shoulder bursitis and treatment?

[Baalzamon]

Ah what the doctor doesn't say and what the physio tells ya are 2 different things
Doctor it's just bursitis
Physio it's not just bursitis you have frayed a tendon At least it's not torn. This is what can happen when you don't let go of a flat bar and it loses traction and flips around on you and end up crashing

[foo on patrol]

Bugger!

Foo

[Ken Ho]

So,, do I get a Chupa Chupa ?

[foo on patrol]

Only if you're paying

Foo

[Baalzamon]

Update time

I'm doing 500gram dumbell flies right now and onto the green band. That is the third band I'm onto now. I've been doing the 500gram weights now for almost a month and my left shoulder is nowhere near as sore as what it was when I did start doing the flies. I'm now either getting a little bit of pain, or feeling of tension or feels normal doing the flies. The tendon is slowly getting better. Physio will be taking me to the gym soon to show me what I can do there.

[foo on patrol]

Good to hear Baalzamon!

Foo

[Baalzamon]

Well what do you know, after 2 remedial full body massages my shoulder is now feeling fine, no more grabbing in the suprasinitus tendon after raising my arm from my side up, it was grabbing when it was coming down. So now time to try out my Masi again to see how my shoulder likes a more aggressive position than my lounge chair trike

[ColinOldnCranky]

Rereading some of the posts here and I can't help but notice advice being given as though their shoulder problem is the same as yours. You actually tell us almost nothing aobut your condition so, until you do, then really most advice is best ignored until you do let us know what you have.

However cortisone is a great thing for arresting inflammation that otherwise does not want to go away. A sort of circuit breaker if you like.

[ColinOldnCranky]

had a similar thing, bursitis and tendon problems. Did the physio, cortisone thing but only got temporary relief. Ended up having acromioplasty surgery and haven't had a problem for 8 years

This one, at least, is about a specific condition. And from what you have described this may be about what you are suffering. I trust that you have been briefed well on your condition.

It commonly manifests itself with progressivley less ability to raise your arm above shoulder height. The scenario where you keep moving granny's cups and stuff to a lower and lower shelf. As well as the aged it aflicts those who do a lot of heavy lifting - farmers, sports people, etc.

If indeed you do have an inflamed acromion and/or some damage to the bursar this is a really simple surgical procedure which addresses a structural shortcoming and is usually, I understand, successful. And it it is NOT done when it should then eventually the conditionw ill return even after fixing it with other methods.

They grind down a sort of spur structure that is structurally not right (too long, leaving insufficient space so Scapula and Clavicle pinch the bursar between them). It may involve a bit of cleaning and trimming damage to the bursar as well. You will also have a bit of grissle (that attaches the Scapula to the Clavicle) taken out to do the job but it grows back. Sometimes it is sufficient to just break the cycle of inflammation of the bursar with cortisone before trying the surgery but the surgery really is a doddle.

Another approach is to train your scapula (shoulder blade) to pull down when you reach up - that action doesn't come naturally though so a Physio is the way to go. Much as I use and believe in physio, I suspect that there is not much more that could be done the physio route.

[ColinOldnCranky]

I have not gone with the injections, for the reason of it not really being a good, long term thing!

Foo

I know the cortisone shots are not really well regarded in some quarters, my simplistic approach is that if it removes/reduces the inflammation and buys back some increased mobility potentially that improved status may stay. Unless of course the original reason for the inflammtion either returns or was still present in the first place then the whole exercise will be short term or fruitless.

It appears that the cause for some of these inflammations can not be clearly diagnosed, hence the conservative approach seems to be "stop doing what ever you do a lot of and it will go away" as my BIL who is a GP advised. My repsonse was "I really ike doing that stuff", hence why I do it a lot!

Cheers,
Waldo

Actually it is a good thing long term where it works. Which for some conditions is very well.

I was told by Rod Moore (well known sports med) many years ago that tennis (or was it golfers) elbow has about six or (or was it seven?) common treatments but that if he added up the successful outcomes for the other five they do not add up to the success rate of cortisone. But rather than go with the best chance of success, the average GP would first exhaust all the other almost-never-successful treatments first. I suspect strongly that the GP fraternity has responded to guilty feelings from some 30 years or so when it was the popularly prescribed thing for all manner of things. Like they did with Aspirin, they shut up shop and pretended that is was inappropriate.

Over along sporting life I have seen it's high rate of success where inflamation is the problem. And where inflamation is the problem then whatever side-effects you may fear from it, they will likely not be that great and certainly better than continuing to do damage by not arresting the inflamation as quick as you can. If it doesn't do the job after two or three your clinician will not persist with it anyway.

Rest and let it go away is sound advice if you are in a position to do so. Be aware however that a persistently inflamed acromion is unlikely to go away as it is almost impossible to stop the rubbing and pressure regardless of how hard you try (so I am informed by my ortho).

So yes, in some circles it has got a bad rap, but that largely arose from using it wrongly.

[Magnum9]

I have had three ultrasound guided injections in my shoulder, which got it to around 80%. The only thing which gets it to 100% is a drug called Mobilis, get a prescription from your GP, magic stuff. I take one every second day with breakfast, if I stop taking them the pain starts to come back.

[Baalzamon]

I also had 3 Ultrasound guided injections. 2 of them lasted for not more than 2 months each. I had an MRI which picked up the frayed suprasinitus tendon and even more bursitis. YEP my shoulder got truly whacked around from that crash. Doctor prescribed another cortisone shot and with physio fixed the bursitis once and for all. Physio for a frayed tendon is questionable coming from a chiro saying yes it can work in some cases.
I was doing the physio and stopped when it came to gym work, became quite painful and it felt like it was going backwards. So I've basically I let it rest and it got a very good rest when I had 4 weeks off work, but for 2 of those weeks I felt mild pain when my arm was coming down sideways above my head height. I had a remedial massage as I knew I had heaps of knots and I was quite heavily bruised after that but not in the direct location. After the 1st massage my shoulder felt slightly better already and with remedials it's always good to have 2 or 3 of them. So I went for a 2nd one and now I'm virtually pain free
But for a frayed tendon all a cortisone shot does is mask the injury and further injury can result. Also taking pain killers for it is a bad idea as it masks the pain and it's already close to tearing. If it tears means surgery.
And ofc there are spurs
For a period in Feb I had a partially frozen shoulder. I couldn't lift it to the side and I couldn't lift it higher than my head if I lifted it upwards. I now have full use of my shoulder with a pain rating of 0.5 if I feel it at all.

Now I'm going to kick in the physio exercises again to restrengthen that joint and others.

[Magnum9]

I should have mentioned Mobilis is not a pain killer, but a NSAID commonly prescribed for arthritis.

[Baalzamon]

And my shoulder was fine. So going to work up getting used to it again. My butt was like What am I sitting on! Felt so weird being up high as well as I'm used to the recumbent position. Also hands, knees, feet all were feeling it