very painful shoulder - any advice?

Hi @AlwaysHopeful, when you mention that you found out that your shoulder is in bad shape, did they find something specifically wrong with it? Arthritis, rotator cuff?

I had a rotator tear that went undiagnosed for a long time. I was still functioning until the pain became a bit too much. I had to have surgery to fix the tear and the rehab was really difficult.

Here are a few discussions you may find helpful as well:
- "Falling and shoulder pain" - https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/shoulder-pain-1/
- "Living with pain following refusal of shoulder replacement" -https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/living-with-pain-following-refusal-of-reverse-shoulder-replacements/
- "Is this normal for frozen shoulder or rotator tear?" - https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/is-this-normal-for-frozen-shoulder-or-rotator-cuff-tear/

@jaylee and @cobweb both shared their experiences PRP injections and may be able to share some of their results with you.

@AlwaysHopeful, was this a sudden onset or a slow progression with your shoulder?

It was a slow progression. However, a shoulder ultrasound created an storm of pain, Actually called an arthritis flare-up, but the word "storm" is very accurate ! The ultrasound was painful because my shoulder was put into awkward positions and in hindsight should not have been a procedure for the amount of arthritis that I have in my shoulder. i appreciate the discussions that you posted and I'll be looking them up.

I have both shoulders that need replaced. I am 85 years old and going to rehab is not appealing to me. I have been to 5 different doctors and they Say reverse replacement is all they can do. Had pain in both. I had nerves deadened in both shoulders and they quit hurting. Yes rehabilitation is from 6 to 8 months. Ligaments can not be reattached. Do I want to go through that at my age?

Hi Ranch, and sorry to hear about your shoulder problems. My shoulder joints are bone on bone, but I'm active and that seems to keep pain at a minimum. I'm also 70 y/o.

A reverse shoulder replacement is required when there has been damage to the rotator cuff, the group of muscles/tendons that surround the shoulder joint. A reverse replacement puts the ball that is on top of the upper arm bone and places that ball at the end of the clavicle. From what I've heard, the sensation is a little strange and range of motion is decreased, but pain should go away.

So should you have the surgery at 85? Well that's a personal decision. If you are in otherwise good health and experiencing a lot of pain, probably good to have it done. I hate yo cop out but the answer is that it's really up to you and your Dr.

All the best to you! Joe

You are 100%correct. That’s the Dr statement. It’s not the operation it’s the rehab that bothers me. Went to rehab once and it was a disaster. All tensions are torn

I am 74. I had reverse shoulder replacements on both shoulders this year. One was in September 2023 and the other was in January of 2024. And fell on some construction and broke my wrist. Doc cleared me to drive after 2 weeks when I was not on any pain meds. I had an ice machine from the hospital and iced it off and on for several weeks. Wore a sling for 6 weeks, but could take it off for getting dressed or showering.They gave me a few simple movements to do at home to do several times a day to keep everything moving. I started therapy after 3-4 weeks, it was all passive or very light assisted movements until the sling was off. After that was only a few more weeks. It was not 6-8 months. They use the deltoid muscle to power your shoulder instead of the tendons.
I needed some help with lifting and carrying things, and cutting up my food for the first week. We bought a remote controlled recliner so I could put up the foot test and lean back on my own.
They do a nerve block of that area so it didn’t even hurt for the first 2 days. I only took pain meds for 3-4 days.
I hope I didn’t give you too much information. I had to do it because I couldn’t even hold a coffee cup or vacuum or carry my purse because of pain and weakness.
If you are cleared for surgery, the success rate is 99%. I have full function and no pain now. Can’t lift anything more that 25 pounds above my head. Well, I don’t do that anyhow. Good luck in your decision and outcomes.

Consider asking your ortho doctor to order an MRI
to have a more definite diagnosis. Warn the techs and ask your doctor about positioning required.

Thank you so much for your reply. I appreciate the information because I know very litte about this entire journey. Just hearing about the deltoid muscle was new and helpful to me. I need to look up the operations that you had so I understand them. I think the first step for me should be to get to n orthopedic surgeon. I understand about the recliner. I really understand about the coffee cup. I have tried to use my left arm as much as I can and not the right arm. Thank you again for your reply. It sounds like all went well for you and that's a good thing!!!!!!

Thank you for the advice. My first step is to get to an orthopedic surgeon. I can see how the MRI would be useful. I'm now super sensitive about any positioning that woud need to be done!!

I just had an MRI of my right shoulder. I have had 3 cortisone injections in my right shoulder. The first one Oct 24, 2023, the second one Feb 2, 2024 and the third one Mar 25, 2024. I had been dealing with pain and lose of movement in my right shoulder since Dec of 2022(misdiagnosed as frozen shoulder). When the physio failed I demanded a shoulder x-ray as the pain was getting worse( technician had me crying uncontrollably by third position which she wouldn't finish and refused to even take the 4th position x-ray). Called
Dr for results. She said everything was fine. Had to go to her near end of Oct 2023 crying and begging for something for the pain because the otcs she told me to take weren't even touching the pain. I had asked earlier in the beginning of October to up my tramadol I was already taking for fibromyalgia, cervical dystonia, myofacia and chronic pain syndrome from 200mg a day to 300 mg a day to see if that helps. It didn't(allergic to morphine and all of its dirivitives and a lot of other meds used for pain like gabapentin. The 300 mg dose of tramadol is as high as I can go without having serious side effects just this side of the boarder from being an allergic reaction and I can only take up to 125 mg of lyrica before the same thing happens). She finally gave in and gave me a cortisone injection the next day. She also agreed to send me to a shoulder clinic as an urgent request. I had been requesting this since July. The next week after the injection, I wished I could have removed my arm from shoulder down, I was in so much pain and then I woke up one morning near the end of that week and I had no pain and full range of movement in my shoulder. I hadn't had full range of motion and no pain in my right shoulder since Dec of 2022. I saw the shoulder specialist at the Durham Bone and Joint Clinic the next week and found out that I had a 1.5 cm piece of calcium deposit sitting just at the edge of the tendon that runs from the inside of my elbow up into the shoulder joint and every time the tendon moved in it caught and rubbed on the jagged edges of the calcium deposit and then did the same when it moved out of the joint. Since the calcium deposit was so big she said that it had been present when I had the shoulder x-ray done and she showed me the x-ray. Even a layman could see the calcium deposit on the x-ray. It was that big and visible. She told me to call them immediately when the cortisone injection I had just had wears off and she will give me another one. She said that usually the deposits tend to break up on their own and the body reabsorbs the calcium. Unfortunately she said that that part of the process is usually even more painful than what went on before. She told me not to be a hero and try to bear the pain, that as soon as the cortisone shows even the slightest hint that it is starting to wear off and you feel even a niggling of pain in the shoulder I need to come in immediately and get another cortisone injection before the pain gets even worse than before. I tell you when I left the clinic I was fuming. If even I could see the calcium deposit as clear as day on the x-ray, then why did the radiologist who read the x-ray first and wrote the report for the doctor not urgently bring it to her attention and if he/she did why did my dr say that everything was fine with my x-ray when I had questioned her about the results a week after I had had the x-ray. She would have had the report and seen the x-rays by then and yet she did nothing. I was the one that had to beg for an urgent referral to the shoulder clinic as well as come in crying uncontrollably and begging her for a cortisone injection that would hopefully help with the pain as nothing else she suggested I do had. After that shot I refused to see her again. My actual family Dr was still out on medical leave at the time and thankfully she had made sure that there were a couple of Dr's that her patients could see until she came back so I didn't have to see that particular one again. 3 months later on the 1st of Feb the 1st cortisone injection stopped working. I immediately called the shoulder clinic and made an appointment for another cortisone injection the next day. When I saw the specialist at the clinic for the injection she said that I am only allowed to have 3 injections in a year. She then said that since the first one only lasted a little over 3 months and that I hadn't been doing anything strenuous with my shoulder in those 3 months (took a medical leave of absence from my ECE job the 15th of December due to other health issues so I wasn't even working then) if the 2nd cortisone injection lasted for 3 months or less than the next step would be to discuss with a surgeon what exactly my options are going forward since medication and physiotherapy interventions had already been tried and had failed to help with either the pain or the loss of motion in the shoulder. When the injection had been done she again told me not to be a hero and call the clinic immediately if and when the 2nd cortisone injection stopped working. This injection seemed to take effect almost immediately. Unlike the other one where I wanted to remove my shoulder and arm so that the pain would be less and I spent a week like that, I was pain free and could move my shoulder totally normally again in 3 days. I was fine and had no pain or problem moving my shoulder until the middle of the night on the 24th of March when I was jolted violently awake from a sound sleep by a pain stabbing through my shoulder so severe I sat bolt upright crying hysterically and clutching my shoulder and looking around for the person who had just stabbed me because that's what I thought had happened. When I didn't find anyone else in my room and removed my hand gently from my shoulder and didn't find any blood and had woken up some more and calmed down a little I realized that the stabbing pain was coming from my shoulder and not because I had been stabbed by anyone but because the cortisone injection had just violently failed. That morning I made another appointment with