rotator cuff syndrome? anyone else ever have it?

[Tom]

here's the story: about 4 months ago played volleyball for about 20 minutes, serving overhand a few times, then played some pick-up basketball. for the next few days my shoulder was aching and stiff, well flash forward to now, the pain in my shoulder is still there only in the front anterior deltoid region and only when i move it a certain way namely suppinating, arm straight overhead going farther back, etc.

now knowing it wasn't going away, i finally finally went to a sports medicine doctor who did 30 minutes of moving it this way and that way, took x-rays and didn't notice any tears or calcium deposits or anything, but diagnosed me as having rotator cuff syndrome, which i had never heard of before, supposedly a very bad inflammation of the shoulder girdle and deltoid muscle caused by an impingement due to various factors ( the weird volleyball serving motion and me tweaking it weirdly, me not warming the shoulder up at all, my age (42) and perhaps the way my shoulder inside is built.

anyway, taking huge dosage of ibuprofen (800 mgs) 3 times a day for 10 days, then 1-2 for the next 3 weeks, and doing about 10 different rotator cuff exercises 4 times a week, then have to see the doctor again first week of november. if i still have pain will have a cortisone shot and continue to do the exercises for another month and then see what happens?

haven't of of course been able to workout at all and hopefully this "rotator cuff syndrome" is not a recurring chronic worry for the rest of my days!

i just can't/couldn't believe i could hurt my shoulder this badly playing volleyball and basketball for only 30 minutes or so! granted, i didn't stretch or warm up but then again it's not like i'm 90 years old and havent' worked out in 50 years or played hours and hours of volleyball and basketball that day!

this sucks! anyway, any thoughts guys?!

[Zach Trowbridge]

Rotator cuff tendonitis is pretty common in sports that use that type of motion - i.e. pitching and hitting in baseball, as well as water polo, tennis, and volleyball.  It's more of a cumulative stress injury than anything else.  I can tell you right now to make sure that you warm your shoulders up before you play sports and before workouts or else it'll keep coming back.  I got it a few years ago from shitty form on delt exercises, and now every upper body workout starts with 3-4 minutes of internal and external shoulder rotations with bands, 2-3 sets of 5-lb lateral raises and some free-standing windmill rotations with no weight. 

Just keep doing what you're doing - don't rush back into working out too soon.  I was out for about 3-4 months before I was able to lift my arm easily overhead, and a word of advice - don't overdo the iboprofin, it will only mask the pain symptoms, and you may end up injuring it worse because you won't feel any pain until it wears off a few hours later.

[DragonRider]

this sucks! anyway, any thoughts guys?!

My initial thoughts are, no doctor can diagnose the correct problem from an xray. You need an MRI to determine the real problem. Both of my rotator cuffs are torn and it turned out my PT tore his rotator cuff playing basketball.
The pain you described sounds like a tear. That doesn't mean that PT won't take care of the problem for you, but I don't think you have been adequately diagnosed.

Since it has been about a month, I'm curious if you are still having problems?

[tizertree]

i had same injury, went to sports physio, got some treatment, and got told to by a tens machine, me and my training partner had the same injury, we got the tens machine, and it sorted it. hope this helps you.

                       tizertree

[Tom]

hey tizertree what is a tens machine? never heard of it,

as far as my shoulder (knock on wood!) the cortisone shot i got last month (november) helped greatly, i have no problems with the shoulder doing the motions that used to hurt, however, i must say that sometimes when i wake up after sleeping on it,it's kind of slightly sore and stiff, but this last for only a few minutes, then it goes away, also i've started doing push-ups to get myself ready to start lifting very lightly very soon, and i also noticed some very slight aching when done with a set of push-ups, however, this goes away and there is no soreness, aching or pain for that matter later on.

so maybe my shoulder is healed, but it's the fact that i havent' done anything with it in months and that is why it is sensitive for a few moments, or could it be (?!) that perhaps my shoulder may only be healed like 90 % and there is STILL  a problem and not healed all the way?

what do you guys think? for the longest time just me doing the beginning of a rep, i mean 1 rep and moving the bar a couple of inches on a lat machine pulldown hurt, now i can do 10 sets with light to medium weight and feel no pain during or after.

[NATIVE ONE]

I wouldn't count on you're shoulder being healed yet. The cortisone shot will cover the pain for a while. Just be careful and allow time to heal. If it is a tear, it will be a slow process. However, it sounds like tendonitis to me.