Shoulder Pain "Makes Me Feel Like I'm Falling Apart"

Longview, WALike many patients before her, Debra L. says she thought her shoulder pain was a result of the surgery she had. She had no idea it could be related to the use of a shoulder pain pump following surgery. It was not until recently that Debra heard about problems with the shoulder pain pump and discovered that her inability to use her shoulder could have been caused by a machine that was meant to help her.

"I passed my shoulder pain off as me using it too much," Debra says. "All I know is, my shoulder hurts and it is smaller on that side [the left side]. It gets smaller as the years go by. You can actually stick your finger into the socket—it's kind of gross. I can do my own exploratory surgery. There's no cartilage or muscle tissue in there.

"My doctor has me on pain medication for my knee. I've been on it for a year and it masks a lot of the shoulder pain. Not all of the pain, but it's not as noticeable as before.

"It all started out with a lot of pain in my shoulder. It was a dull, numbing pain. I went to the orthopedic surgeon. They were going to do arthroscopy and put 3 holes in to see what they could find. After I woke up, the doctor said they had to lay the whole shoulder open and clean it out. I went home and they gave me a pain pump and medication, so I didn't feel a lot of pain at the time.

"After about a few months I started physical therapy and that seemed to make my shoulder worse—it intensified the pain. I told the therapist that the therapy wasn't working and they said it might take 3-4 years to heal. They told me to lift small weights for a while, but nothing got better. The shoulder area kept shrinking and shrinking.

"I went back to the doctor about the incision because I can stick my finger into the middle of the joint, which I thought was odd. The doctor said that would fill up with tissue but it never has.

"I thought the problem was that I needed the surgery again. I really didn't think that it could be anything else. I talked to the doctor, but he said it was all recovery stuff. I kept having more pain and he kept saying that it was part of the healing process.

"I have really limited ability to move my [left] shoulder, lift things or do circles with my shoulder. I try not to use it. If I have to use it, I try to put more weight on the right shoulder. I never lift that arm up overhead because it hurts so much. I can't lift my arm straight up in front, back or sideways. I try to keep it in a straight position or close to my chest.

"It's painful. I can't sleep at night on that side. I have to lie on my right side, because if I'm on my left my fingers and arm go numb and the shoulder pain is excruciating. Even just shrugging my shoulders hurts but I do that accidentally sometimes. There are a lot of things I can't do now. If I were left-handed I'd be miserable.

"When you look at me standing straight, the left shoulder is very low down compared to the right. Overall, this affects me every day. If it is cold out, oh boy! I can almost predict the weather. The pain and aching are worse when it gets really cold. It's like there's just skin over my shoulder—there's nothing left there but skin. There's no muscle. It makes me self-conscious sometimes. My left shoulder is tinier than my right.

"I was told it would get better with time. I was told that I'm too old so what did I expect? I really thought I would have to have the surgery again. The shoulder is tender and it hurts. It makes me feel like I'm falling apart."