Elbow to Shoulder Pain

Have you ever experienced a sharp pain in your arm between your elbow and you shoulder?  If so this can be caused by a variety of problems.  I can tell you from experience that his is no a lot of fun.  All of a sudden one day I was unable to move my arm more than six inches from my body in an upward motion.

Having had nearly all repetitive stress injuries I wondered what was I in for now. It wasn’t carpal tunnel since I was having a pain in my arm.  It wasn’t tennis elbow because it did not hurt on the top of my elbow. It seemed as if I had somehow pinched a nerve in such a way that I could not move my arm much at all.  This was so bad that I had trouble sleeping as there was no place I could put my arm where it didn’t hurt.  The only time it didn’t hurt was when I was standing or sittig upright.  Whenever I tried to lay down, it put enouhg pressure on my arm that it hurt like crazy.

shoulder

Okay, so I went to an Orthopedist to figure this one out.  I received a cortozone injection to help relieve the pain which helped somewhat but I really wanted to get to the cause of this.  I had an xray done and it turns out that I have what is called calcific tendonitis.  Calcific tenoditis is when you get calcium deposits on the tendons in your shoulder.  This occurs generally when you are over 40 years old.  What happens is that the calcium deposits build up over time until finally the tendons get inflammed enough to cause pain in your arm.  This was certainly a relief to some extent as I now knew that a) I did not have bone cancer or some other such nonsense, and b) it can be helped with anti-inflammatory medicine.  

What Other Folks Have to Say

Tendonitis from Repetitive Movements

We present a case of bilateral calcific tendonitis of the Flexor Carpi Ulnaris attributable to repetitive wrist action which was occupationally related. This was treated conservatively with avoidance of aggravating movement. [ …]

Calcific Tendonitis

Calcific tendonitis refers to a build-up of calcium in the rotator cuff, and is often aggravated by an existing condition, such as impingement or conventional tendonitis in the shoulder. when calcium builds up in the area, pain results. […]  .

Calcific Tendonitis, No You’re Not Turning To Bone

Calcific Tendonitis is a term for the painful phases of a fluid process of tissue filling and then emptying of extra calcium.  

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