Hey first off I read the whole thread and you've give some great advice. Hoping for your thoughts on a shoulder injury. Second time. Not going away, getting better. Worried.
Body Chart: Left shoulder. Sharp pain inside the joint. Going from the top of the joint, near the clavicle, down my arm between the bicep and tricep. Thats where I feel the most pain. Also I have two small muscle spams or balls of tight, painful muscle in my left arm after the injury: one in the middle of my tricep about halfway down, the other at the top of the bicep where it meets up my chest/shoulder in the front.
Age: 33
Mechanism of injury: Little bit of a story. I first injured it about 2 years ago doing a military press. Was at max weight, came down from a rep tired. At the bottom of the rep I hurt a pop/pull at the front of the shoulder. Painful. Stopped. Took a shower. Hard to lift arm.
Took a long time to get better, maybe 3-4 months. Then started lifting again, using creatine for first time, lifted for a year, all my lifts at new highs, was in insane shape, best of my life.
About 4 months ago I was getting under the bar do squats, low bar, it was my 2nd or 3rd warmup set, so I had already done 20 minutes of warm up, then lets say 3rd set of warm ups squating, stretching shoulders, trying to get the bar down my back and I felt a sharp pain in the front of my shoulder where the clavicle and my chest/bicep meet as I got the weight was on my shoulder. Did my 5 reps, put the bar down, took a shower. VERY painful to lift arm.
That was 4 months ago. Not getting better.
Aggravating factors: If I raise my arm up above shoulder level at 45 degree of body or more, painful sometimes. If I grab and push painful.
Upside down coke bottle test, pain in joint, down the arm between bicep and tricep.
Easy stuff causes pain: going bowling, dancing, etc. I often wake up in the morning and feel a lot of stiffness and sharp pain in the joint, like there is something rough inside scratching around.
It seems bad.
Easing factors: Stretching. Lock fingers, palms out above my body, lean over to the side seems to stretch out my back and shoulders. Eases pain.
I also started foam rolling my back, my tricep, bicep and it feels GREAT when I do this, and very painful over the two balls of tight muscle, but they have loosened up a lot over the last month. But still present and sensitive, but very small now.
After I take a long hot shower, I do something like put both arms up above me and pull one arm down at a time to my chest, turn my head the direction away from the arm that pulling down. Small exercises like this bring relief. But always stiff in the morning again.
Overall I feel a small ball of tissue, maybe scar tissue, where my chest, shoulder and arm meet in front. Its not there on the other side.
Now that its winter I feel a little achey in the shoulder on cold days when walking to work, at night walking home.
I feel the pain most where the clavicle and the red and the green area meet. That intersection, or close to in a little into the red area. Painful. From there goes down the arm.
Occasionally I feel a little pain in the shoulder blade area in the back, but not much and not always.
Any insight would be most helpful. Im in China and the doctors here are idiots. Ive gotten an MRI before, years ago and it was so blurry. Their equipment is old and of low quality.