I’ve been having a tightening, almost crippling pain in my left arm around the tricep/bicep area for the past few months that hasn’t gone away. Anti-inflammatories works great, but once the medicine is gone the pain starts right back up. Its so severe sometimes i can barely lift my arm and it keeps me awake at night. Ive recently run out of Voltaren, the anti-inflamatory ive been prescribed, and have been using advil and tylenol, but i know it can start to have really bad affects if you use it over a long period of time.
MY regular doctor said to see an Orthopedic. I went, got an X-ray, he moved my arm, and said go to a Physical Therapist. However, he really didnt seem to have much interest in me at all, and I’m not sure how well-thought his idea was. I cant necessarily afford to go to every doctor until I land on the right one. I was just wondering if anyone knows whether Physical Therapy is the right thing or if i should go see another kind of doctor?
Thanks!
#1 by mistify on February 16, 2010 - 4:28 am
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I would definetely do physical therapy. You will get a more thorough assessment from a PT than from any physician (because we get a longer time to spend with you). If there is any indication that PT should NOT be done, the therapist will alert you and refer you back to the doctor if appropriate. Even imagining studies are not always helpful as even positive signs of derrangement, such as a rotator cuff tear, do not always correlate with your symptoms and function. When correlated with a good physical exam, a more definitive outcome can be predicted.
#2 by Lorraine H on February 16, 2010 - 5:02 am
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It sounds like acupuncture or a chiropractor could help you as well. I had something called “frozen shoulder” which is awful and goes away by itself, but it takes a couple of years (!) – acupuncture helped me a great deal. By the time the doctor gave me a steroid shot or whatever, it was too late and it didn’t help the pain. He recommended physical therapy for me. I ended up not going for a variety of reasons. Acupuncture was great.
#3 by JessMess on February 16, 2010 - 11:42 am
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What were the results of the x-ray? If the pain is still that bad after a few months, it sounds like a non-healing injury, like a torn ligament or tendon. Usually PT is used once the problem is identified and determined that it will help. Its called common sense??? I would ask for the Xray results, or just see a different orthopedist. Good luck.
#4 by gillianp on February 16, 2010 - 3:45 pm
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You had a pain in the arm, tricep/bicep and were prescribed Voltaren anti-inflammatory. I assume while you were taking the Voltaren you ‘rested’ the arm, as for ’some’ reason you had inflamed the muscles, so the Voltaren worked. Look at it as RSI injury, whatever you are doing you are causing the muscle to inflamed so the anti-inflammatory worked, but you needed to rest until the inflammation subsided. You then went to a Orthopedic Doc who did a X-Ray just to rule out any broken or fractured bones. The x-ray showed all was normal so the ‘problem’ is with the muscle, therefore next step is Physiotherapy. You might want to return to the Doc and ask for another prescription of Voltaren, just to get you through Physiotherapy. Best of Luck