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Shoulder pain from calcific tendonitis
Has anyone developed a calcific tendonitis in the shoulder? If so, what have you been able to find that helps with the pain? Has anyone had surgery or ultrasound for it and what were the results? I have been having so much pain with this and have not been able to find any treatment for it. I am scared to have the surgery as I hear it may not change things and I may just have to live with this pain as it is now chronic. Any advice??
I too got this the other day and CANNOT imagine having to put up with it for weeks let alone months. I'm in absolute agony and can't raise my arm away from my body at all. Been given NSAIDs and told its a slow process. The more I read on here, the more scared I am becoming that this will never resolve :(
Can understand how you would feel so devastated. My girlfriend talked me into seeing her Acupuncturist Friday. I am going back tomorrow. My shoulder feels slightly better but not sure if it was acupuncture, cortisone finally kicking in, heat treatments I have been applying, or just not doing much with it. Can feel a wee bit better range of motion but pain is still there. Have appt. Wednesday with my Othro Doc who operated on both knees...go for PT assessment Wednesday also....then get on plane Friday for trip. Hang in there Nova...hope time will help heal...you are young...and sure being so active will speed the recovery.
Today is day 10 after the US guided needling for my right shoulder. Still in agony from pain and disability. Can move my arm slightly in one direction only (forward up). Saw an orthopedist who prescribed that procedure. He is at loss as to what happened to me and why my shoulder and arm in such a devastating condition. He claims he had never sen anything like this. The office did not have any record whatsoever of my procedure. And I don't know if this could be attributed to the sloppiness of the doctor performing it (after all, she was sloppy with everything else related to it), or a deliberate cover up, because they know the standards of care were violated and I could go after them in court. Regardless - no record, no report of what was done. Now, back to the medical facts. I insisted on getting another MRI to assess the damage, and had that MRI done yesterday. Doctor also put me on 800mg ibuprofen 3 times a day and wanted me to take a steroid orally. I rejected the oral steroids, because I just had a cortisone shot right after the needling, and a) it provided no help in preventing the bursitis resulting from the procedure and no help in reducing the pain, and b) nothing good comes from the repeated huge doses of steroids. MRI report showed NO decrease in the overall size of calcification, but about a third of it was broken down in fragments as a result of the needling, with the largest fragment being 2 cm long. All fragments are residing in subdeltoid bursa. The other persistent part of calcific deposit is in the critical zone of the supraspinatus tendon.The total calcification was exactly what it was before the needling - 6 cm. MRI showed a ruptured subacromial/ subdeltoid bursal effusion with considerable edema coursing caudally along the anterior and posterior deltoid muscles. I'm guessing, that's why I can't move my arm.. I hope I can still heal from this, but right now I feel completely devastated. I'm 47 and extremely active with all sports. I have a dance competition coming up in a month and I'm supposed to be training like crazy now. Instead, I'm in totally debilitating state, physically and psychologically. Hindsight is 20/20, but I should've NEVER gone to this needling procedure!
First, I would like to say how helpful this thread has been...I have learned quite a bit. Nova, so sorry to hear your procedure went so poorly. How did your follow up go? I have had "minor" discomfort in my shoulder for a couple of years. When it hurt shooting hoops at the gym, I stopped doing that...Ditto throwing football on the beach. I did some exercises I was given for my other shoulder (different problem). This past week I halted my 6 y/o grandson running at full speed with my arm...and lifted a couple of heavy items. Then I rolled over in bed and felt that first real bad pain. It got steadily worse to the point I couldn't sleep Monday night. Called my Ortho Doc for but his first appt. was next Wednesday. Went to a well known Ortho Urgent Care facility Tuesday. They took X-rays which revealed the Calcific Tendinitis (looked exactly like one I found on the web afterwards). Physician Assistant who saw me gave me a Cortisone shot and script for PT. Here it is 57 hours later and I am still waiting for my relief. Have ready many posts where first shot didn't help to one who said it took a week to kick in. Most discouraging is reading how many people had the pain/immobility return after various treatments. I will still see my Ortho Doc to get his opinion and to double check PT script. I have a vacation scheduled in 8 days and am hoping this won't prohibit my being able to enjoy it. I am a 65 y/o male.
I wanted to share my experience with Ultrasound Guided needling for those who are considering this. Also hoping that some of you might be able to offer me some comfort by replying and sharing what their experience with this procedure and recovery was like.
I had first been diagnosed with calcific tendinitis in 2007. This manifested itself in the pain associated with a certain directional moves of my right shoulder (extending the right arm up and back was particularly painful and difficult), but I’ve been able to adjust the way I do things to adapt to this pain and go on. I’m a dancer and practice at least three times a week, and on the days I don’t dance, I exercise a lot: weight training, aerobics, tennis. My day job is not that physically demanding: meetings, presentations and sitting in front of a computer . The shoulder would flare up periodically, but I would just push through, go to a physical therapy for a couple of weeks, and then the pain would subside to a “normal” chronic level of pain and limited movement, and so the cycle continued. Seven years after onset, in October of 2014, the pain in my shoulder intensified all of sudden to the point that my shoulder, back and neck were all hurting even at rest, especially when sitting or laying down. The pain was even radiating into my neck, right ear and shooting into the right side of my head. I got another MRI done, which, again, revealed a progressive calcific tendonitis in the right supraspinatus tendon. My orthopedist wrote a prescription for an US guided needling and aspiration which could be performed in his office by a radiology specialist. I’ve done a lot of research and read everything I could find online about the procedure, including a lot of clinical studies, reports, I even watched several videos of the procedure. Based on what I learned and what my orthopedist told me, the pain during and after the procedure is supposed to be minimal to non-existent, no downtime, and I could go back to my regular activities, including dancing with heavy use of my arms and shoulders, right away. I was very comfortable with that and proceeded to make an appointment and getting the needling and aspiration done.
Unfortunately, my experience was not at all like that described by hundreds of other patients and physicians. A) It was painful during the procedure and B) It was extremely painful after the procedure. Today is day #5 after the needling was done, and the pain is exact the same as on day #1. I can hardly move my arm, cannot lift it at all, have a very difficult time dressing myself, and cannot sleep because of the pain. The pain I’m in now is 1000 times worse than the pain I experienced during the active calcium reabsorption phase which was supposedly the worst kind of pain associated with this condition. Now, my pain tolerance is pretty high. Just thought I would mention it, so you don’t think I’m whining for nothing. For example, I have never taken any painkiller in my life, despite going through injuries and surgeries for broken dislocated wrist, dental implant, or child birth. I hate downtime from anything. A couple of years ago I had my hysterectomy (laparoscopic) at 9 in the morning, and at 3pm that same day I went for a two mile run in the park. To compare, with this pain from the needling and aspiration, I’ve been taking 1800mg Motrin daily since the day of the procedure and I’m crying every time I make a slightest move with my right arm. I think something went terribly wrong with my procedure and I either have a nasty case of bursitis or an actual tear in the rotator calf. I attribute the problems at least partially to how my procedure was handled. 1) The doctor doing the procedure did not do a prior diagnostic to even tell me where, how many and how big my calcium deposits were. She just proceeded straight into inserting the needle into my shoulder. When she was there, she was “discovering” the deposits as she went and when she hit the big one and tried to break it up for a good 45 min, she finally told me she could not get it all out. I’ve seen several posts here from the folks who could not get the needling done because their doctors did not recommend it based on the size of the calcification. I suspect that mine was too big for that as well, but the doctor didn’t bother to evaluate and advise accordingly. 2) I’ve read the procedure typically takes about 15 minutes, and mine took 1 hour and 5 min. Perhaps a lot more damage was done to the tendon in all this time than normally should! 3) The doctor did not come prepared for the procedure, i.e., not just she did not do a radiographic study and diagnostic first, she only brought one set of instruments into the room where she operated, and when the first needle got clogged with calcium, she left the room to get another one, and then another one, and then another one. Each time she was gone for a good 5 min, during which time I was sitting in the chair with the blood dripping onto the chair and floor from the big hole in my shoulder. When I asked her why wouldn’t she just bring a few instruments at once, she told me I’m not supposed to comment on the procedure! Also, each time she went out of the room and came back, she never bothered to change her surgical gloves or sterilize them, and she touched the door knob and who knows what else while she was gone. So, I suppose the risk of infection in my case was also bigger than normal.
No one from the office called me after the procedure to ask how I was doing, and when I called to office to ask about my issues, no one was available to answer any questions. I made a first available appointment with my orthopedist (not the one who did the needling, but the one who prescribed it) and will see him Tuesday evening. I will post what happens next.
I had first been diagnosed with calcific tendinitis in 2007. This manifested itself in the pain associated with a certain directional moves of my right shoulder (extending the right arm up and back was particularly painful and difficult), but I’ve been able to adjust the way I do things to adapt to this pain and go on. I’m a dancer and practice at least three times a week, and on the days I don’t dance, I exercise a lot: weight training, aerobics, tennis. My day job is not that physically demanding: meetings, presentations and sitting in front of a computer . The shoulder would flare up periodically, but I would just push through, go to a physical therapy for a couple of weeks, and then the pain would subside to a “normal” chronic level of pain and limited movement, and so the cycle continued. Seven years after onset, in October of 2014, the pain in my shoulder intensified all of sudden to the point that my shoulder, back and neck were all hurting even at rest, especially when sitting or laying down. The pain was even radiating into my neck, right ear and shooting into the right side of my head. I got another MRI done, which, again, revealed a progressive calcific tendonitis in the right supraspinatus tendon. My orthopedist wrote a prescription for an US guided needling and aspiration which could be performed in his office by a radiology specialist. I’ve done a lot of research and read everything I could find online about the procedure, including a lot of clinical studies, reports, I even watched several videos of the procedure. Based on what I learned and what my orthopedist told me, the pain during and after the procedure is supposed to be minimal to non-existent, no downtime, and I could go back to my regular activities, including dancing with heavy use of my arms and shoulders, right away. I was very comfortable with that and proceeded to make an appointment and getting the needling and aspiration done.
Unfortunately, my experience was not at all like that described by hundreds of other patients and physicians. A) It was painful during the procedure and B) It was extremely painful after the procedure. Today is day #5 after the needling was done, and the pain is exact the same as on day #1. I can hardly move my arm, cannot lift it at all, have a very difficult time dressing myself, and cannot sleep because of the pain. The pain I’m in now is 1000 times worse than the pain I experienced during the active calcium reabsorption phase which was supposedly the worst kind of pain associated with this condition. Now, my pain tolerance is pretty high. Just thought I would mention it, so you don’t think I’m whining for nothing. For example, I have never taken any painkiller in my life, despite going through injuries and surgeries for broken dislocated wrist, dental implant, or child birth. I hate downtime from anything. A couple of years ago I had my hysterectomy (laparoscopic) at 9 in the morning, and at 3pm that same day I went for a two mile run in the park. To compare, with this pain from the needling and aspiration, I’ve been taking 1800mg Motrin daily since the day of the procedure and I’m crying every time I make a slightest move with my right arm. I think something went terribly wrong with my procedure and I either have a nasty case of bursitis or an actual tear in the rotator calf. I attribute the problems at least partially to how my procedure was handled. 1) The doctor doing the procedure did not do a prior diagnostic to even tell me where, how many and how big my calcium deposits were. She just proceeded straight into inserting the needle into my shoulder. When she was there, she was “discovering” the deposits as she went and when she hit the big one and tried to break it up for a good 45 min, she finally told me she could not get it all out. I’ve seen several posts here from the folks who could not get the needling done because their doctors did not recommend it based on the size of the calcification. I suspect that mine was too big for that as well, but the doctor didn’t bother to evaluate and advise accordingly. 2) I’ve read the procedure typically takes about 15 minutes, and mine took 1 hour and 5 min. Perhaps a lot more damage was done to the tendon in all this time than normally should! 3) The doctor did not come prepared for the procedure, i.e., not just she did not do a radiographic study and diagnostic first, she only brought one set of instruments into the room where she operated, and when the first needle got clogged with calcium, she left the room to get another one, and then another one, and then another one. Each time she was gone for a good 5 min, during which time I was sitting in the chair with the blood dripping onto the chair and floor from the big hole in my shoulder. When I asked her why wouldn’t she just bring a few instruments at once, she told me I’m not supposed to comment on the procedure! Also, each time she went out of the room and came back, she never bothered to change her surgical gloves or sterilize them, and she touched the door knob and who knows what else while she was gone. So, I suppose the risk of infection in my case was also bigger than normal.
No one from the office called me after the procedure to ask how I was doing, and when I called to office to ask about my issues, no one was available to answer any questions. I made a first available appointment with my orthopedist (not the one who did the needling, but the one who prescribed it) and will see him Tuesday evening. I will post what happens next.
This is so helpful. Thank you!!! I've been dealing with this for quite some time too. I had frozen shoulder in my left arm last year. As soon as I got that situated and feeling better. The right arm started up with same tinges. I just had my second shot in the left arm, no relief. Maybe a couple of days with no pain but essentially no relief. Not to mention, two rounds steroid pills. Do wants to do surgery, of course, he's an orthopedic surgeon. I've bee. Trying to do my own research with my doctors encouragement because I want to make sure surgery is a necessary option and not a quick payday. This blog spot is very helpful. I have an MRI tomorrow in prep for surgery. Just wanted to see other real life patients with my same situation. Looks like we have been advised the same.
Side note: my pain shoots from shoulder, bicep, collar bone, shoulder blade and even up my neck.
Side note: my pain shoots from shoulder, bicep, collar bone, shoulder blade and even up my neck.
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