Question
Hi Sharon, as a fellow expert on this site, I assure you I appreciate your time to answer greatly!  Thank you in advance :) Please bare with me here, I am going to be very thorough in presenting my concern...as of yet I don't feel my care providers have listened to my case and that may be partly contributing to this pickle of a situation I'm enduring.

11 days ago on Sunday morning I was in day two of a martial arts class I've recently taken a fancy to.  Now prior to this I have always been accident prone and a die hard when it comes to the sports I love! I've definitely subjected my body to a copious amount of injuries over the years. Luckily, I have a very very high pain tolerance. Granted this blessing has been a curse once in a while as I tend to push through injuries too hard too fast. In my younger years though my body healed quickly. Now at 31 things take a bit longer to heal than I mentally have the patience for! :) Okay, so the run down is I'm typically active, and tend to know what injuries feel like. I've also had training in both large and small animal medicine.  So... 11 days ago in my newest athletic journey, I was feeling tired from not being used to using specific muscles, and tense from just being generally nervous. I was doing a front roll from a kneeling position and instead of doing it correctly, I land square into my left shoulder! Ouch! As my shoulder hit I heard and felt a grinding and crunching sound. I immediatly felt major discomfort. But over the years I've learned to just work through pain like that....so I shrugged it off literally and kept practicing various techniques. Within the half hour of the fall, I was my partner's attacker while he practiced a pinning technique. While he was gentle and fluid, the technique itself takes the elbow, lifts it up, rotates it, thus rotating the shoulder while pushing me to the ground, then a finally rotation so that the joints are pinned. After a handful of those I knew I had a problem. I breaked for awhile and used and ice pack for 20min while watching class.  Then I got back to practice and when I tried to lift my arm there was both distinct pain and weakness. Luckily class then ended.  As I changed clothes I felt agonizing twinges of pain and tears came to my eyes. Then my reaction was to draw my hand and arm close and hold my hand up to my shoulder. I asked my instructor about it. He looked me over and said to ice it and if it felt worse the next day to see a doctor.  I did intervals of ice the rest of the day....have been ever since actually. That night the pain got so intense I never could get comfortable, or sleep. So in the morning on Monday I called a cab to drive me to urgent care. The place was packed and understaffed. After an 90min in the waiting room I was brought back to the exam rooms. I was met with an intern. She did some physical tests and asked questions. She then sent me down the hall for X-rays. The technician was nice, however hurried and upon making some mistake,(I don't know what exactly) he decided the X-rays were sufficient and led me to the exam room to wait. The intern said she didn't find anything on the images and the doctor would be in to see me shortly.  When he came in he said he didn't see any breaks. I asked about separations. He said no. He did say it was possible I might have tissue damage but that's not something they can see on X-rays. He told me to go home, get rest, keep icing it, do some circular exercise with it, and take an anti inflammatory. I asked what I could do for the pain. He prescribed me some meds. I asked about a sling. He reluctantly gave me one explaining I needed to keep my shoulder mobile as part of my healing.  He said if things were not improving in a week, then come back for a follow up. So I did as told. For a few days it seemed as though things would be fine, not really a shift one way or the other and the pain meds were working. Then on Friday things took a dive. The pain was worse than it had ever been, ever! Constant aching and burning, numbness in my hand instead of on and off was now constant, plus slight blueish tinge to my lower arm and hand, my collarbone and shoulder were rubbing, catching, gring, my muscles twitching, and the top, front, back, side, and deep within my shoulder were all causing significant pain! Friday midday I called the urgent care to explain what was happening. They referred me to a GP.  The GP scheduled me for an appointment Monday morning.  By now the pain was enough I decided to quit doing any PT exercises, strictly immobilization, pain meds weren't seeming to help anymore, and still icing. Friday and Saturday were so bad I didn't get even a wink of sleep. Sunday night I manage *lmost 3hrs sleep just before my appoingtment with the GP. He did some physical tests which obviously hurt. He suspects a torn Labrum and arranged for me to have an MRI this coming Friday. Meanwhile, same treatment as I have been. Monday all day same pain and twitching and catching and all of the symptoms I described earlier. Yesterday it was like that until evening when suddenly thing shifted. Still pain, but not excruciating.  However withat came a marked immobility in my shoulder, almost entirely solidified like cement and I struggle significantly to keep blood flowing to that hand and lower arm. I've been trying to get my heart rate up and making fists and creating friction - anything to get things flowing. I called my doctor yesterday and didn't hear from him. I've put in a call this morning...I'm still waiting. My concern is that this is not a simple injury, but rather a compounded one. I usually don't feel pain this marked. Trust me, I've had bad injuries before too! :) I feel as if there may have been a partial seperation, as well as a tear, and maybe something else. I certain my body is also finding it stressing to not rest appropriately thus maybe some of th spasming? But why this numbness and why such a drastic shift in the last 24 hrs where everything feels dead? Still painful, but dead like cement.  Its so weird that it hurts in so many places. Each place creating a unique discomfort from the other.  Do you have any ideas as to what I am facing? Do you have any suggestions as to what might be a beneficial course of action? How can I alleviate this discomfort? And the real kicker.... How on earth am I going to manage laying on my back for 30min furing the MRI? I've had a CT Scan years ago...but this is going to be different. I can't lay on my back yet...and for 30min? Oh boy... Any insight and advice you may have would certainly be welcomed and greatly appreciated!  Thank you Sharon..I appreciate your consideration!

Answer
Hi Sarah

Unfortunately I am not an expert in shoulder injuries, but i'll take a stab here.  But before I even broach this, let me preface it with the suggsetion that you see an orthopd, not a general practictioner.

My gut reaction is that you had a shoulder subluxation as your first injury.  A subluxation is when the joint slips out of place but then slips back into place again.  The subluxation can cause tissue damage and if not diagnosed properly, the recuperataion may be affected.

When the X ray was taken, it may be that nothing showed up because the joint moved back into place.  There was probaby tissue damage and/or ligament damage, but that damage would not have shown soft tissue damage.

If you have no other problems preventing an MRI would suggest that you look into the possibilty of taking an MRI to further diagnose your problem.  My gut reaction is that you are in pain for too long a time for this to be a simple injury.  It may be that you were diagnosed wrong the first time, but since I am not a diagnostician, I can't say for sure that a wrong diagnosis was the problem.

So, get to an orthopod as quickly as you can.

Take care of yourself Sarah.