playing with sore shoulder

[grecogoalie]

HI I have my first game of the summer season this Thursday.

Problem is I have been nursing a sore shoulder for about 3 weeks now. I have avoided playing and have been applying Diflofenac (anit-inflamitory). I hit my shoulder on a scrum in front of the net. I covered teh puck and then jammed my shoulder into the ice to cover up.

Question is .. should I take a advil or something before the game or any stretches I should do to prepare. IT is still sore but I could probably play thorugh it.

[sloppy]

3 weeks sounds like a long time for a "sore" shoulder.

I sprained my shoulder in a game and couldn't put my hands in my back pocket the next day. I visited the doctor for the diagnosis and subsequent treatment....

I took 800mg of Ibuprofen [anti-inflamatory] 3 x's a day for 2-3 days. It was miraculous, I could reach into my back pocket.

Then I immediately went to physiotherapy. I went every day for 1 week and with the Dr. Ho type electrical muscle stimulation, ultrasound and physical movement of the shoulder, I was healed and back in net after a week.

Yes, you could probably take an anti-inflamatory prior to a game and play but I would get the doctor to check it out first, you don't want the injury to last longer than it needs to or worse, have a runaway train ram you in the game and make it worse.

[canesgoalie]

I've had a sore shoulder for 3 months. I'm not a doctor, I don't play one on tv - but this is what I've done so far. Gently stretch the shoulder daily, rehab with light weights and range of motion movements, ice shoulder after game or practice if sore. Take anti-inflammatory, my favorite is Tylenol gel caps. The pain comes and goes, but stretching, light rehab, ice and Tylenol have helped. Someday I plan to see a real doctor.

[sloppy]

Is it my imagination or are people reluctant to go see their doctors when they get injured?

What's with that??

I know a good doctor is hard to find but, keep trying because all those pain killers I'm sure aren't doing your system any good.

If you're over 70 years old, I can undserstand daily pain killers [sort of], or played any length of time in the NHL, but seriously folks....!

[sloth2946]

Originally posted by sloppy
Is it my imagination or are people reluctant to go see their doctors when they get injured?

Because by and large doctors are not concerned with treating the patient, they are concerned with treating the symptoms. Case in point, yesterday I went to an orthopedic doctor to get my shoulder looked at because I got it messed up real good on sunday. All the doc wanted to do was to prescribe anti-inflammatories for me and send me on my merry way, but alas he couldn't due to my allergies to them. So he said get some PT and be on with you....That is nice and all, but what about the crunching noises and pops I feel when I move my arm around now?!?!?! Nothing, didn't seem to care. He got my money and my insurance info and waved by-by to me. THAT is why people don't go to see doctors because simply put, you get the same care at home as you do in their offices.

[grecogoalie]

I actually went to my doctor. I asked him about the dr HO.

He said that I have three options. Use a Ibuprofen? (medicate the whole body for that one tiny spot), cortigen shot (he did not recomend) or basically topical anti-inflamitory and light excercises.

I picked the last and and it is starting to feel better, I guess if noone hits me in the shoulder I will be fine,

I think i will take 1 advil before the game and two after should do the trick for now,


thanks

[stripes]

Idunno, seems obvious to me. When I gotta go to the doctor because I'm sick, or I'm out of whatever meds I happen to need, I go to the doc.

But if it's a sports injury, or related problem, I go to the Sports Medicine clinic in town and get looked at by a doctor who at least concentrates on that kind of thing! Plus, with a physio facility in house, when I did need physiotherapy, there was better coordination between the dr and the physiotherapist.

Find a sports medicine clinic, or a place specializing in sports injury, and go there! Screw your regular doctor, you need a body mechanic.

[sloppy]

Sloth,

The doctors are treating the symptoms because the patient walked in with them. The patient has the symptoms, not the doctor.

If you feel that way about your doctor, it's time to find another that has a better bedside manner or one who explains whazzzup better.

Ibuprofen and physio are the prescribed methods of treatment, so he did his job.

If you go to a store and get poor service, do you return or do you go elsewhere? Same deal with doctors, lawyers, goalies.... goalies? Someone mention goalies?

[Spike]

I see my doctor when I need to. I believe the doctor avoidance (is that even a word?) may be a guy thing. I am not a guy.
Yesterday I was sent home from work because I was pale, weak and overall just felt like crap. I saw my doctor today and goody for me. I have mono. Ugh. I've been up for roughly 4 hours now, gonna go to sleep.
Had I not seen my doctor I would've a)infected all the kids at daycare (now wouldn't that be good?) and been a grouch at school. Now I'm just a grouch at home.

[sloth2946]

SLOPPY: You missed the point. What I mean is doctors will give you things to relieve the symptoms, not solve the problem. It is kinda like you going to the mechanic and saying my tires keep deflating, so the mechanic fills up the tires with air and sends you on your merry way not even trying to plug the hole or replace the tire. Sure it solved the problem so it would seem, but the tire will still deflate soon after you leave the mechanic. That is how doctors practice now a days, the vast majority of them at least.

[streethockeygoalie]

sloth, I agree with you completely, and I know where you are coming from. I would go to the sports medicine guy because of my knees, and my shoulder, I got the usual "take some pain killers, and have some PT." Well, now I can't pitch, and I am battling constant knee pain. So, if it hurts, I just don't go. I just tough it out

[The Gun Doctor]

Number of physicians in the US: 700,000.

Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year: 120,000.

Accidental deaths per physician: 0.171 (U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services)

Number of gun owners in the US: 80,000,000.

Number of accidental gun deaths per year (all age groups): 1,500.

Accidental deaths per gun owner: 0.0000188

Statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

"FACT: Not everyone has a gun, but everyone has at least one Doctor."

Please alert your friends to this alarming threat. We must ban doctors before this gets out of hand. As a Public Health Measure, I have withheld the statistics on Lawyers for fear that the shock could cause people to seek medical aid.

[sloppy]

GunDoctor! Thanks for the warning. Too funny! LOL.

I hear you Sloth, but I missed the point?
Actually, it isn't how doctors practice now a days, it's what people are doing to themselves nowadays and then expect to be saved at the doctors office.

A person who eats too much high fat food [McD's], smokes like a chimney, pops pain killers, drinks alcohol like a fish daily, whips into the doctors and screams SAVE ME!

Guess what? You've been abusing your body for so long, that now it's up to the doctor to save you? If you have bad genes to begin with.... your chances of salvation are slimmer.

A short story.....

A guy walks into the doctors office complaining of a pain in his knees. The doctor moves it this way and that, patient is wincing. Sure enough, the doctor would send the patient on his way with some anti inflamatory pill and says call me in a few days if it hasn't healed. The patient isn't 350lbs, the doctor thinks, it's not his weight.

Patient returns in a week, still in pain. What the doctor didn't know, is that the patient is a goalie. Now the doctor would recommend staying off the bum knees for a few weeks to see if the pain doesn't go away [no, not the patient].

The moral being, if you continue to play goal, your knees are still going to be giving you pain because it isn't natural for them to be stressed like that. You have a sore shoulder from a runaway player? Surprised?

As goaltending is over and above daily usage of the knee, there might come a time where if you continue playing, it will get worse and you'll have to play through pain or as my doctor puts it, it'll heal better if you quit. If you quit totally, it won't hurt because of goaltending ever again.

You continue driving on roads, that tire may eventually spring a leak and will need a patch to close the leak. Once the tire wears too much, it'll never accept a patch to stop any leak and will have to be replaced or taken off the road.

Then there's the good genes/bad genes that determine your illnessses and what you may be susceptible to in the future.

So don't generalize about "doctors now a days" because there are all kinds.....including patients who abuse themselves and expect miracles.

[sloth2946]

SLOPPY: You're still don't quite see it. Maybe healthcare up in Canada is different, but around these parts doctors are not interested in solving your problems, they are only interested in giving you medications that will allow you to cope with your problems, then they bill your insurance company un-godly sums of money for next to nothing done. For example, we will revert back to my post about my shoulder. See I injured it a while back but it healed for the most part, and I could live with it with no pain or real loss of movement or what have you. So I injure it again, this time it is real bad. I finally go to the doctor and tell him how I injured it and the entire history of my left should and all the BS it has been through since the beginning of time as I know it. Now would anyone disagree with the fact that a constant popping noise when I move my arm in certain motions is bad???? No, nobdy would. Yet this doctor seemed to have a total disregard for it and all he wanted to do was prescribe a little electro stim, some ultrasound, and an anti-inflammatory and send me on my way. Now he says it isn't a major thing, DUH!!! It's a shoulder, of course it isn't life threatening, but obviously the joint is not operating as intended. Does he set up an appointment for me to get an MRI on it to find out what is really wrong with it??? No, he doesn't want to have to spend the time on it if there is something that needs more attention. I am sure that he would have given me as many refills on the anti-inflam's as I wanted so I would be able to cope. How about f-ing setting up the process to get the damn thing fixed instead of bandaging a gushing wound when something more pressing is necessary. This has been my experiences with doctors, not just this one. I am not like these hypochondriacs who go to the doctor for every little sniffle or bump or bruise, I go when there is something wrong and needs attention, and all I see now is a total disregard for the patient's rights to get healed by the doctor's supposed expertise. Instead we get brought it, prodded, poked, medicated and sent on our way unless it is life threatening. See if it life threatening then they can charge up the butt for all these tests and other BS so they can justify their huge expenses and get paid and end up golfing half the time. As I said, healthcare might be totally different in Canada, and it probably is because the government has some sort of control on what they can and cannot do up north, but stateside, you are screwed unless you are dying or have something real cool and interesting.

[gr8sav]

Sloth,
for the most part i agree with you, or I used to until i found a good doctor.

The most important thing is to find a good doctor.

How does one know when one has found a good doctor?
This is simple, the doctor takes the time to explain things to you, answers all your questions in a non-hurried fashion, and even offers suggestions on how to prevent or lesson the chances of re-injury. It is up to the patient to find a doctor that is suitable for them. I actually travel 30 miles from home past many (i am sure very credible doctors) to see my doc.
What do you do once you have found a good doctor?
You educate yourself, this is key! Doctors (like people in general) are more likely to go into detail when answering a question if the person they are talking to appears to understand or show interest. Ever try to explain your job to someone who knows very little about that field, it isn't easy.
Everyone has access to the web, go to Web MD and look up shoulder injuries. Try to help isolate the problem. Taking any body part and telling someone " it hurts, fix it!" is asking for them to treat you in the same way "here's a pill, take it!". If nothing else you will learn about your own body, and how and why certain areas are more prone to injury (ie. shoulders and knees).

Like anything in this world you get what you put into it. It may take a little work, but it will pay off in the long run.
gr8sav