Shoulder and upper arm pain - not sure what to do

Hi there,

Just posting this because I really don't know what to do and am a bit worried. This time last week I was working out at the gym and had the feeling I'd overworked my arms and shoulders a bit (despite doing exercises in the correct form as shown by instructors and gradually increasing weight only when I could do the previous weight ok). About 24 hours later I started feeling soreness in my upper arms and shoulders which I wasn't worried about because I just put it down to muscle fatigue. The soreness in the shoulders went away after about a day but my arms (biceps) still felt kinda sore. Sore enough to stop me from working out again.

Then on saturday morning when the biceps were still sore I posted a question about it on a fitness forum. The reply I got were that most bicep injuries were a result of bench pressing and could be down to inflammation from a rotator cuff injury. I had been doing some bench pressing that felt quite strenuous in my last gym session. After reading that, I started getting pain in my shoulders again, and the biceps changed from a feeling of soreness to more like a stabbing pain. That sent me to Google, where it looks like its some kind of tendonitis or tendon damage. It's definitely not a ruptured tendon because I don't have any swelling or bruising, which is good at least. But Googling made me nervous and I've started getting mild neck pain too.

I'm just feeling really anxious now and don't know what to do. My back pain (my first and original TMS problem) is increasing and I am too nervous to sleep properly and concentrate on my work. I don't know what to do. I'm scared to go to a doctor who will send me for a scan and from what I've read shoulder scans always show damage. But I feel I should get it checked out. I can definitely see that there is some TMS involved but I guess I'll have to get it looked at. Maybe I'll try a physiotherapist or osteopath first. I've got full range of motion in my shoulder, although moving it in certain directions is a bit painful. Sometimes its only in the arm, sometimes only the shoulder, sometimes both.

This is such a setback. I've been on this forum for the last month or so with another TMS issue (vision problems) and I'd been making some good progress on that. I just don't know how much more I can take of this.

If anyone has been in a similar situation and can offer some advice I would be so grateful.

Many thanks

 

Hi, sorry for bombarding with messages, but I thought I would post updates in case something i post resonates with someone so that they might be able to share. It also helps me organise in my mind what's going on. So, after posting the above, I have come home from work and starting reading the section of the Mindbody Prescription on Upper back, Neck, Shoulders and Arms. It says that shoulder pain often comes on after doing something strenuous (as in my case) and involves the upper trapezius muscle (as in my case) and may also be in the arms (as in my case).

I also read that, if my self-diagnosis of tendonitis or tendon damage is correct, that TMS can target any tendon. I'm pretty sure none of my tendons are torn because I would really be feeling it. So there's a chance this might be TMS. I was also worried this might not be TMS because it was brought on by gym activity, but the book explains that strenuous activity is often a trigger but not the real cause.

What also gave me encouragement was reading that no matter how serious, injuries heal, and continuing pain is always TMS. Also the parts where he says that we have evolved over millions of years to be resilient, and we are not so fragile that we have to be careful forever how we move etc.

I have also been thinking about what has been going on for me psychologically over that week and came up with the following:

1. The pain came on a year and 2 days after a very traumatic life event
2. I had just been for a brain scan for the vision problems that were triggered by said traumatic event
3. That night I had promised a good friend I'd go drinking with him, but after the scan I didn't feel like it. I went anyway because I didn't want to let him down
4. I was probably dragging myself to the gym more often than i really wanted to go
5. I'd been stressed at work for a while and not sleeping well
6. I'd had a setback with a girl I was interested in, who works at the gym
7. I was feeling much less fearful about the vision issue after all the neurological tests I'd had came back unremarkable

I guess I'll give the symptoms a little while longer to heal and see what happens. I feel encouraged but still quite anxious.