Could anyone help with a dodgy shoulder

[Vicky N]

Hi,

This is going to sound odd, but i am still suffering from a sports injury i suffered *years* ago..

About 5 years ago I went climbing, when i fell off the wall and thought it would be a good idea to catch myself from falling by grabbing onto a handhold super hero style! As it was, my plan failed miserably, and i managed to wrench my shoulder partly out of the socket.

Being miffed at having just paid £5 for 5 minutes climbing, i pulled it back in and tried climbing again but couldnt because pain was just too bad.

After a month of still severe pain in the shoulder, i went to the doctor who sent me for x-rays which showed everything to be normal.

A couple of years later, i went to another physio after getting more severe pain in my shoulder and back. After prodding around for a bit, he said he felt scar tissue in the rotator cuff muscle and that i probably tore it in the original accident, and should have recieved surgery there and then.

To this day, my shoulder still 'pops' painfully quite regularly, gets painfully stiff, makes gritty sounds when i move it about, and more annoyingly, refuses to make a full circular motion when i try to circle my arms backwards and forwards during Taekwondo warm ups. I get to a half way point, and it simply wont go any more...

Is there anything that could be done, or should i just continue to ignore it, as it doesnt stop me in my daily activities, nor causes significant pain on a regular basis.

Apologies for the essay, but many thanks for reading this far and for any help that may be provided!

Kindest regards

Vicky

[Heidi]

Hi Vicky,

It does sound as though there may have been a tear to one of the rotator cuff muscles originally. This does cause a build up of scar tissue if untreated and causes the shoulder to feel stiff and sometimes still painful.

I am guessing that the initial injury has caused other problems within your shoulder. If one muscle is not working correctly, this places strain on others, alters the movement pattern at the shoulder and this can cause further problems.

My first piece of advice would be to visit a good physio or sports therapist/rehabilitator. They should be able to look at the whole picture, see which muscle(s) was damaged originally, massage and stretch it to restore its original range of motion and provide a rehabilitation plan to correct any resultant muscle imbalances.

I hope this helps!