Muscle pain in upper arms bilaterally

[ennie903]

I have been having pain in my upper arms for almost 2 years.  It started in my right arm and is now affecting both arms.  The doctors thought I had a rotator cuff tear.  I had surgery on my right arm 7 months ago.  When they got into the surgery, they found out the rotator cuff was not torn,  There was a piece of cartilage that had broken off and some bone spurs they smoothed up and said with therapy everything would be okay.  Well it isn't okay.  It is getting worse every day and is now affecting both of my arms.  I can best describe the pain and compare it to "a charlie horse" in my arms.  I can feel hard lumps in my arms when the pain is at its worst.  I am on pain killers every 4 hours and now they don't do much good.  Question:  Has anyone experienced anything like this, and if so, has it been diagnosed?  No one seems to know what to do for me.  It only affects my upper arms....not my legs or anywhere elso.

[Anonymouse88]

You might want to consult an osteopath (D.O.) who practices osteopathic manipulation, if you can find one.  I started having back pain back in the fall, and have been through a bunch of tests and a round of PT.  It turns out I'm hypermobile, and that's what they're blaming the pain on.  I have muscle relaxants, which do a much better job than pain killers for helping.  I also have lidocaine patches that can help as well, and they were super useful when I was having trouble sleeping.  

Now I'm seeing an osteopath, who is working on releasing the horrible knots (also known as trigger points) in my back.  Since you have palpable lumps, I suspect you might have these same trigger points in your arms, and most MDs don't know much about them.  Osteopaths get the same training as MDs but they also learn osteopathic manipulation (but most don't actually practice it after graduating).  A good massage therapist might be able to help with those as well, if that's what you have.  The osteopath I'm seeing has done some dry needling, which is sticking an acupuncture sized needle into the knots to loosen them.  I'm not going to lie, it hurts a lot when that needle hits the knot, but you can feel the muscle soften afterwards.  I take a very low dose of flexeril at night (I cut the smallest available tabs in half), and I have robaxin for the day if I need it, which doesn't knock me flat.

You might also want to consult with someone in physical medicine and rehabilitation or a pain specialist.  They tend to be much more knowledgeable about the management of chronic pain and musculoskeletal injuries.

Please let me know how things turn out, and feel free to PM me if you want to talk more about it.

[vikramdmc]

you should take consultation of a good mch ortho doctor and a neurosurgeon