left shoulder/shoulder blade pain

[terri456]

about 1 year ago, i started experiencing pain that started beside/behind left shoulder blade. arthrogram showed tear in the supraspinitis tendon in upper left shoulder. a surgeon told me it was not worth repairing and to try physical therapy. it only made the pain worse. i have since developed pain in entire left side, including the shoulder (which produces a "popping" or grinding sound when rotated), extreme pain (burning sensation) on the inside of left shoulder blade about halfway down, muscle spasms in neck and collarbone and increasingly bad headaches.  spinal mri's all show mild degenerative disc disease but nothing significant enough for this to be spine related. myelogram and bone scan both came back normal. i have tried every kind of anti-inflammatory known with no relief. pain meds help relieve severe pain but i know it is only masking the problem. i have questioned doctors if this is related to rotator cuff disease, brought on by the torn supraspinitis tendon going unrepaired, but they look at me like i'm crazy or something. it is possible that i have developed more tears in rotator cuff. please note that there was no known injury to the shoulder, but has gotten increasingly worse over time.  PLEASE HELP!

[ash999]

me again actually the valiam did help a bit.The reason they put me on it was to ease muscel tension through the night. But because it used to make me anxiouse i stopped taking it. Also when i get all the pain i feel very dissy. My neck front and sides feels like it is going to explode. While i am feeding my baby i often just sit there and cry. I try not to sook to hubby i think he gets sick of me

[ash999]

hi  i havehad a problem with pain in left shoulder neck and left ear. I started getting the pain 2 years ago, after i lifted some heavy rocks while i was gardening. I was in that much pain i then started suffering panic attacks. When i went to the hospital they said it was tension, they asked about my life , i was under alot of stress at the time. I had lots of cat scans ect all it showed was that my neck was straight instead of curved, they put me on valiam and anti infam med. nothing helped.But then my hubby and i broke up and it got even worse. as time went on it all started to ease.  It is now 2 yrs later me and hubby r doing great we have had a knew baby, but i now have started getting pain back. I just wanted everyone to know that i to cannot remember what it was like to feel good. i cannot do anything i used to do and it makes my life a missery. The only thing is i do beleive it is stress related and i have found that an intense relaxation massage helps. i also now have to deel with panic attacks on top of the rest. the only thing to do is ignore it. and really take notice of the times that it is at its worst.

[shaikhmohdmusa1]

hai,everyone,hopes fits and sounds then,I thinks everyone needs the  golden touch of *Florence Nightiangle* WELL,YESTERDAY BEING CONSULTED AT GH, THE PHYSICIAN wanted to give an injection to release tightness of my shoulder,I refused as I have several injections before,he also proclaimed that having steroid injections  frenquently will have side effects on body hormone, I was prescribed with T.Neurobion,Vltoren,Gelusil and physiotheraphy-follow up..bye now

[Noya]

Hi, I just posted something similar a little while ago on in the Health/Fitness section.  

   This occured several (10) months ago. I had been lifting weights at the gym for about 5 weeks, was on a bodybuilders cutting diet 6 days a week, and had lost about 20lbs...I felt great.
   I was doing seated cable rows and felt a pain in the right shoulder blade area, mostly when I would contract them during the lift. It was a stinging/slight shooting pain. I thought I just over did it and needed to give it a week of rest. When I awoke the next morning my right shoulder felt stiff and sore. I thought I just slept in a weird position. Pain continued almost every morning in the right shoulder area and I stopped going to the gym.  I don't have health insurance so I didn't see a Doc.
   Then my shoulder started "popping". Getting out of my car, off the sofa, most movements where Im pressing myself up. I could also rotate my arm and feel the pop. I finally went to the hospital clinic where the PA had me move my arm around for a few minutes(didn't feel pain)and asked if I had insurance because I probably need to see a phys. therapist, then gave me a $150 bill...Geez I wished I lived in Canada sometimes!
   Since then I've noticed the shoulder appears to be lower than the other and looks out of place...more foward than the other. The "pops" are audible a lot of the time now. It feels like I need to pop/rotate it several times a day. I went to the gym a while back and pretty much ALL chest movements like the bench press, flys, dumbell presses, etc. and medium and closer grip upright rows make it feel as if the shoulder will dislocate.  When I wake up in the morning there is always some pain, and if I turned on that side during the night it really hurts...burning sensations.
   I searched for several hours last night online and the info at exrx.net points to "protracted shoulder girdle." It lists examples of affected exercises and they're the exact ones I cannot perform. If thats correct, what treatment options are there? I was denied a low-cost state health plan. Am I assuming correctly if I go to a hospital it would be pointless?  And that I'm going to have to spend a bunch of money for a health plan and LIE about this injury to get on the health insurance plan?  Or is that 5-minutes I spent with the PA going to show up and the health insurance company will know about it anyway?  Do health insurance companies make you get a physical exam before they approve you?  I'm a 22/male if that matters.
    Any advise would be appreciated and good luck to everyone else.

[root]

I have had pain in the left shoulder for over a year now, Sometimes it seems to start as a burning sensation then it goes away. Get a burning sensation on left side of neck along with muscle spasms. I was told for a year it was arthritis. I have gone to another orthopedic Dr. who thinks it may be vascular outlet syndrome because he found that along with everything else when I raise my left arm above my head I lose the pulse. I am scheduled to see a vascular dr who will be using a doppler to check blood flow of upper extremities too.  I have been for X-rays, Mri's and everything looked fine anti inflammatorys don't do much for me either. Hopefully I'll find something out with the next DR.

[AngstRidden]

I can't believe there are so many people suffering with similar symptoms. I have had neck and shoulder pain for quite a while now and have seen many specialists and I am unsure as to how to proceed.  About two and a half years ago I began to have pain in my left shoulder.  It would come and go and wasn't too debilitating so I didn't have it treated.  After about six months of the pain, I started to develop neck pain that would go up to the back of my head, around the base of the skull.  After a month of that pain, I saw a doctor, who sent me for x-rays of my neck.  They found nothing (except I was told I had a very straight neck).  Then I was sent for an MRI - again they found nothing.  I was sent for physical therapy, which did not help. Next I was referred to an orthopedic doctor.  He gave me more x-rays (bending) and could not find anything.  He told me he could not do anything for me, but I asked him if he could give me an injection in my shoulder because that helped me about 13 years ago when I had a shoulder problem.  He gave me the injection in a trigger point and miraculously the pain in my shoulder AND neck disappeared for about 4 or 5 months.  When it came back I thought I could get another injection, however, the second time it didn't help.  I asked the doctor to MRI my shoulder since the relief of pain from the injection indicated that my shoulder might be the culprit of the neck pain.  Instead he sent me to a rheumatologist to check for fibromyalgia.  The rheumatologist said that it didn't seem that I had the symptoms of fibromyalgia.  He then sent me to a neurologist to check for nerve compression/damage.  The neurologist gave me a test and said I had no nerve damage.  I went back to my family doctor who sent me for an MRI of my shoulder.  They found something and I thought I finally found an answer.  But it is not so cut and dried.  I may have a tear in my labrum.  However the orthopedist (the second one) said there are a lot of false positives on the test.  This means that I may not have the tear to begin with.  Also, this doctor claims that it is unlikely that the tear would cause my neck problems. As a layperson, it seems to make sense that pain could be referred from shoulder to neck, but the doctor tells me this is not likely.  So my question is this:  How likely is it that the torn labrum would cause neck pain and how often do false positives occur?  I'm debating on whether to have surgery, but since my biggest concern is with neck pain,
I don't want to go through the trouble and expense of surgery, if it probably won't help the neck pain.
Thanks for listening