I need help diagnosing a shoulder injury. Can you provide some insight to the following?

To help you, I created a timeline of my misfortune:

Dec. 22: Injured my shoulder (probably in the weight room)

Dec. 25: Arm-wrestling made the injury worse (NOT good!)

Jan. 8: Did some shoulder stretches.

Jan. 9: I woke up to a very painful shoulder, which got worse throughout the day. At the peak, even putting my arm in my pocket would cause significant pain. An X-Ray showed nothing noteworthy.

Jan 23: Significant increase in mobility since Jan 9. No pain normally felt, unless I make sudden movements, or stretch (esp. reach behind back). While running the past couple weekends, I noticed an occasional pop in my shoulder accompanied by small popping sound (sort of like when you crack your back, but quieter). Certain stretching movements cause pain down almost to the elbow; some movement causes light tingling/pain to extend to my finger/thumb), and can produce intense pain. If I do the arm-wrestling position and apply force to my arm, then I produce pain in my shoulder.

Ok now listen to me. I just had a shoulder injury just like that. Except it took them 12 MONTHS to say i need surgery. I tore all the cartilage on the front of my right shoulder right off. I had the popping/cracking, pain the whole thing. X rays cant never tell for something like a tear, MRI's are more likely to pick up something. Go to a Orthopedic doctor that SPECIALIZES IN SHOULDERS!!!! I dident do that at first and i regret it. Make and appointment asap. Surgery is not bad at all and its pretty much required if you want the pain and cracking/popping to go away for good. After you get surgery you go to physical therapy and then after 2-4 months your done and healed. The Physical theraphy is they strength and make your shoulder have a better range of motion. Hope all of this helps and get better soon.

Sounds like a rotator cuff tear. This is very common and it might not show up on an X-ray (MRI's are used for diagnosis). Serious tears may require surgery, but yours actually doesn't sound that bad. You probably want to avoid surgery if you can. It will take a while to heal. Take a look at this for more information and links: http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/rotatorc...

You should ask your doctor about getting an MRI done on your shoulder. You could have some tissue damage that can be repaired with surgery.

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