whatz is going on with my shoulder….? Diagnosis, please…

I reckon this could be a job for alpins homeopathic surgeon friend.

Alpin- not sure if we’ve spoke before on here but I’m week 6 ish post a similar incident and have bump just like yours. I was advised to wait until this stage then start physio, then if the lump bothered me look at surgery. TBH I’m viewing it like a scar and whilst not many chicks get to look at my body these days I understand they like that sort of thing.

Good luck.

I have a bump on my shoulder like yours, although its not quite as big. I had an OTB at speed and a tree was kind enough to break my fall with the full force of my shoulder going into it.

Thought the pain & swelling would go down and it would all be ok. I didnt notice the bump on my shoulder for about a month and it was still pretty painful. I then thought id do something about it.

Went to GP who sent me for a scan at hospital. They diagnosed a cat 1/2 sprain of the shoulder (Dont know if thats the same as ACJ seperation?)

i then had 6 weeks of physio which didnt 100% cure but did improve it a lot. Physio referred me to a shoulder specialist and ever since then ive been going back every 3/4 months for a check up.

Specialist seems to think it will all be ok in good time by its self.

I’m now 12 month on after my injury, heres the good news..

Bar the first 6-8 weeks it has not stopped me riding and ive had a few offs with no further isues. Riding has no bad effect on my shoulder.

Bad news – If I do any moderate lifting above shoulder height it can play havock and my shoulder can feel as bad as it did a few weeks after the injury and take a good few weeks to return to what i now accept as ‘normal’. Got my next specialist visit end of month so will see what he says about it.

Moral of the story, if the NHS are telling you it’s not a broken collar bone, demand a second opinion.

Alpin’s Moral of the story is.

If private medical insurance isn’t helping then pay some more as there is no NHS in Germany.

Looks 100% like AC separation to me. I’ve had a grade 3 one from snowboarding and had a lot of physio before it felt right – in fact it was 2 years before it was completely back to normal with no pain. Completely fine now, no problems whatsoever, apart from a slightly raised lump above one shoulder.

Word of caution, it will probably take a good 2-3 months before it stops constantly hurting. Don’t do what I did and assume that because it’s stopped hurting then it must be fully okay. As soon as mine stopped hurting 3 months in, I picked up a plasma telly and managed to re-injure the same joint resulting in a nice long setback, more time off the bike and lots more pain.

well…. well done to those of you that said it was an ACJ separation.

went to see a specialist yesterday. he specialises in sports injuries. ther was even some bird from the Ausrtralian olympic ski team there (a finer arse i have not seen in quite some time!!!! wow!)

he seemed on the ball. spent some time pulling me around and agreed that that it was a Schultereckgelenksehnenverrenkung (beginning to enjoy saying that). he sent me off for more x-rays. they had me carrying weights, stretched out across a table, posing with my arm behind my back.
going back tomorrow for an MRI scan, too, which is good news, i guess.
he wouldn’t say how long it’ll take until he has seen the results which is fair enough.

he did say that the clavicle is sitting way too high and that the first doc should have seen that from the original x-ray, but maybe missed it due to the swelling. the clavicle is now an inch or so higher than it should be. after three weeks the tendons are now over stretched. he said one of the options was pinning the bone down with a titanium pate (cool!), cutting the tendons and allowing them to regrow at the required length. obviously that would mean surgery.

more time off work, but luckily last year was a good year (however i still have two tax bills to pay). as long as it is sorted by the time the snow melts down south i’ll be happy…..

@ Drac, quite.

(Mrs FD here – orthopod, and therefore usual caveats of not having seen you etc)

What were the reasons given for an MRI? Seriously intrigued. The ACJ disruption is graded by how it looks on X-ray and therefore deducing what ligaments are injured. Management in the UK (NHS) is decided then by clinical review. What do you do for a living, what function do you need or want? Manual workers or people needing overhead function usually are offered surgery given your X-ray appearances. Surgery – hook plate or tight rope procedure.

If money is tight question the MRI. Can’t you come back to the UK for treatment?

Can’t you come back to the UK for treatment?

He got branded a health tourist last time this was brought up in relation to something else!

My 2p – get treatment locally – it sounds like it’s going to be a long road to recovery and you want continuity of care. Also, once you’ve paid the excess (which will probably have been exceeded already) I assume it’s all covered anyway? I am not a Dr.

@ Mrs Dunc….

i don’t know. guess that the first x-ray didn’t show anything massively untoward yet there is obviously something not quite right he wanted a better look.

i’m a carpenter/joiner and occasional bike guide so i need my shoulder.

as wwwwwwwwwas says, after the excess is exceeded it’s no longer my problem. i could return to the UK for treatment, but seeing as i haven’t paid anything into he system in the last six years i would see that as a bit of a piss take. maybe when i’m old and living my life in the south of spain i’ll consider it 😉

Glad they now found the problem and hope your sorted soon. The specialist is right about the swelling it’s more than possible why it wasn’t evident the first time due to severe swelling it makes it hard to spot injuries, this is why they usually do a follow up check and ask if there’s an issues after being checked to return.

tomfun – Member
I have a bump on my shoulder like yours, although its not quite as big. I had an OTB at speed and a tree was kind enough to break my fall with the full force of my shoulder going into it.

Same here, except after hitting the tree with my left shoulder I found a convenient tree stump to do a matching injury to my right 😥
I’ve never looked at larch trees quite the same since.