Intense Shoulder Pain in the Morning?

I have had frozen shoulder a couple of times and it is very painful esp. at night. Anyone having shoulder pain who is 40-60 yrs old and has not had any obvious injury to bring it on ought to consider this possibility. Best treatment is progressive stretching of the the shoulder capsule by rotation about all 3 mutually perpendicular axes. Painful but eventually it works. I found using a claw hammer to push the arm out while holding the elbow in to the body was the best way to work the vertical axis. Looks weird when you do this at business meetings, but it works. NSAIDS required from time to time to aid sleep. Can take 6-12 months to resolve, so patience needed.
 
Don't ask me.

And as almost all side-sleepers know well, this position can result in the dreaded squished-arm-numbness. Snuggling into bed with the arm behind the head is a common sleep position, but it may adversely affect muscles and nerves. Resting the head (or the whole body) on a single arm can restrict blood flow and press down on the nerves, which results in “rubber arm” or painful pins and needles. In this position, the shoulder supports a lot of the body’s weight, which can constrict the neck and shoulder muscles ((Sleep position and shoulder pain.
http://greatist.com/happiness/best-sleep-positions
 
I sleep in what's apparently called the "superman position."

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What's strange is that I can only do it on my left side.

It was so awkward trying to lie on my right side that I began to wonder if my body was misshapen. As if my head was closer to one shoulder than the other or something.
 
Beer w/Straw said:
all side-sleepers know well, this position can result in the dreaded squished-arm-numbness.
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I would certainly not give advice to the original poster and question his wisdom in asking in such a forum

Hope he gets suitable advice from a suitable professional and his problem resolves

But to your squishy arm you may be talking about ' waiters tip ' arm

The arm hangs by the side with the hand at 90° pointing backwards

The waiter waiting for the tip :)

Long time since I have seen one

They normally resolve quickly but we did send the odd one in Case

:)
 
Xerxes said:
If it continues, I'll go to the doctor. But I'd like to hear from your experiences first. So any ideas?
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I have a very physical job and often wake up with back pain. But like you, after I'm up for a bit, it goes away. Usually I can associate any physical problems to an activity during the day. I haven't bothered seeing a doctor because I know the cause of the pain. It's just the price for working my job. Probably the worst pain are the leg cramps I sometimes get while in bed. I associate those to work also.
 
exchemist said:
Potassium deficiency?
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Yep.

Just because Bowser's work is very hard on his body, and is the ultimate cause of his aches and pains, does not mean the cramps won't be mitigated by an increased availability of Ka, Mg and Ca - the three electrolytes that muscles need to operate.

Muscles cramp because, when they run out of the electrolytes - or out of oxygen - they start using their backup: lactic acid. The buildup of lactic acid in the muscle tissue is the actual cause for those kinds of cramps.
 
exchemist said:
I have had frozen shoulder a couple of times and it is very painful esp. at night. Anyone having shoulder pain who is 40-60 yrs old and has not had any obvious injury to bring it on ought to consider this possibility. Best treatment is progressive stretching of the the shoulder capsule by rotation about all 3 mutually perpendicular axes. Painful but eventually it works. I found using a claw hammer to push the arm out while holding the elbow in to the body was the best way to work the vertical axis. Looks weird when you do this at business meetings, but it works. NSAIDS required from time to time to aid sleep. Can take 6-12 months to resolve, so patience needed.
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I developed adhesive capsulitis/frozen shoulder about a year ago. I could only sleep by arranging my pillows so that they supported my shoulders as well as my head. Otherwise the aching was intolerable. Getting into and out of shirts and coats took a lot of strategy and was very painful. X-rays showed minor arthritis but nothing that would cause the symptoms I was experiencing. An MRI showed the shoulder tendons intact but the joint capsule was all messed up. So I basically had to wait it out.

After a few months the pain subsided, but range of motion remains restricted to this day, though it is gradually improving. (But I was so happy at the pain being gone that I felt like I was healed, even though I wasn't.) Of course I never did the exercises they prescribed me as religiously as I should have and my doctor just last month yelled at me about that, saying that the exercises are the most effective treatment.

It's never recovered 100% to where it was but I can reach shelves up above my head again. I still find it harder than before to get into and out of coats and I find that I don't roll over as easily in bed. I sleep on my back now, where I used to sleep on my stomach.
 
Yazata said:
I developed adhesive capsulitis/frozen shoulder about a year ago. I could only sleep by arranging my pillows so that they supported my shoulders as well as my head. Otherwise the aching was intolerable. Getting into and out of shirts and coats took a lot of strategy and was very painful. X-rays showed minor arthritis but nothing that would cause the symptoms I was experiencing. An MRI showed the shoulder tendons intact but the joint capsule was all messed up. So I basically had to wait it out.

After a few months the pain subsided, but range of motion remains restricted to this day, though it is gradually improving. (But I was so happy at the pain being gone that I felt like I was healed, even though I wasn't.) Of course I never did the exercises they prescribed me as religiously as I should have and my doctor just last month yelled at me about that, saying that the exercises are the most effective treatment.

It's never recovered 100% to where it was but I can reach shelves up above my head again. I still find it harder than before to get into and out of coats and I find that I don't roll over as easily in bed. I sleep on my back now, where I used to sleep on my stomach.
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Yes I know exactly. But you really should make yourself stretch the scarring in the shoulder capsule, a few times a day, on all 3 axes of rotation. It will eventually give you back a full range of motion. Stretch to the point of discomfort, but not pain, and hold it, counting to 30 slowly each time. Just keep on; after a couple of weeks you will feel the difference and after 3 months you will be back almost to normal. It's a question of developing a routine. I used to do it first thing in the morning, getting up 10 mins earlier to do it and then last thing at night.

The second time I got it (on the other shoulder) I did not even bother with the doctor - I just got out the NSAIDS and started the stretches as soon as I knew what it was. I reckon I shortened the overall time to resolution by 3 months that way.
 
Bowser said:
My wife buys them every week. But, yeah, potassium. I think those leg cramps are close to what a heart attack might feel like, except it's in your chest.
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I had a heart attack several weeks ago, and I can assure you that it's absolutely NOTHING like a leg cramp! I was in the hospital for four days--during which time I was so addled that I never even knew what day it was, even with the morning paper delivered to my room every day!

I've got a stent in one of the arteries that supplies the heart muscle, which will reduce my maximum safe level of exertion forever. And I have to carry a tiny bottle of nitroglycerin tablets everywhere I go, in case my heart needs a little boost. Fortunately, so far, I've only had to pull it out once.

I'm sure that there will be advances in cardiac medicine, but they're probably not going to start by experimenting on us septuagenarians!
 
Fraggle Rocker said:
I had a heart attack several weeks ago, and I can assure you that it's absolutely NOTHING like a leg cramp! I was in the hospital for four days--during which time I was so addled that I never even knew what day it was, even with the morning paper delivered to my room every day!

I've got a stent in one of the arteries that supplies the heart muscle, which will reduce my maximum safe level of exertion forever. And I have to carry a tiny bottle of nitroglycerin tablets everywhere I go, in case my heart needs a little boost. Fortunately, so far, I've only had to pull it out once.

I'm sure that there will be advances in cardiac medicine, but they're probably not going to start by experimenting on us septuagenarians!
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Interesting. I wish you well.

I had the same conversation with a guy at work the other day. He described his as a sensation that his heart was trying to jump out of his chest, yet there was an elephant pressing down and preventing him from breathing. Couldn't raise his left arm. He's doing quite well now (been 19 years since). Also had a stent.
The boyfriend of a friend experienced a persistent back pain that wouldn't go away. It had been diagnosed a heart attack. He also was given a stent.
My father had a heart attack and had bypass surgery. His was apparently very painful, because he recalled relief when he passed out from the pain.
There does seem to be some variety in how heart attacks show in different individuals.
 
Bowser said:
There does seem to be some variety in how heart attacks show in different individuals.
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Indeed. I'm reasonably active, going to the gym 3 times a week, mowing our two-acre lawn, etc. I recovered well enough from the heart attack to go home from the hospital after four days. Now I go to the hospital for an hour three days a week, and they give me some really grueling exercises. Nonetheless, it will very likely be a year before I can stop taking the medications, and perhaps be almost as strong as I used to be.
 
Fraggle Rocker said:
Indeed. I'm reasonably active, going to the gym 3 times a week, mowing our two-acre lawn, etc. I recovered well enough from the heart attack to go home from the hospital after four days. Now I go to the hospital for an hour three days a week, and they give me some really grueling exercises. Nonetheless, it will very likely be a year before I can stop taking the medications, and perhaps be almost as strong as I used to be.
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The coworker I spoke of, you would never guess he is a survivor of a heart attack. My father picked up after his surgery and worked until retirement. The odds of a full recovery seem pretty good.
 
Yes, but you have to be careful about the fine print on that "full recovery." I have a stent in one vein. It stretches the vein back out to its normal size, but the stent itself takes up quite a bit of space. The vein will never be able to carry more than about 60% of its original maximum load.

Fortunately, I'm not an athlete, so this isn't going to interfere very much with my life. Nonetheless, if you have one heart attack, you can't help spending the rest of your life waiting for the next one.

Neither of my parents ever had a heart attack. They both died of strokes. IMHO, that's the worst way to go, because your ability to think starts to fail.
 
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