@Atkinson8 ... You're talking to the Queen of Shoulder Pain here!!! I found out about 5 years ago that my left shoulder was "shot" (as my sweet doctor so nicely put it). He recommended a shoulder replacement way back then as I was bone on bone and the "ball" joint was now an oval. (So THAT was why I could no longer lift my arm above my head!) Here is an image that shows where the wear takes place once your shoulder is affected by arthritis. The highlighted area is where cartilage loss usually begins. You can also get bone spurs in this area, but I have been fortunate not to have that problem.
Shoulder replacement was out of the question five years ago because I was a caregiver for my husband. So, in talking with my surgeon we worked out a plan to get as much as possible out of my shoulder without doing damage to the still-in-tact rotator cuff. As you can see from the image below, there are 3 muscles that make up the rotator cuff and one actually weaves through the shoulder bones. Inflammation of this muscle (Supraspinatus) can result in pain at the front of your upper arm. This is what I have experienced. I actually have no pain in the shoulder joint itself.
My surgeon's first treatment was a cortisone shot into the shoulder area. It gave me relief from pain for maybe 6 months. About a year later, he did arthroscopic surgery to clean up the cartilage and smooth things out as much as possible. After each procedure I had physical therapy to strengthen the muscles around the shoulder joint, avoiding anything that caused any pain or discomfort. It was a lot of really gentle movements with resistance bands.
Arthritis doesn't remove the fluid in your joint, but it definitely does a job on your cartilage. Once the damage is done, that's it. Some surgeons will try different regenerative procedures, but the results are not really very good or consistent (and it's expensive; not usually covered by insurance). Lose enough cartilage in your joint and you have bone rubbing on bone, which begins to "remodel" the bone (change it's shape). The arthroscopic surgery was three years ago. I still have some pain, but it's manageable with 1000mg of Extra Strength Tylenol. The problem for me is that I cannot lift my hand to my head and the arm is really weak.
My husband has since died and now I'm planning to have the shoulder replaced after the first of the year. I've tried very hard not to do things that would push it to the point of pain, as that could increase inflammation and cause faster deterioration. Hopefully all these things I've done will pay off once the surgeon gets in there to do the replacement. With shoulders, the worst thing you can do is try to push on when you have a lot of pain. If you damage the rotator cuff (the main muscles in the shoulder), it may not be repairable. Then the surgeon must do a Reverse Shoulder Replacement. That procedure does give you back fully range of motion for your arm with the up-and-down motions, but you can be somewhat limited in the movements side-to-side (like reaching your hand behind your back to zip up clothing, for example).
If you want to talk more about your shoulder issues, rather than derail your recovery thread, please start a new thread in our "Other Joints" forum (tab at the top of the page). There are a number of folks over there who have had treatments including shoulder replacements that you can talk with.
United States
(. low chairs with no arms, etc. A whole new perspective. Sometimes, in the morning, I feel "normal" which is nice - then the day takes its toll. All in all, things are fine on this end.
Hate you have one more to go, but is a bad hip and won't get better...I had two bad ones and there's no choices for real!
