Strange shoulder pain, increasing with inactivity?
Hi. I have started experiencing following shoulder symptoms, will go to doctor soon but they might put me on the wait list, or in any case, I wonder if you could tell me what it could be.
It happens in both arms at the same time, or sometimes only in one arm (depends on day/time).
1) I had similar problems ~3 years or so ago for 2-4 weeks; and then again a year ago – at that time I went to make a X-ray and they said my bones look ok; when time came to do additional exams symptoms stopped by themselves again so I didn’t do it.
Also all symptoms happen about 1/3rdof all time; at other times I feel more or less ok, aside form painless clicks.
2) Most characteristic is that if I sit without much movement with hands to my sides (like at the desk or on the bus/passenger seat) I start feeling mounting numb pain in shoulders and outside upper arm and I need to move hands around from time to time (like every minute) to alleviate it.
3) Upper arm right near shoulder clicks and it hurts momentarily when I raise it to the side (but not in front of myself). Raising further above head doesn’t produce pain.
4) It doesn’t hurt to do exercise, in fact after pushup workout (total of ~160 over 10 mins) usually pain stops even if it was there.
5) The worst is after sleep – I sleep on stomach, with arms stretched "up" and bent under pillow so after sleep 4 & 5 combine to a degree when for about 0.5-1 minutes until I move hands around a bit I am reluctant to raise it up because of pain (but if I do raise them several times quickly pain decreases).
Filed under: Shoulder Pain Symptoms
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Clicking at a joint is never good. You could have a torn rotator cuff injury. Or fascitis. Here is why you don’t feel it with activity and you do feel it without. If you have inflammation in the joint, the inflammation will push on the pain sensors compressing to the point they don’t fire off. Once the inflammation *from the exercise* goes down a bit, the sensors are "loose" enough to the start firing again. I have a similar situation with plantar’s fascitits which is a similar condition in the bottom of your feet. When I am exercising, I don’t feel it, because the pain sensors are compressed, whereas upon stopping the nerves begin firing again – which then leads to pain. The best advice is to have an MRI which will dx soft tissue injuries.