Shoulder Injury

[Megster3117]

Hello.

My name is Meagan and I'm 17 years old. I play on a competitive travel softball in New Jersey, USA.

This past weekend, I dove back into third base. I had both my arms fully extended to get myself back to the bag. When I got up, I felt like I had knocked the wind out of me, and that was all. However, when I ran back into the dugout, I felt this surge of pain run up my arm all the way into my shoulder. It was a very sharp and burning pain in the front and side of my shoulder.

The next game, I had some trouble throwing, but it wasn't anything that I couldn't handle. I continued to play with the pain, and thought that it would be the end of it.

However, the next game, I couldn't even throw a ball. Now, I can't even get my arm up into the position to throw a softball. If I twist my arm it begins to hurt, and when I raise my arm above my head it hurts as well. Also, when I'm really not using it, I feel this dull aching pain.

Is this a possible rotator cuff injury? I have been researching my symptoms online and it seems as though my symptoms fall under the category of a rotator cuff injury.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this, and I really hope that someone can help me out.

[kjwilkin]

Hi Meagan,

Rather than guessing what it might be I'd go and get it checked out. It could be a number of things. There is no replacement for professional advice. I am a sports trainer for a football club in Melbourne and would give my players the same advice.

A good place to start would be by seeing a sports physician. They tend to have a much better understanding of these sorts of injuries than a GP. Physio may all be that you
require.

Good luck !!

[angieliu]

Meagen,

I would be concerned that as you are a baseball player and you are now experiencing problems in lifting your arm. There is a lot of evidence in baseball players throwers who do continous over the arm movement to suffer from tears when they may not be aware of it. And in many ways I agree with KJ that if you are concerned with what you have then you should go and get some medical advice.

BUT you have to realise that shoulder injuries are very tricky and especially with the symptoms they can present as many things. From my experience, I have symptoms of a lot of shoulder injuries, I have the dull ache, weakness in my right arm and pain in lifting it up sideways and every sports physician has come up with a diagnosis from a tear in the shoulder capsule to instability or an impingement because of both my injuries. I'm starting to think that I have a bit of everything :)

And in fact, I have had the same symptoms which you are experiencing, the dull ache, pain twisting my arm behind me and real instability to lift my arm sideways. When I hurt my shoulder, I immediately iced it, put some anti inflammatory cream on it and took some anti inflammatories. But I don't have a very strong pain level and so I went to get treatment for it. Rest and icing your injury can do some amazing things but you have to be really strict with yourself and try to not over do it.

If you find that after resting it, it does not feel better (I did this for a long time and my shoulder did not improve much) then you should go and see a specialist.

I hope this helps