I did good this time. A solid 2 1/2 hours sleep before waking from the pain.
I have been dealing with shoulder problems for years, about 22 actually. I hurt my left shoulder several times while I was in my late teens and early 20's, when I was a bouncer/security guard. At first, I was told I had an "impingment" where the muscles that go over the top of the ball part of the joint are pinched. The main trigger for the pain was cold drafts and lifting things with my arm angled away from my body. Sometimes the pain was horrible, sometimes it was barely there. I went to therapy, and when they used ultrasound and hot packs, it got better and better. Then, I let them talk me into letting them start using cold packs. I told them immediately that the pain was back, and getting worse by the day. They insisted it would "get better", but it didn't. When I finally quit going, it was worse than ever! At this point, I had all the symptoms of a torn rotator cuff, including the two outside fingers getting numb.
Fast forward about 20 years. I never had surgery, since I knew NOBODY who had a good outcome. NOBODY. Keeping it warm, and massaging my bicep when it started to hurt kept it pretty tolerable most of the time. I had full motion in the joint. If I was near the vents in a building, or in my own car or truck with the AC on, I either moved, or adjusted the car vents to not blow on me. With this, I was able to "enjoy" only one big "spell" a year with it. When one would start, if I could catch it right away, putting a hot pack on it would sometimes stop it overnight, and if not, would make it much better in a day or two.
This last summer, I tripped and fell, hurting my knee badly. To keep my face from following my knee into the sidewalk, I put my right arm out, and I tore the cuff on my right shoulder. Then, to make it worse, I fell again, caused by the knee giving out, and hurt my OTHER KNEE. A few days later, in physical therapy, my quadriceps tendon was torn off, and to keep from falling, I put my left arm out, and tore my rotator cuff really badly. So, now I have a so-so leg, the one I hurt first, the bad leg I just had surgery on, and TWO shoulders with torn rotator cuffs. The left one grinds and stuff, but actually has almost regained full motion, but hurts and is weak. The right one I can't lift above the shoulder without a lot of pain, but is almost pain free most of the time. Due to so many people I know telling me not to have surgery, I am doing therapy instead for now, but if I do have it, it will be on one side only, the right.
A couple of tips:
1. Massage the hell out of your upper arm! Yeah, it will hurt when you are doing it, but don't let that stop you. You should be able to get it calmed down enough that you can sleep for 4+ hours. Really crank on it! Anyplace that hurts when you push on it, rub it! HARD.
2. If you have pain that worsens or doesn't improve from cold packs, STOP using it. Heat works wonders for me on the left shoulder, cold is bad. The right one seems to be ok with cold and heat.
3. If you have anything wrong with you that might cause complications from surgery, think twice about having it, try the therapy first. I have a couple things that is keeping me away from the knife. First is, I have a huge neck, and the shape of my windpipe is not good for a breathing tube. I'm over 50, and on the heavy side too. If they could do it with a local, I would have had my left shoulder fixed years ago, but they can't.
Hope you feel better.
