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long story semi short: threw ball from outfield wall to 2b. Thought he felt pop in shoulder. Two days later was catching big time loss of arm strength. Went to specialist 3 days later xrays negative ortho said structurally solid after tests. 3weeks rest and moxicam went out to throw today due to follow up appointment tomorrow. No pain when throwing football but pain when throwing baseball hard. Anyone have ideas? I'm assuming mri will be scheduled tomorrow just wondering if anyone familiar with symptoms 

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My son went through a period of shoulder pain several years ago.  I'll share some thoughts to help give you perspective, and maybe some follow-up questions to ask your ortho.

My son had a very similar experience to your son.  He was playing in a USA tournament and played something like 8 games in 6 days in 110+ heat in AZ.  In the last game he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder.  We took him immediately to an ortho who gave him a battery of tests and x-ray and declared his shoulder structurally ok.  The recommendation was that it was overuse in extreme heat and he should rest.  This didn't sit well with me so we found another ortho... basically the same diagnosis, but with a recommendation to go to physical therapy.  It turned out my son's shoulder was extremely tight with very limited range of motion.  He went to PT and got stretched out and improved his range of motion.  He could rest for a couple weeks and be ok, but then it would flare up again.  This went on for many months, perhaps a year.  Each time I feared the worst and worried about a labrum tear, and deep down I wondered if the orthos were missing something really bad.

The pain, it turned out, was bicep tendonitis from friction in the shoulder when it wasn't extremely flexible.  We found a new PT who figured out how to stretch his shoulder so the capsule inside could be properly stretched.  Once he figured this out his shoulder never had a problem again.  This guy was more helpful and seemed to know more about shoulders than the orthos.

Smitty thanks for responding. Very interesting. First, my son caught 5 games in 48 hours in heat indexes over 108 72 hours prior to the injury    im very intrigued by what youre saying about the tight shoulder because I know his is tight I can tell when he throws. Should I ask ortho about that tomorrow? Do I just need to find someone that can stretch the shoulder capsule? The similarities between our 2 boys injuries are interesting. Football starts next week so we have to move fast lol 

 

I realize players are young and resilient. I went through travel ball with my kids playing three, four games in a day. I would shake my head because pro players aren’t put through this much ball in a day or weekend.

There wasn’t travel ball when I was growing up. Legion was the elite level of ball. We never played more than two in a day.,

@edcoach posted:

Smitty thanks for responding. Very interesting. First, my son caught 5 games in 48 hours in heat indexes over 108 72 hours prior to the injury    im very intrigued by what youre saying about the tight shoulder because I know his is tight I can tell when he throws. Should I ask ortho about that tomorrow? Do I just need to find someone that can stretch the shoulder capsule? The similarities between our 2 boys injuries are interesting. Football starts next week so we have to move fast lol 

 

Definitely ask the ortho about his range of motion, general flexibility, and if tightness can be a root cause of this pain.  I would also ask about physical therapy - if the ortho provides a prescription for it your health insurance may pick up the tab (at least it did for us).  

I wish I could tell you how to find a good physical therapist... my son had a couple that didn't seem to be worth the hour on the bench, and the third one we found worked magic.  I guess I would say if he doesn't feel a dramatic improvement from his therapist, go find another until you see results.

My son also played football, and he loves hitting the weight room, and I'm sure this contributed to his tightness.

@edcoach posted:

long story semi short: threw ball from outfield wall to 2b. Thought he felt pop in shoulder. Two days later was catching big time loss of arm strength. Went to specialist 3 days later xrays negative ortho said structurally solid after tests. 3weeks rest and moxicam went out to throw today due to follow up appointment tomorrow. No pain when throwing football but pain when throwing baseball hard. Anyone have ideas? I'm assuming mri will be scheduled tomorrow just wondering if anyone familiar with symptoms 

Did he just go out and throw without a rehab program?  

@edcoach posted:

smitty by the way the dr told him he could still lift but no maxing out and nothing overhead. Did you get same response?

My son still lifted (and lifts) but he was never big on overhead lifts.  He does a lot of squats and deadlifts, some bench press along with complementary back/lat lifts.  The key for him was to continue stretching, hitting and throwing while he was doing off season lifts so he could adapt to his growing body.

I’d recommend making sure whoever you take him to specializes in baseball or at least overhead sports. A friends kid had a similar issue. The PT the ortho sent him to had some stretches that my friend ran by the baseball trainer that were not good for baseball and could cause further injury. One he mentioned is the sleeper stretch. Apparently this is causing a lot of serious injuries right now. 

Just got back from the ortho. He did a flexibility test and recognized how tight the shoulder was. Before this test he was thinking mri. I asked him if he had a good pitcher/shoulder physical therapist and he gave me a referral. Thanks to those for the suggestion on the tightness.  Makes perfect sense. Since the last summer or two hes looked really tight throwing in the shoulder area. Starts pt Wednesday ill update progress. Thx again. Ed

@edcoach posted:

Just got back from the ortho. He did a flexibility test and recognized how tight the shoulder was. Before this test he was thinking mri. I asked him if he had a good pitcher/shoulder physical therapist and he gave me a referral. Thanks to those for the suggestion on the tightness.  Makes perfect sense. Since the last summer or two hes looked really tight throwing in the shoulder area. Starts pt Wednesday ill update progress. Thx again. Ed

This sounds like good news.  Good luck with the PT.

Went to the physical therapist today. Pt said his range of motion and shoulder flexibility was awful. Did a few tests and by the end of the hour the flexibility really improved    the pt thinks this is the problem almost for certain but said if not a mri will be necessary  he was approved for 60 pt sessions by insurance but i have $50 copay so won't be using them all

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