Shoulder Pain Huntsville

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Go to the nearest emergency room or call 911 if you have sudden intense left shoulder pain or if you have sudden pressure or crushing pain in your shoulder, especially if the pain runs from your chest to the left jaw, arm or neck, or occurs with shortness of breath, dizziness, or sweating as this can sometimes be a sign of a heart attack.

Go to the nearest emergency room or call 911 if you’ve experienced a severe trauma like a car accident or significant fall and you can’t move your arm or shoulder or if you think you have a dislocation or fracture, or the shoulder is very painful, swollen, bruised or bleeding.

Come see our non-surgical orthopedist trained medical doctor for a shoulder evaluation and examination if you have any of the following: 

1. You have shoulder pain associated with an injury or trauma.
2. You have problems or pain moving the shoulder or arm through its normal range of motion.
3. You have red or blue color to the skin of the shoulder area. 
4. You cannot lift normal weight with your arm without increased shoulder pain.
5. You have shoulder pain, even when not lifting any weight.
6. Your shoulder clicks, snaps or pops.
7. Your shoulder is deformed or misshapen.
8. You have a fever or chills, rash, or redness or warmth around the shoulder.
9. You have pain, swelling, numbness, burning, tingling of the shoulder or shoulder area.
10. You still have shoulder pain after 3 days of home treatment. (rest, ice, compression)

Until you can see our doctor, take care of your shoulder pain at home. Wrap the ice in cloth, so it doesn't give you frostbite. Try putting ice on your shoulder for 15 minutes, then leave it off for 15 minutes, then back on for 15 minutes. Do this three or four times a day for 3 days. Consider using over-the-counter rubs and remedies. 

Even if you have an appointment with us if your symptoms get worse or you feel you have a fracture go to the emergency room.  

Arthritis of the shoulder happens over time so your shoulder will get gradually worse. With arthritis of the shoulder, and the shoulder joint often becomes stiff and may swell, this makes it difficult to move the arm. Pain and swelling may be worse in the morning, or after sitting or resting. Evening pain may be due to overuse. Activity may cause pain to flare up and can also produce inflammation or swelling. 

According to the latest from Mount Siani Hospital: The most common cause of shoulder pain occurs when rotator cuff tendons become trapped under the bony area in the shoulder. The tendons become inflamed or damaged. This condition is called rotator cuff tendinitis or bursitis.

Shoulder pain may also be caused by:

• Arthritis in the shoulder joint
• Bone spurs in the shoulder area
• Bursitis, which is inflammation of a fluid-filled sac (bursa) that normally protects the joint and helps it move smoothly
• Broken shoulder bone
• Dislocation of the shoulder
• Shoulder separation
• AC joint or shoulder impingement
• Frozen shoulder, which occurs when the muscles, tendons, and ligaments inside the shoulder become stiff, making movement difficult and painful
• Overuse or injury of nearby tendons, such as the bicep muscles of the arms
• Nerve injury that leads to abnormal shoulder movement
• Tears of the rotator cuff tendons
• Poor shoulder posture and mechanics

Sometimes, shoulder pain may be due to a problem in another area of the body, such as the neck or lungs. This is called referred pain. There is usually pain at rest and no worsening of pain when moving the shoulder.

Feeling pain in your shoulder when you lift your arm over your head may mean you have a have a problem with your rotator cuff. So, what causes rotator cuff problems? The rotator cuff is a group of muscles and tendons that attach to the bones of your shoulder joint. The group allows your shoulder to move and keeps it stable. 

Pain in your rotator cuff area usually means you have: 

• rotator cuff tendinitis, or inflammation of these tendons and inflammation of the bursa, smooth slippery sacs the tendons glide across; 
• a rotator cuff tear, when one the tendons is torn from overuse or injury. 

Rotator cuff tendinitis may be due to keeping your arm in the same position for long periods of time, such as doing computer work or hairstyling. Sleeping on the same arm each night can also cause this problem. You can also get tendinitis playing sports that require you to move your arm over your head repeatedly, such as in tennis, baseball especially pitching, swimming, and weight-lifting. 

Rotator cuff tears may happen if you fall on your arm while it is stretched out, or after a sudden, jerking motion when trying to lift something heavy. Chronic tears occur slowly over time, particularly in people who have chronic tendinitis. At some point, the tendon wears down and starts to tear. If you have tendinitis, you'll have pain when you lift your arm over your head, such as when you brush your hair and reach for objects on shelves. The pain may be mild at first, but over time you may have pain at rest or at night, especially when you lie on your shoulder. The pain of a sudden rotator cuff tear can be intense. Your shoulder may be weak, and you may hear a snapping sound when you move your shoulder. Chronic symptoms include a gradual worsening of pain, weakness, stiffness or loss of motion. Most people with rotator cuff tears have worse pain at night and when they wake up.

Why put yourself through invasive surgery if it can be avoided. Total shoulder replacement surgery can be very expensive and reports of the total cost of this procedure vary with the hospital, physician and demographic region of the country. Most major insurance companies including Medicare cover shoulder replacements. According to the published statistics, the average cost of a shoulder replacement exceeds $45,000.

The pain management experts at Advanced Medical Clinics specialize in the treatment of chronic and acute shoulder pain and osteoarthritis and offer an innovative non-surgical shoulder pain relief program that can relieve your discomfort and restore joint function and motion.

If you are a candidate for the Advanced Medical Clinics Knee Recovery Program, most patients feel relief beginning after just the first few treatments. After the first stage of your program (relief phase), the majority of patients feel dramatic relief or lowering of their pain. During the next phase (corrective phase) they have returned to most regular activities and after the final phase of care (rehabilitation phase) most are able to have natural shoulder range of motion without pain. 

Because every patient that comes to Advanced Medical Clinics is different, our Accelerated Joint Recovery Protocol is personalized for each patient. Our team of healthcare providers have decades of experience and deploy a protocol pulling from nearly a dozen proven treatment modalities. The aim of the Accelerated Joint Recovery Protocol is to restore function, increase the health of the tissues and joints, decreasing pain, while being back functionality.

We want to see you living an active life - Free of Shoulder Pain!

The short answer to this question is: YES!
Bursitis is an inflammation of a bursa. It is a condition usually characterized by pain and sometimes by redness and swelling. A bursa is a very thin (i.e., a few cells thick), sac-like structure that is located wherever there might be friction, such as between skin and bones, between tendons and bones or between ligaments and bones. In other words, they serve to decrease the friction that occurs between hard bone and softer tissues.

There are generally three types of bursitis: 

1) chronic bursitis, 

2) infected bursitis, and 

3) traumatic bursitis.

The symptoms of bursitis vary by type and severity, but may include:

• swelling, 
• excessive warmth at the site, 
• tenderness, pain and/or fever.

Depending on the type of shoulder bursitis, treatment may include:

• activity modification, 
• immobilization with a splint, 
• icing at home, 
• nutraceuticals and homeopathic injections, 
• aspiration of the bursa (removing fluid with a syringe), 
• antibiotics,
• anti-inflammatory pain medication.

Surgery is rarely needed to treat bursitis.