John,
My shoulder issue has been progressively getting worse since I was a teenager. I had one of the most wicked curve balls that you had ever seen when I played little league baseball. Of course, I moved up to the next level of play and played on through high school......still throwing that wicked "bender". Of course, it was iced after every pitching session, but I am positive that the damage was being done. After high school, I went to work in a factory and ran a large stamping press, which required a lot of both pushing and pulling on heavy dies while setting up my press. I also kept on playing ball, but it was now softball. I began to notice that it really hurt to throw a ball overhead and went to throwing sidearm, which didn't hurt my shoulder or arm nearly as much.
I do remember having to get a steroid shot directly into my shoulder when I was about 14 or 15 years old.......which really eliminated the pain for the most part. I thought that things were good......and kept on abusing the shoulder. I have been shooting a bow since I was about 10 years old and it has NEVER hurt me to do so, up until yesterday morning.
I don't know what kind of pain that you are experiencing in your shoulder, but will do my best to describe the type of pain that I have intermittenly had for most of my life. It is mostly a dull ache, varying in strength. It hurts from my deltoid down my arm where the muscles attach to the bone by my bicep. As it has gotten worse, it hurts around towards my scapula (shoulder blade). It isn't a "pulsing" type pain......just a gradual increase in intensity up to the point that it is almost intolerable. I've tried heat, ice, and rest.....none of which gives very much, if any relief. I'm not a "pill taker" and do not take anything for relief, my wife thinks I'm crazy, and she may very well be right. When it starts hurting, the only thing that I have found to give me even a little bit of relief is to rub the deltoid down to my bicep and back around towards my scapula. I don't know what this does, if anything......but it at least makes me feel like I'm doing something to give some relief.
For the past month, it has been pretty much a steady ache......with periods of some pretty serious pain. I got another steroid shot down into the shoulder at the onset, but have gotten absolutely NO relief what-so-ever from that. There are several stretching exercises that a friend of mine whom is an orthopedic massage therapist gave me to do and up until a month or so ago they worked very well and kept the pain at bay. I can give you his contact info (he does frequent this site) if you PM me.
If it were me, I would go to my primary care physician and have him refer me for an MRI, which will show "where" the problem lies and perhaps with some stretching exercises you may eliminate the problem before it becomes anything major. I don't have any idea....for the life of me what I have done that caused the sudden "worsening" of the pain, but I can tell you for sure that I have had ENOUGH already. I want the problem fixed, and will do the necessary rehab to get back to life without pain. At this point, if someone told me that going out and pounding my head into a concrete block wall would make the pain go away......I'd give it a shot. I'm not a whiner and can take pain pretty well.......but it is kicking my butt.
I will follow the instructions given to me, and follow through with all of the physical therapy. I want to feel "normal" again.....I don't expect miracles, but want to be able to enjoy shooting my bow for years to come. I don't have or shoot anything that is more than the mid-50's at my draw-length and believe that this is very possible.
If the soreness that you have is truly in the muscle, it will go away in a day or two....and a sore muscle is more of a "burn" than anything else. A torn tendon however will NOT go away, and will only get worse with time. It amazes me the things that I am noticing NOW......that irritate this shoulder and it doesn't have to involve even having anything in my hand when I do it. I kinda think that there are some bone spurs that have been slowly irritating and tearing the tendon over time.....but what do I know. The Dr. should fill me in tomorrow, and I will report back. I wish you the best with your shoulder, and pray that it isn't something that requires more than some simple stretching exercises to fix. If you have any specific questions, don't hesitate to PM me and ask.
Winterhawk1960
Topic: Shoulders (Read 707 times)
