Popping Shoulder

In My Humble Opinion
1

Suddenly, a few weeks ago, if I wanted to lift my right arm to my desk, I had to lift it with my left hand because the shoulder hurt like the dickens. Now after basically ignoring the problem and self treating with advil and gentle movement, I’m left with a shoulder that pops loudly (can be heard across the room). The popping comes from the end of the shoulder where the ball and socket joint is. I can now do pushups, and shoulder exercises without pain (but I’m being careful) and the pop is uncomfortable but not painful–and not getting worse or better.

Reasearching this has been a total waste. Nothing seems to fit this. I’m getting better, but several times a day I’ll raise my arm, or make a movement and it will pop–starling people I’m dealing with.

Kind of looking for what this might be. If it’s labrum tear or rotator cuff injury it seems like it should be getting worse but it seems to be healing on its own. Any suggestions?

2

I’d be looking for an ortho MD.

Posting to warn against long/large use of any NSAID - your kidneys really, really dislike the stuff.

If I could trade my shoulder for good kidneys, I’d do it in an instant.

3

Ask around for recommendations and go to an orthopedic surgeon. Despite the title they’ll very likely diagnose and treat through physical therapy with surgery as a last resort. Even if you’re really screwed up and they recommend surgery you don’t have to agree to it, and you can continue with therapy as long as you want and still decide to have surgery later if you’re not getting results.

One thing to consider is that there are probably a few big name surgeons who work on professional athletes with your local NBA, MLB, NHL, WNBA or NFL teams. Most likely at least one of them accepts your insurance and will cost you the same as some random schmuck pulled at random from the yellow pages.

4

A labrum tear can cause what you’re probably describing as your shoulder subluxing (partially dislocating and then going back in).

A labrum tear generally won’t heal on it’s own since cartilage doesn’t really get any blood supply and if that is what it is, constant subluxing can make the tear worse. Your doc will probably start your with PT, it’ll suck but if it works, it’ll help you build up the muscles around the area to support the your shoulder where your labrum is failing.

You can look around at the various tests for labrum tears. There’s a bunch of different types of tears, but all the names (SLAP, Bankart, Posterior Bankart etc) really just have to do with where the labrum tore, what the tear looks like and how bad it is.

SLAP tears, BTW, you need to be careful with since that directly involves your bicep.

You can find all the various tests your GP/ortho will do and but IME, you really can’t replicate them at home. I tried, but I’m sure it was just a combination of not know what I was doing and not being able to bend my own arm into the correct position. I would sit there and read the diagnosis stuff online, try it and get nothing. Walked into my doc’s office, he said 'hold your arm like this’, he (lightly) torqued on it a little and I stood up and walked with him (imagine someone pulling on your hair) to get the pressure off of it and said (‘yow, jesus fuck’) as he collapsed in his chair laughing and said ‘yup, you tore your labrum’. I already knew it going in there based on my symptoms.

Also, you said it came on suddenly, I assume you don’t recall any kind of trauma or injury, right? You didn’t fall on it? Run in to something or break a fall with a stiff/outstretched arm? Hit or fall on your elbow? Basically do anything to your shoulder?
When I tore mine I knew I did it, I heard the pop. It wasn’t horribly painful or anything, but the pain just never subsided. If you didn’t actually do anything, it could be something else, or could still be a torn labrum that was just recently inflamed or exasperated**.

**I read somewhere along the line that many people go a long time not know their labrum is torn. So many people, in fact, that if it’s picked up on a scan while looking for something else and the patient hasn’t complained about it, they’re no longer fixing it ‘just because’. So you might have had it for months or years and a few weeks ago bumped it or slept funny or played an extra rough game of tennis or helped someone move and now you’re noticing it. Which gives me another thought. Look up “shoulder impingement”. Especially if you have pain while moving your arm through the upper few degrees of motion (like reaching over your head).

I can second asking for recommendations. I to had an NBA/MLB guy, he’s apparently the ‘Shoulder God’ around here, an easy way to get recommendations is to watch for people in slings and ask them. You have plenty of time right now, you can start by just looking at slings and seeing which brand you see the most and start there. You could even call some of the physical therapy places and ask them.

5

Thirding “see a doctor”.

I went through a few months of pretty severe shoulder pain - rotator cuff issues. No popping as you described, just hurt like hell if I moved it wrong. The ortho ordered an MRI to confirm, then sent me off to physical therapy to basically strengthen all the muscles. It took a couple months but actually seemed to help - though a few years later I had the same happen with my other shoulder and that wound up getting better on its own. Anyway, the ortho can figure out what the cause is and address it appropriately.

It’s right to try PT before surgery in most cases - it’s obviously less invasive and doesn’t work for all situations but shoulder surgery is supposed to be fairly painful to recover from.

Agreed on using NSAIDs with caution, though when my shoulder was really bad AND my knee was also inexplicably painful (and on the opposite side from the bad shoulder, so I couldn’t use a cane), ibuprofen was what got me through the days for a bit, and a prescription NSAID (diclofenac, I think) was what actually got me moving almost pain-free. I had to stop them for 10 days prior to surgery, and those 10 days really, really sucked. So: use them if needed but not for all that long w/o medical consult and an approach to making them less necessary.

One surprising thing to me: if there’s anything inflammatory going on, heat is not your friend. I found that out the hard way with the knee pain - I was at a hotel that had a hot tub, and had a lovely soak… but the next day, driving home, my knee was SCREAMING and it hurt more than usual for several weeks. Ice is your friend - either an ice bag, or even a small chunk of pure ice rubbed carefully over the skin (careful not to leave it in one spot for too long!!). When I was doing PT, they iced my shoulder and knee after every session.

6

I’m going to hell for laughing at this image, aren’t I?

Yeah, they will put you through the wringer when checking range of motion and strength. A hit: if you haven’t taken a painkiller that day - and really, you shouldn’t, as they need to know how painful it is without meds - bring some along and pop them the minute the doctor is done, and take them consistently for the next day or two. My shoulder was much worse for several days after the primary care doc did her thing, and then again after the ortho did his thing - because let’s face it, they’re deliberately stressing the joint to see what makes it shriek.

7

From the sounds of this it’s impingement syndrome. You’d probably be much worse off of it was a torn rotator cuff of labrum.

Impingement syndrome is treated with physical therapy and usually caused by bad posture, repetitive stress, misalignment and a strength imbalance. Minor injuries can trigger the pain and popping and the favoring of the join after a minor sprain can make the issue worse.

If not treated, impingement can lead to far worse degenerative issues since the impingement gradually rubs and wears down the muscle, tendons and joints.

So go see a doc. The treatment isn’t that difficult or expensive, just takes a bit of time and dedication.

8

Thanks for all the thoughtful replies.
Over the few days since I first posted the popping has gone from 20-30 times a day to once or twice. There’s still some pain in certain positions. I’m getting a doctor’s appointment, but I’m crossing my fingers it’s bursitis.

9

I think the OP was asking why did this happen not asking for treatment. No idea if OP has money to see the doctor or where he is from.

10

Could be, but I don’t think (IIRC) that bursitis causes popping/subluxing. There’s something not holding the ball in the socket properly (your labrum). However, it doesn’t usually require surgery, just using the joint less, NSAIDS and ice. They can also drain it or give you a cotisone shot (which aren’t actually all that expensive, that I remember*). You might still want to see a family doctor to get a professional opinion and maybe some imaging. I remember asking my ortho what would happen if I put of my labrum repair and he said it was possible I could end up with early arthritis (don’t know why, didn’t research if it’s true, keep in mind he’s a surgeon/cutter…it’s just what he said).
*While I don’t remember my cortisone shots being all that expensive, I do remember that my GP wouldn’t do it. When I asked him why (he does tend to do a lot of stuff himself instead of farming everything out to specialists) he said that the shoulder is such a complicated area, it’s too easy for something to go wrong. In fact, when I got mine (3x) the ortho actually went in through through the front of my shoulder to hit the spot on the back due to all the nerves running through the back of the shoulder. It’s a long needle (it was probably about 5-6 inches long). Luckily it A)didn’t really hurt at all and B)I really don’t mind injections/shots/needles at all.

*If you do get a cortisone shot you should read up on ‘cortisone flare’. When I had my first one, I felt great, almost immediately. The next day I was in enough pain that I was going to call into the office to see what was going on. Before I called, I did some Googling and found out about Cortisone Flare. Turns out that cortisone shots are almost always mixed with some kind of numbing agent, which is why it feels fine the first day. However, the cortisone can/will crystallize the next day which can cause some discomfort. I know it’s just another day at the office for the docs, they probably do 20 of them a day, but a quick ‘BTW, you might be in more pain tomorrow but it’ll pass by the next day’ would have saved me from a lot of worrying.
TLDR, go see your GP. I don’t know what kind of insurance you have, but if you have insurance with a deductible, and you do need surgery, you’d probably want to get it done this year so you only have to pay the remainder of your deductible. The sooner the better as well so you can get some PT in there too.