took a major fall, now can't move arm. Please help!!

S

sexyeyes12

New member
On sunday, I went snowboarding and I caught a MAJOR edge. When I fell, I fell on my left arm, which was extended straight up, so it was like I fell on my arm pit. However, it is now thursday and I am physically unable to lift my arm above my head, I can't even get it half way there. When I use my right arm to put my left arm on top of my head like when I'm showering, I feel a popping in my shoulder, and excruciating pain in the muscle or ligament that is in the "crease" of the arm (like, where your arm is connected to your body). I'm worried about this. I've been to the hospital, but there were no breaks. Does anyone know??

P.S- I have regular movement in my arm and I can move my arm back and forth, but not upwards at all.
 
I had a similar injury where I fell with an outstretched arm and ended up tearing one of the tendons of the rotator cuff. The supraspinatus tendon is responsible for raising your arm out to the side and straight up(180* from your side). That won't show in an x-ray. Time to see an orthopedist and get an MRI.

Sorry for the bad news!

gentle hugs.................Jenny
 
oh no! : ( is it normal to regain some normal movement on its own? I feel a really sharp pain in my shoulder when I try to raise it, but I still can...sorta. I also feel popping...


oh great. Guess I wont be hitting the slopes any time soon.

Is this injury one that I will get again ?
 
jenny is right about the rotator and that supra involvement. i just went thru this same tendon being repaired when it fully tore last year. you DO most definitely NEED an MRI just to really see all of the possible inner damage that just will not show up on plain old x ray. i really am shocked,given the mechanism of your injury,that they did not do at the very LEAST, a CT?? helloo? but right now,seeing your primary for a referral for that MRI really is just very much a needed thing for you at this point. this 'may' require surgical intervention to fix,but it may be done thru simple arthroscopic type of surgery which is not very invasive for you to have to deal with. it would all really depend upon the level of real damage and what any ortho you see for a consult(if needed) would decide is needed in order to get this back on track.

but at any rate,you DO need that MRI right now just to really "see' what may have been damaged. it is a must for you right now. there are just so many possible reasons for what you are feeling right now that an MRI would be able to see with that MRI. whatever actually shows or does not show up on that particular test would really dictate what your next steps need to be here. make an appt with your primary for the eval and referral. good luck and please keep us posted. FB
 
To answer your question about getting some movement back......there are 4 rotator cuff tendons so the others can compensate and you can raise your arm by using different tendons and muscles. You kinda go slightly forward or backwards to get to the same place.

An MRI will show the tear but it's not something that needs fixing immediately. but it puts more strain on the other tendons and increases the likelihood you'll tear another one. But what you will notice is that laying on that shoulder at night is going to get really painful even if you can raise up your arm. and it's always possible you have a partial tear and you just need PT tp strengthen it.

If you did tear it, the surgery can be done arthroscopically. Four or 5 bandaid size incisions so it isn't bad. It's the recovery period. The most recent treatment has slowed down the process of recovery to allow the tendon time to repair. In the past, PT was started almost immediately and re-tearing was common. Now they wait and allow healing before starting PT.

Just hang in there and see either your primary and get an MRI or see an ortho. Either way, an MRI is the only way to see what happened inside.

Sorry it's bad news but trust me, there are far worse things than tearing your rotator cuff!

gentle hugs............Jenny
 
Ok, so I scheduled an appointment for the ortho next week. I wanted to yell at the doctor after he said I just pulled a muscle...I knew there was a serious problem. They gave me motrin 600 mg for pain, but like that does anything. Heh...good thing I have some tylenol with codeine left from my gall bladder surgery O.o. I just use that to sleep, I have lots of difficulty sleeping. The only thing they did is give me a sling and said if it still bothers you in a week, *maybe* follow up with an ortho. : ( My hospital is really stupid, one time I came in there when I jammed my hand into a wall running through the house, and they did xrays and found a tiny fracture. Guess what? It was really broken in 3 places, we found that out 3 years later when my pinky was deformed. Absolutely ridiculous.


I'll keep you all posted : )
 
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