidding! But you made it through. Fantastic!

I had a great surgeon too for my neck. I travelled to Pittsburgh (my old home town) in order to see him. Same surgeon featured in the movie Concussion – he was on the 'unsupportive’ side of that issue though.

Off to my ortho doctor – hope he can just do an ultra-sound and that it’s just bursitis.

Let us know how that goes.

If you need surgery, don’t forget to ask Zu-Zu.
All those tips sure will get you thru as they did me.

[cayuse]

Jingles for a speedy answer and a quick fix.

[danacat]

UPDATE: Sooo… doc said it looks like a nasty generic strain + inflamed bursa – he gave me a cortisone shot – told me to moderately protect shoulder for a while then try to resume normal activity. If it doesn’t get better in two weeks he wants an MRI but he’s pretty confident I didn’t tear anything due to the fact that I had no injury/accident/trauma as the cause.

Also… he said to ICE ICE ICE which was great to confirm as it DOES work – thanks Zu Zu & MissCoco for initial ICE advice!! You are so right! He gave me a script for a strong NSAID (basically Aleve x10) which I’ll take just to further decrease inflamation.

I’m glad the weather here still kinda sucks right now – very windy, muddy and uncomfortably cold – if it was glorious and warm I’d be pi&&ed off that I can’t garden and ride and spring clean the barn – need to heal up first. Thankfully I can still use a pitchfork without any pain. Otherwise I’d be up to my ears in manure!