Falling and Shoulder Pain

Hey Jennifer, long time! I'm way out of the loop. Girl, you are an accident waiting to happen! We're twins! I have to laugh b/c I thought SLAP was the name of the injury b/c so many parents get it from reaching into the back seat to slap their kids while on the road LOL! Oh my. Labrum tears are no joke! Really good info here and I so hope and pray you are much better and will completely heal in record time w/ no residual problems. Take care and many blessings, Sunnyflower @suzanne2, @artscaping

@sunnyflower I try not to think of myself as accident prone... LOL.. instead I focus on what I need to do to recover if I am injured. A SLAP tear stands for abbreviations for the name of the injury and specific tear to the shoulder cartilage. That happened to me some years ago and it is completely healed. I think our bodies always remember injuries with some stiffness or scar tissue. I do have a lot of physical injuries that I've talked about here with the shoulder issues, the spine injury, and the recent ankle fracture last May and my collection of surgeries. I could just about be a physical therapist since I've learned so much with my own rehab and if you pay attention, you have some stories to tell. Another thing I've learned is that bad habits lead to injuries, like the slouching I did for years that moved my shoulder too far forward in the socket, and then when I reached into the back seat and yanked on something that was stuck, my shoulder was in a position of vulnerability and it didn't take very much to tear the cartilage. I felt a sharp pain when I did that. Thanks for your concerns, Sunnyflower. Right now I will direct that to my ankle that is still healing and needs your good energy the most.

Hi everyone, my problem is that I keep on falling over I'm a 55 year old Male who is in pretty good health. Other than the falls. The last time I fell was on Christmas eve at work, I work in a supermarket, Grocery store. I was on my knees attempting to put a 2 kilo case of chocolate on a shelf then the next thing I know I'm flat on my back in agony (this by the way was due to a fall down a flight of stairs the week earlier which resulted in 2 broken ribs and soft tissue damage to my right shoulder.)

@mickeymoose I can relay some information that you might want to consider. I had a spine injury caused by a whiplash years ago, but then the damaged disc degenerated and I needed spine surgery which I had 4 years ago. I also have thoracic outlet syndrome which is tightness and nerve impingement between the collar bone and rib cage and it along with the spine injury was causing muscle spasms in my neck that were twisting or tilting my neck vertebrae just a little bit. I developed vertigo and the episodes happened if I looked up, and I fell over backward. I didn't know at the time it was because my neck vertebrae were out of alignment, and it happens with C1 & C2 and the way he skull sits on top. If you were looking upward at the grocery store when you fell, you could have something like this. With the injury you just had falling down the stairs, there could be a problem or muscle spasms in your neck moving vertebrae around. Did you have any spine imaging and did anyone look at the discs and alignment? My physical therapist was able to resolve this, and since I had corrective spine surgery for a collapsed disc, it doesn't happen anymore. There are a lot of muscle connections between the shoulder blade and the spine, and you are probably guarding the injury which just adds to the tension. The vertebral artery passes through the sides of the upper cervical vertebrae, and if those vertebrae are twisted, the artery is stretched, then if you look up, it gets compressed and causes vertigo. You might need so time off work to heal from your injuries. Thoracic outlet syndrome or TOS can also result from a shoulder injury and can cause reduced blood flow to the brain. One of the tests for it is to listen to the pulse in the neck, and have the patient turn their head, and the pulse stops. I certainly would consult a doctor about the balance problems and ask for a spine consult at facility that also treats patients for TOS. TOS is often misunderstood and since your issues can be a combination of these things, it is best to consult at a place where they have specialists for all of it. That is what brought me to Mayo as a patient. There are a lot of physical components to balance with the neck, inner ear and vision, and physical therapy may be able to correct that now. Balance does become a problem for a lot of people as they age, so what you do now will affect your future. Get well soon and advocate for yourself until you get some answers and are on a path to recovery.

@jenniferhunter I know we have discussed our respective shoulder injuries before but just another ask...Did you find yourself in a lot of pain for a considerable time after your injury? My shoulder is really giving me a lot of grief! The pain sometimes is beyond discussing! i can relate to ankle pain and I hope you heal quickly it is no fun!

@mickeymoose BTW: love the name! I fall, often. Have had this issue for years. theories, none actually led to solution. Now, our situations are different!!!!! I'm 73, have health issues, etc. But, some info might help you. I was in Mayo ED 2X in Nov. , admitted to hospital for testing. I 'fell' at Mayo when getting up from lying down for imaging tests. fainted. This happens a lot, getting worse, when I sit up from lying down or, it's worse when standing up from sitting. my blood pressure drops and doesn't go back up where it's supposed to be. Orthostatic blood pressure. Hospital ck'd for heart, but it's ok. If you have a bp monitor and ck yours for a journel.....if not, might consider doing that for several days to give to your doc....Since my bp stays down, the Mayo docs think it may be related to autononomic neuropathy. Autoimmune. I'm having tests tomorrow to find out if this is it. Hope so for a diagnosis. Hope not, since it's not a good one. But, all to say, you may have a bp issue with it dropping when you change posiition. If so, it can be treated. You can't keep on falling! Let us know what your doc says. Blessings. Elizabeth

@mickeymoose BTW: love the name! I fall, often. Have had this issue for years. theories, none actually led to solution. Now, our situations are different!!!!! I'm 73, have health issues, etc. But, some info might help you. I was in Mayo ED 2X in Nov. , admitted to hospital for testing. I 'fell' at Mayo when getting up from lying down for imaging tests. fainted. This happens a lot, getting worse, when I sit up from lying down or, it's worse when standing up from sitting. my blood pressure drops and doesn't go back up where it's supposed to be. Orthostatic blood pressure. Hospital ck'd for heart, but it's ok. If you have a bp monitor and ck yours for a journel.....if not, might consider doing that for several days to give to your doc....Since my bp stays down, the Mayo docs think it may be related to autononomic neuropathy. Autoimmune. I'm having tests tomorrow to find out if this is it. Hope so for a diagnosis. Hope not, since it's not a good one. But, all to say, you may have a bp issue with it dropping when you change posiition. If so, it can be treated. You can't keep on falling! Let us know what your doc says. Blessings. Elizabeth

I hope you won’t do as I did and end up with a frozen shoulder!! It was horrific almost two years to get better. I’d advise seeing a doctor immediately. The less you use your shoulder the worse it will get b

@mickeymoose BTW: love the name! I fall, often. Have had this issue for years. theories, none actually led to solution. Now, our situations are different!!!!! I'm 73, have health issues, etc. But, some info might help you. I was in Mayo ED 2X in Nov. , admitted to hospital for testing. I 'fell' at Mayo when getting up from lying down for imaging tests. fainted. This happens a lot, getting worse, when I sit up from lying down or, it's worse when standing up from sitting. my blood pressure drops and doesn't go back up where it's supposed to be. Orthostatic blood pressure. Hospital ck'd for heart, but it's ok. If you have a bp monitor and ck yours for a journel.....if not, might consider doing that for several days to give to your doc....Since my bp stays down, the Mayo docs think it may be related to autononomic neuropathy. Autoimmune. I'm having tests tomorrow to find out if this is it. Hope so for a diagnosis. Hope not, since it's not a good one. But, all to say, you may have a bp issue with it dropping when you change posiition. If so, it can be treated. You can't keep on falling! Let us know what your doc says. Blessings. Elizabeth