Discouraged after shoulder surgery and bursitis surgery

I had shoulder tendonitis and bursitis surgery two weeks ago and I am still have pain. I have been told this could be the nerve endings. Is this true? I have a follow up visit tomorrow and one of the surgeons informed me that I may need a cortizone injection, he said he always gives one after surgery.


I am starting to think something is more wrong with the pain. Please give me some answers.

Thanks.



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Joshua Answers:

Hi there. I'm glad you're looking for answers to this common questions.

Surgery, unfortunately, is not a cure all. Regardless of what you had going on in there, surgery cut through skin and connective tissue and tendon, and the body is responding appropriately to such an invasion.

Unfortunately, this hurts.

Shoulder surgery recovery, whether it includes a bursa or not, must include activities that counter the injurious effects of the surgery as well as the original Tendonitis problem.

See: What Is Tendonitis?

This is likely why your surgeon routinely gives cortizone with the surgery...to cut down on the body's post-surgery inflammation response (inflammation causes pain).


As far as your question around pain coming from the nerve endings. Technically, this is true. Nerve endings are what allow you to feel pain.

The doctor's point in making this statement? I don't know. Probably saying it's your nerves hurting from the surgery and it will take time for them to become unirritated.

Remember, scalpels and such cut through tissue, including nerve fibers. It's going to hurt.

Should you get a Corticosteroid Injections?

That's up to you. At best it will drop your pain levels down for a while.

Pain sucks. I'm generally against anti-inflammatories and corticosteroids, but....pain sucks. No shame in getting one. Just keep in mind that it is nothing but a pain killer.

And, there are possible side effects, ranging from it not helping at all, to actually making you hurt worse, and or injure yourself more.


Should it still be hurting at this point after the surgery? That's the better question.

Two weeks? I'm not surprised you have pain still. Especially from surgery on the bursa. When bursae get irritated and injured, they can hurt, and hurt bad, for a long time.

I would expect at least a month of pain from a surgery like this, starting out bad and slowly getting better.


Getting back to surgery is not a cure all. What I want to know, is, did
the surgery get rid of the -cause- of your shoulder tendonitis and bursitis?

For instance, if your bursitis is from the muscles in the armpit area being too tight and pulling and compressing your shoulder down, which grinds the bursa? Kind of like a Shoulder Impingement?

My point is, you had tight muscles pulling on an unhappy shoulder tendon, and likely compressing the structure such that the bursa was getting compressed/irritated.

Surgery and pain causes the muscles to tighten up even more to protect you. This pulls on the newly injured tendon and potential compresses that poor, newly injured bursa even more.

My main suggestion for your doctor's visit tomorrow is, regardless of whether you get a shot or not, is to have your doctor get you (under a variety of names) one of those shoulder icing machines.

They probably won't, but it's worth a shot (make sure of the cost before you leave with one!).

You can get one for personal use, prices range up to a couple hundred bucks.

I HIGHLY suggest that you find a good way to ice your shoulder. This will be your best option to reduce pain and speed healing times.


Again, I HIGHLY suggest you Ice like a madman for at least a week. The more area you can cover, the better.

Ideally it's a few minutes on, several minutes off. A few on, several off. But however you do it, DO IT!. That's the best short and long term pain relief strategy I have.

Then once the pain is down, we start looking to see if the pain is going to go away totally, or not.

And then we go from there. First things first, knock the surgery pain down.


Does that answer your question?

More questions, more answers.




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Joshua Tucker, B.A., C.M.T.
The Tendonitis Expert
www.TendonitisExpert.com











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Comments for Discouraged after shoulder surgery and bursitis surgery

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Oct 19, 2010
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Unbearable shoulder pain from shoulder bursitis
by: Anonymous

I am 19 and ran college track for a semester before the bursitis behind my left shoulder blade became unbarable.

I think I would like to push for surgery because I have heard that bursitis is uncurable and that it just goes through phases of good and bad. I am a fairly active person and would like to not have to be careful of what I do for the rest of my life.

I have done cortisone and physical therapy neither of which very successful. Do you think surgery is a positive option for me?


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Joshua Comments:

Hi WantinSurgery.

You're asking the wrong guy about surgery. I've pretty solidly against it for most things.

Who told you shoulder bursitis was uncurable? Most surgeons would probably agree.

My question is, WHY do you have shoulder bursitis? It doesn't just show up out of the blue.

If you get surgery for it, how will that help? What exactly will they do? How will it 'fix' the factors that CAUSED the bursitis?

Who knows. Maybe you'll feel great if they cut the bursa out, or whatever they'll do in there. Personally I'll avoid going under elective surgery/the knife unless it's something surgery can FOR SURE fix.

If I get hit by a bus? I'm PRO surgery.

Tendonitis? NO WAY.

Bursitis means that -something- isn't working right, and the bursa is getting hammered on a constant basis, and is now so irritated that it takes hardly anything to make it HURT.

It's a special kind of pain....


Not sure if that answered your question...

More questions, more answers.
Apr 09, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		You sir need a Nobel Peace Prize:)
by: Veteran Tank Gunner

Two years and this comment is still running. I also am about to go through surgery to repair damage in my Acromioclavicular joint, tear of the superior labrum, tendinosis of the long head biceps tendon and tendinosis of the supraspinatus and subscapularis tendons. What would be the best way to deal with pain without medicines to hold me off untill surgery?


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Joshua Comments:

Hey TG.

I'm always up for a Nobel up on my shelf. Bring it on!

I have two answers for you.

1. The best way to lower pain levels is with the effective use of ice/cold. For your specific set of pain locations, I suggest you check out the Cold Therapy System.

Why? Because you can easily and systemically move the cold around to different locations. 2 minutes here, 2 minutes there, repeat, repeat.

You could use ice packs and such for free, too, of course, but if you get surgery you're VERY MUCH going to want the easy ability to ice the affected structures. A lot.


2. This doesn't exactly answer your question because it's a modality that can help you avoid surgery. Check out The ARPwave System. It's super bad ass and will absolutely drop pain levels and save you from surgery, assuming you use it/use it enough/use it correctly. Alternately, it will make a post surgery recovery a 2-3 month thing instead of an 8-12 month thing.


3. Make sure to know about Magnesium for Tendonitis




Why do you think you have these tears/injuries?

How long have you had them?

What caused them?

When is your surgery scheduled for?
Dec 26, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Subdeltoid Bursitis-ongoing issue
by: ActionBarbie

Hi,

I have been doing Crossfit for about 2years now, and found myself in my first debilitating injury about 7-8months ago. At the time I was a bar manager at a hotel, where I had to carry all the marble top tables through a crowd of people across the other side of the hotel. As the crowd was often hard to move thru, I would carry the tables overhead.

I think this repetitive movement with an awkward object- circular tables, eventually did some damage to my shoulder. I ended up leaving the job, and taking time off to rest (no crossfit!) as I thought I must have just overdone it and strained my shoulder and it needed some downtime.

I finally felt fine after about 3months, so I went back to Crossfit, watching my form & using very light weights, basically easing back into it. But after about a week, the pain in my shoulder was back with a vengeance (whilst doing a workout involving pull-ups and overhead presses). I ended up in absolute agony even after dropping the weight plates off the bar and pressing an empty bar.

That was my wake up call, that something was really wrong. So the next day I went to a really good Physio, and she tried physiotherapy as well as dry-needling.

She mentioned that my shoulder wasn't sitting in the socket properly- when she gently pulled it would pull out leaving a gap in my socket.

Shoulder also clicks a lot with movement. I did physio for the next 6months, along with remedial massage & ibuprofen and dicolfenac, and as much rest as possible (and no exercise except for an occasional run/situps).

With no improvement, and pain on the increase, I got cortisone under ultrasound. This has not helped either, and am still in just as much pain if not worse..?

I am at a loss as to what to do now, as I am in constant immense pain on a daily basis, with everything from driving, to photographing increasing the pain even more.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, as I am looking at MRI/MRA & surgery in the new year if I can't get any improvements, and I would really like to avoid that if possible.

Thank you,

Megan


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Joshua Comments:

Hi Megan (ActionBarbie, that's awesome).

Welcome to the world of Tendonitis.

See: What Is Tendonitis to make sure that you understand what it is and how it works.




CONTINUED IN NEXT SECTION
Jan 11, 2013
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Joshua Replies to ActionBarbie re: Subdeltoid Bursitis-ongoing issue
by: The Tendonitis Expert

CONTINUED FROM LAST SECTION

You used your body, your body does what it does - gets tighter, builds up inflammation, burns through nutrition, gets stuck tight, hurt, repeat.
As you've experienced, Corticosteroid Injections don't heal anything. Rest certainly doesn't. And those are common doctor and physical therapy recommendations.

Bursitis is extra painful. The padding gets super sensitive, and it makes everything worse, which makes the bursitis worse, etc. So understanding -why- you hurt becomes important. Various predictable factors are at play.

Bursitis or Tendonitis or both (it's both, as it's all due to the overall dynamic) there's just one thing to do at this point: go after the CAUSE of the whole thing.

Reduce the chronic inflammation, reverse the chronic muscle and connective tissue tightness, and deal with any nutritional insufficiency that -is- involved.

Along those lines, I suggest my Reversing Shoulder Tendonitis ebook. You'll probably be interested in a complete plan of attack, as opposed to a couple tips that I could provide here (and that you'll find if you read through the links you'll find on the pages I linked to).



More questions, more answers.
Mar 05, 2013
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Should I go for the Surgery?
by: Anonymous

I have this pain Since 2008 and Today 6 March 2013, the surgeon has suggested me that I should go for the surgery and remove the swollen bursa from my right shoulder.

The degree of pain changes according to my daily activies and different weather conditions.

As far as pain is concern i can bear the pain for the rest of my life but its just something is not right in my shoulder that I feel all the time.

Should I go for the Surgery????

Thanks


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Joshua Comments:

Hi Anonymous.

Whether you get surgery or not is up to you. And surgery is a pretty big deal, especially when some necessary body part is to be removed, so make sure you know what you're getting into.

But to help you answer that question for yourself, here are some questions to ask yourself and your doctor.

1. WHY is the bursa inflamed and hurting?

2. Will surgery change any of the factors causing the inflamed painful bursa?

3. Will your shoulder be any happier without a bursa? They're there for a reason.

4. Is there a money back guarantee if the surgery doesn't 'work'?

5. Will there be any future problems for you and your shoulder if you don't have a bursa?

6. Is the doctor sure that the bursa is the actual problem? Again, WHY is the bursa hurting, since it didn't just start hurting magically for no reason.

7. If the doctor doesn't know WHY it's hurting, why it's swollen, why does he think that surgery will help the problem?


Along those lines see: Quiz Your Doc


Let me know what happens.
Mar 10, 2015
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		I have shoulder pain. Where is the real problem?
by: Amy

Hi Joshua,

Thank you for your website! I was diagnosed with tendonitis 5 months ago.

I was given two diagnoses by four different professionals.

Two said it was shoulder and two said it was bicep.

It started out on my right side. I now have it on both sides, but the right is worse. After doing your icing technique I think it is my shoulders.

I was given two cortisone shots in the right side. One in my tendon and one in the joint. The tendon one did nothing the joint one helped a little.

I did PT for about a month and it helped a little.

I have been getting message therapy which has helped! She knows what she is doing but cannot tell me where the main injury/issue is located. Your icing technique has taken away the continuous dull aching! (THANK YOU!)

Now my main points of pain are in the armpit area (pec minor and teres major) and under my shoulder blades. I do feel a little pain/discomfort every once and a while just below my shoulder in my arm and at the very tip of my shoulder.

The pain/discomfort changes throughout the day and I have even had very little pain the last few days.

Can you tell me where the main issue is and what to do about it? I feel like I'm on the road to recovery but still have aches and pains.

I don't know what the next step is. I have 3 stretches I've been doing the past month, but I don't think it's enough. Would your ebook "Reversing Shoulder Tendonitis" address my issues?

Also, the message therapist lifted my arm up and when she was just about to my ear it hurt. She suggested that I may have inflammation in the bursa, but I have no pain in every day movement. I have full range of motion. Could I still have inflammation? If so what do I do about it?

Thank you for your time and any help you can give!

Amy


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Joshua Comments:

Hi Amy.

1. Did they mean 'bicep' in the sense that it attaches at the shoulder?

Shoulder Tendonitis can include either or both 'shoulder' and 'bicep'.


2. I can't for sure tell you where the main point is, but chances are, it's more than one point, more than one factor.

A. Nutritional lack (for a variety of reasons

B. Inflammation process (you've noticed that icing is helping the side effects of that)

C. Too tight muscle and connective tissue (the massage therapist is helping, but can't find the main source). Lack of nutrition plays a part in limited benefit from good massage, and again, generally there isn't one specific point of cause (even/expecially if/when there's a rip and tear injury).


3. Shoulder Bursitis is essentially caused by chronic tightness in the armpit area muscles/structures (and on top of the shoulder too). Constant compression and irritation.

It's all downhill from there, a.k.a the downward spiral of the Pain Causing Dynamic.

Shoulder Impingement basically means that structures are being compressed. By tight structures.

The logic there gets a bit circular, but essentially, muscles get tight, pull on their connections, and things get 'squeezed'.

For some reason doctors think that surgery is a 'fix'.


4. "Would your ebook "Reversing Shoulder Tendonitis" address my issues?"

Yes it would show you how to effectively address the issue(s).



See Semi-Related: Bicep Or Rotator Cuff Tendonitis What Should I Do To Get Back To Boxing?
Jul 20, 2015
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		More shoulder pain, more questions
by: MizzJesi

Hi my name is Jessica,

I had surgery a month ago to remove bone spurs and damaged tissues in my left shoulder(still have to do the right) caused by premature arthritis after a difficult pregnancy.

Arthroscopy with debasement, distal clavicle excision and acromioplasty is what I was told to expect. First day at p.t. I was told the Dr also removed my bursa. I have been told that the bursa should have been replaced by something else in order to keep the joint moving freely.

I guess the questions are, was the Dr. Wrong for not telling me about removing the bursa, and should there have been a replacement of some sort.

I'm very frustrated after being told recovering would be a matter of days, now a month later I'm still unable to sleep at night with the pain.

Lost my job, hoping 3 days turning into 3 months, does not turn into more! I am a single mom who has to work!


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Joshua Comments:

Hi Jessica.

"after being told recovering would be a matter of days"

1. You were told 3 days??? ????? Seriously???

That's.....crazy. Nobody is happy 3 days after major surgery.

2. Removal of a bursa? For 'arthritis caused by pregnancy'????????

That's crazy.

3. Also, how does pregnancy 'cause arthritis'?

It is my opinion that you should not let that doctor ever get his hands on you again.



"I guess the questions are, was the Dr. Wrong for not telling me about removing the bursa, and should there have been a replacement of some sort. "

Wrong? Probably. Definitely wrong for lying to you by telling you '3 days'. Which was a blatant, blatant lie, at best.

Should something have replaced the bursa? I don't know.

Should it have come out at all? I can't imagine why. But then, I'm not a surgeon.



Tell me more about this 'premature arthritis caused by pregnancy'.
Jul 21, 2015
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Pregnancy Problems........
by: MizzJesi

Oh where to begin here! LOL

Ok so at 19 I had a L.E.E.P., to remove cervical cancer, at 21 an emergency C-Section after my son went into distress (His heart was stopped before they could get him out, in a matter of minutes!He was revived <3 Thank God) at 24 I had another L.E.E.P. to remove cancer again. Fast forward 10 years......

At 30 years old my then husband and I decided to have another child. With my history of a troubled pregnancy and difficult birthing with my first child, along with my advanced childbearing age, high blood pressure, and all around yucky feeling, my OBGYN was keeping a close watch on me.

At the beginning of my second trimester my body started showing obvious signs of wear. Brown skin discoloration on my face, pain in my shoulders, again general ickyness.

By my 7th month my blood pressure was bordering on scary. My OBGYN had me take a 24 hour urine protein test, which if I recall values should be around 600 and I was at 2400. Needless to say I spent several weeks hospitalized under a very watchful eye!

All is well that ends well though, I gave birth 6 weeks early to a 3lbs boy, tied my tubes, and went on with life. BUT the pain in my shoulders elbows, hands, didn't go away. After almost 3 years of living with it, I went to my Dr.

At first he refused to consider that there was something wrong. Then after all but threatening to sit in his office until he helped me, he set up an MRI. It showed Bursitis, Arthritis, and Tendonitis, in both shoulders arms and hands. Much to his shock.

For the next 7 years I had steroid injections, until they stopped working, and that is how I got here to asking you these questions.

I know I should have never believed 3 days, but I was hopeful. That brings me to another question. This is supposed to be a surgery I can not "Re-injure", so how is it that I am still getting fresh bruising in the same area where most of my pain radiates from? It has been over a month!

With my medical background y would think I would have learned to ask more questions prior to letting myself be butchered,*shrug*. I just want to be able to do things people my age do!

Did that answer your question well enough? LOL


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Joshua Comments:

That was a great answer!

1. Nutritional insufficiency/deficiency. That's my first thought.

Pregnancies are rough enough when a person is nutritionally sufficient.

It's safe to say you weren't. And babies drain the mother of nutrition...so that doesn't help.

Shoulder pain etc isn't going to go away when you're short on, for instance, magnesium.

And if it's bad, it predictably leads to all sorts of things...like everything you describe.

Things that surgery didn't fix, or even touch (inflammation, chronic tightness and compression, etc).

See the Magnesium For Tendonitis link in this thread.


2. What is your vitamin D level? If you don't know, find out asap.


3. "With my medical background y would think I would have learned to ask more questions prior to letting myself be butchered,*shrug*."

Yeah, well, people are funny. We all do all sorts of dumb stuff. Live and learn, and move forward.


4. "This is supposed to be a surgery I can not "Re-injure", so how is it that I am still getting fresh bruising in the same area where most of my pain radiates from? It has been over a month! "

First off, you were lied to. Can't re-injure? That's absurd.

Second, you had MAJOR surgery a month ago.

A month ago! Of coursed you're going to still be hurting etc.

Removing bone spurs is PAINFUL.

See: Bone Spur

See: Bone Bruise

See: Shoulder Bursitis

You had important body parts removed. Parts that were being compressed and whose remaining parts are still being compressed.

With pain enhancing chemical from inflammation being pumped into the area.

It's not at all surprising that you're still in pain.

Among other things, were I you I would get one of those shoulder sleeve things that pumps ice water through it. (Google something like Active Ice Therapy System)

Your doctor should of course had you recovering with one of those since day one.
Jul 22, 2015
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Just one last thing...
by: MizzJesi

Just one last comment to say thank you.

You gave me a major "duh" moment. I was unable to eat much either pregnancy do to continual morning sickness. Even though I did take vitamins, I'm sure you are correct it was not enough. Makes much more sense then being told it was do to my "advanced childbearing years".

The vitamin d deficiency and magnesium I will be looking into asap. And I have been icing of my own accord, but will also look into the machine.

Thank you so much for this page and your time and knowledge. You have given me more hope that eventually I will be back up and running again!

That means more then you know. <3


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Joshua Comments:

I'm glad I can help.

Let me know what your Vit D level is when it gets in. (A doctor saying it's 'fine' doesn't cut it, get an actual number, in ng/ml measurement.)
May 30, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		8 yrs post op; pain returns
by: Kathy D

Had a right shoulder decompression for my bursitis pain in 2009. And yet again having similar pain especially at night and when I move my shoulder or reach above my head. Is there a way to tell the difference between bursitis and arthritis? I don't even know if there's only one bursa, and if that was removed during my surgery, in which case it shouldn't be bursitis again, correct?


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Joshua Comments:

Did the just remove the bursa, or did they also remove bone?

Regardless of your answer, the surgery ignored all the causes of the bursitis, so those compressive/pain causing factors are still in place (and likely aggravated from the trauma of the surgery).

Technically if they removed the bursa, then no it's not bursitis because there's no bursa to be inflamed. But again, the same causative dynamic is in play, so it makes total sense that you're having pain again.
Jul 10, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Locked shoulder abduction, no oain
by: Anonymous

Hi. I am a crossfitter. For the past couple of months I realised I have locked abduction of my left shoulder at 100-110 degrees. No pain at all...my xrays are normal and an ultrasound shows chronic subacromial bursitis with no tendon pathology. I do not understand why there is no pain if I have bursitis? Could there be something else going on?

Regards


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Joshua Comments:

I don't know, let's see:

1. YOu could have a really high pain tolerance

2. You could have inflammation (bursitis) and tissue irritation but not enough to actual provide enough pain signal for you to feel

3. Your overall ecology could be 'recovering' enough from new irritation etc to keep you in a no-pain state even though other factors are bad/slowly getting worse

4. Some combination of the above


Realistically, it's at least a combination of 2 and 3.

Just because there's some inflammation showing doesn't mean you have to have/feel pain. Your brain is, but it's not yet at a point where you are consciously feeling pain.


Why did you get the MRI? Just to see if one could visualize why range of motion is blocked?

Is it a hard stop (boney) or a soft stop (muscles won't lengthen any more) or a pain stop (you stop because it hurts)?
Jul 11, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Reply
by: Anonymous

Hi

It is a soft "locked" sensation where I physically can not abduct on my own further unless I slightly move my arm anteriorly (I guess the using deltoid more and less supraspinatus?).

I am a radiologist (but musculoskeletal imaging is not my forte) / hence the ultrasound and x-rays. I sort of windered about impingement of some sorts. I also consulted a biokineticist who suggested exclusion of a rotator cuff tear (which I do not have - just chronic thickening of the bursa).

I did not have an mri yet.

An ortopedic surgeon suggested corticosteroids to see if my range of movement improves...I was just wandering if it is worth it (corticosteroids injection).


----




If you don't have a tear, then it's almost certain that the cause is that muscle structures (muscle and connective tissue) in the arm pit area (muscles that pull down) are too tight/stuck too tight.

So one or more muscles involved won't lengthen enough to let your arm go up...so you have to change the angle or whatever so -those- muscles will lengthen enough to let the arm go up.

This also explains the thickening bursa - those pull down muscles are pulling down constantly, compressing and irritating the bursa.

This also explains any impingement - those pull down muscles are pulling the shoulder down into itself, thus impingement. Impingement isn't a problem, it is a symptom of a problem.

The Reversing Shoulder Tendonitis program is all about reversing this dynamic.


How would corticosteroids help create more range of motion? Talk about a hail mary strategy!

At best it would decrease pain/inflammation so there would be less 'tighten up!' signal going to the muscle....but even that ignores why the pain/inflammation is happening in the first place.

Said another way, I'm not a fan of corticosteroid injections for your scenario (or most scenarios).

See: Corticosteroid Injections
Aug 10, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Pain 2 months after having shoulder bursa removed.
by: Star

I had the bursa in my shoulder removed 2 months ago and am still having pain. The pain is in the front of my arm. Why does it still hurt. Sometimes it's really bad.


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Joshua Comments:

Did your doctor tell you that removing the bursa would remove the pain? If yes, WHY??

All the factors that caused the bursitis are still in place, plus now you have the trauma/injury of surgery and no bursa.

What did you do post-surgery to help things recover?

Also, 2 months isn't very long for surgery recovery. It wasn't a minor operation, really. And depending on your pain tolerance levels..(Mine aren't very high, I'd be hurting from surgery for a long time.)
Aug 11, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Pain
by: Star

I went in to have calcium deposits removed. They were gone when he got in there but found the bursa inflamed so he took it out. He said a new healthy bursa would grow in its place. Also I did no therapy after. He said nothing about having to do therapy.


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Joshua Comments:

Well....we're not lizards. If a lizard's tail gets ripped off it grows back good as new. If we have a bursa cut out, theoretically it will grow back, and doctors like to think it grows back 'as good as new', it's really not that simple.

You had your shoulder hacked into. You're not a lizard. It's going to hurt, and it's going to hurt for potentially quite a while.

And...all the factors that had the bursa inflammed and 'needing to be removed' are still in place. So how can a 'healthy new' bursa grow back into an environment where the old one was very unhappy?
Sep 11, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		10 year old chronic shoulder inflammation, sub-acromial decompression, bone spurs removal etc
by: Jason L

Hi there! I am very much in need of your expertise. I am a 29 year old man who has been suffering with chronic tendinitis of my left biceps tendon for about 10 years. I've had a sub-acromial decompression following rotator cuff tendinitis and bone spur development.

I've also had the same occur in my left elbow. I had surgery to remove that elbow bone spur years ago and it has luckily since healed for the most part.

All throughout this process I have been told cold and ice are just for pain!! After reading through a lot of your site and praying that the world will find a science or technology to catch up to my issue, or replace my arm altogether... I come to you humbly requesting assistance.

Do you think ice massage is all that is really needed? In frequent succession? I have been taking turmeric, zyflammend, all manners of herbal anti-inflammatories and spending money on it for years to no avail...

I am seriously considering a phone consult with you if you think I should provide more detailed information and history. I am (or was) a body builder and have basically given up on that passion since all the debilitating pain is still here. At this point the atrophy in my left arm and shoulder is pretty bad and anatomically my two arms/sides are very different. The effects of this inflammation has and continues to travel along the paths of my muscles to other areas of my body, in an insidious fashion. I really need your help.

Jason


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Joshua Comments:

Hi Jason.

It's been a while since you wrote this, and I don't think we've had a consult.

How are things now?


Until then, see related:

Help Needed For Shoulder Impingement And Acromion Bone Spur

20 Year Old Suffering Non-Recovering Left Shoulder Cuff Tendonitis

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