Since I was 15 I have had an annoying problem with my left arm and I never knew what it could have been. I went to the Doctor a few times but they did not know either. On another forum I was reading a dislocated thread and posted in it about my problem and after a few posts I found out it is a Rotator Cuff injury. Aka a muscle tear. It has happened a lot of times since then, either with a slight movement of my left arm, or something like putting my arm behind my back. I was given a link to the injury and some text on what happens for it was this: That is exactly what has happened every time and it is annoying and has made me slightly scared of doing anything or moving my arm into abnormal positions which other people do on a daily basis. I will have to go to my Doctor with this information and hopefully it can get fixed. It has happened many times so hopefully it is not a unfixable tear. So happy I finally know what it could be, and that it is fixable. Anyway, has anyone else had a bad or severe injury like this or much worse?
Get yourself referred to an orthopedic surgeon. He'll have a better idea of what's going on than your internist, will probably want to do an MRI, and if it is a rotator cuff tear may be able to repair it surgically.
I had something similar and had to have shoulder stabilisation surgery around 3 years ago. Most painful experience of my life, once the nerve block wore off 24 hours after surgery I was in agony as they had to cut through perfectly good muscles to repair the broken one. I wasn't able to use my arm at all for the first 2 weeks and all in it took around 3 months to get full movement back. In that time I almost forgot what it was like to have a fully working arm. For around a year I would get a dull ache when driving for long periods but now I don't have any trouble with it at all. I had to go to physio once a week for the first 3 months just for general movements and stretches and then they put me in a gym after that to build up the strength. I was forced to have the surgery because my arm would dislocate almost constantly but I wouldn't recommend it unless you really need it because it really is uncomfortable. I was told I had loose joints at the time anyway and my left arm has dislocated from time to time but I would never go through that again unless it was at the point where I would do it daily like I did with my right. The MRI scan was fun, they injected a load of crap into the socket to get the tear/tears to show up which felt really odd.
See, if I had to have an operation to fix it and that pain would be after, I would probably not. The thing is, my muscle must heal itself as its totally random when it happens, but then every time it happens it must make the area which I rip much worse. Maybe. I will go up and speak to someone about it when I have time.