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jellis86

Distinguished member
Joined
Jun 22, 2012
Messages
256
Reason
PALS
Diagnosis
02/2013
Country
US
State
WI
City
Eau Claire
I was wondering what, if anything, I can do to help alleviate the pain when I try and move my arm behind me, etc. It feels just like tendinitis, which I have had before.

My Chiropractor gets it feeling good for a few hours but then the pain is back.

It's not a constant pain, just when reaching or trying to scratch my back etc.

I do not have a lot of weakness in my arm/s yet, but ROM seems affected.

Is this pain possibly being caused by a lack of range of motion? Or does that just limit how far your limbs can travel without assistance.

Thanks...hopefully not too confusing.
 
Does the chiropractor do some sort of massage to get it temporarily feeling better? The fact that the pain can be made to temporarily subside argues against tendonitis. I would strongly suspect the presence of something called trigger points. It sounds like you might have some in your rotator cuff muscles. I would suspect the infraspinatus in particular. Trigger point massage can deactivate them, but it usually takes massage over a period of time. The infraspinatus is one of two external rotators (rotates your shoulder outward). Trigger points in it is most often referred to the front of the shoulder, as well as the back.
 
My husband has had shoulder pain. When his legs were starting to give him trouble he was pulling himself up which caused issues like frozen shoulder ...physical therapy really helped.
 
My husband's shoulder caused a lot of pain. It was the shoulder on the side where he started losing mobility. Said it was frozen shoulder. Aleve helped along with range of motion exercises. They didn't recommended a sling (to stop from pulling) because they said he wouldn't use that arm where he should.
 
I feel so much for the PALS who experience this pain.

My husband also has a lot of arm and shoulder pain.
He managed to fall 2 weeks ago and landed right on his good shoulder damaging the tendon and causing some joint compression.

We hope to see a physio this week to start looking at helping it heal.

I do lots of massage, ROM, magnesium gel rubbed into it all, but it's all just temporary.

His muscles are so wasted and have so much spasticity, they are like cords, and there are knots all along those cords, so it's no wonder he has so much pain. Regardless of what we try to do, the muscles continue to waste, causing them to shrink, causing more stress on the joints. It's so cruel!

We also use paracetamol and morphine in low doses to try to combat the pain.

If he reaches out just a bit too far now, it causes spams in some of the knots and his arm will paralyse completely for a period of seconds. He says it feels like when as kids you were given the old 'dead arm' treatment.

It is worst if he tries to lay down, he can't breathe on his back (bulbar) and can't lay on his arms without serious pain within 10 minutes. Even sitting to sleep, with pillows propped around he finds just laying in one position for some time causes pain.

I wish I could answer it, we struggle with this constantly too, but those are the things we do to try to give some relief at least for some of the time.
 
Me too. Left shoulder & arm. I think it's due to my arm being/feeling so heavy and pulling the shoulder. Of course, the good samaritan in Paris who "helped" me off a bus (without asking) yanked so hard, the force of it tore the ligaments in my shoulder. Since then (april) I am unable to raise my arm - despite daily ROM. Sometimes, I wear a sling to ease the pain.

The nights are worse, difficult to find a comfortable and least painful position. Propped up on two small travel pillows.

I am seeing a massage therapist on Thursday and hope that helps.
 
It is always night here that gives me the most pain in the arms. My left one just feels so heavy and aches.
 
Interesting it is my PALS left arm which is the worst too.

How awful Elaine, I know the person tried to help but sheesh! Did he realise he hurt you at the time?

We get to see a physio again tomorrow and hopefully another one later in the week, and start massage soon too.
 
My chiropractor does do massage and pressure point treatments. He believes it's a combination of causes with the most pain created by thoracic outlet syndrome.

If I try and stretch my arm behind me or high over my head, it will not only hurts like hell, but it will be temporarily paralyzed. This is what leads me to believe that thoracic outlet syndrome probably is the main cause of the pain. Pinching the nerves and causing a numb feeling.

But I also think there is definitely some Impingement syndrome going on which prevents me from reaching behind myself.

After reading all your comments, I think I'm going to make an appointment with my GP and maybe have some PT added to the mix.

It is interesting that most problems seem to be more associated with the left arm, at least the group in this thread.

My weakness has stayed primarily on the left side of my upper body, although some slight weakness is now affecting my right thumb/forefinger area.

Thanks all....
 
I went to a GP and he told me it's muscle strain...I don't think so but I am going to go to PT a couple of times and see if it helps at all.
 
My PALS is just starting on a trial of using tiny doses of an opiate whenever he needs, with paracetamol as needed and a nerve pain reliever Lyrica, and slightly more of the oxynorm at night.

His arm movement is better and no or very little pain, he is walking slightly more steadily too, and he is getting some good sleep!

Of course, we have to see how it goes for a bit longer as we all know how this disease keeps us adjusting our adjustments ...
 
Thanks for the info Tillie....I'll talk with my Dr about trying some of those.
 
the shoulder joint is made up of many muscles and not any tight fitting sockets. it is an engineering marvel but it makes it very unstable as the muscles start to weaken. lying on your side allows the muscles and bones to shift and causes stress and pain. also using more arm power to stand causes stress and pain and NEVER let anyone pull you up by the arms. in addition neck and back stress often carries through to shoulders massage, stretching and rom help keep the muscles flexible and relieve pain, also ultrasound or a TENS unit can help
 
Thanks Mary Pat...I ordered a TENS unit. I hate to add more meds to my daily amount, so if this will help it'll be a heck of a lot better!
 
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