Is there a Doctor in the House? Help!!

Okay, now this might sound really dumb coming from a (theoretically) big tough guy who deals with livestock and dangerous stuff all the time...

Last night I decided to give the pups a bath (which they both LOVE). It's kind of hard contorting myself around to get them good and clean, but all went well. Got the dogs bathed and dried off and I returned to the living room to hang out with the wife unit.

I'm sitting there on the couch for about 15 minutes when I start feeling this pain going from my right shoulder blade around under my right armpit and then up to just below my collar bone on the right side. Kind of felt like a muscle cramp at first. I moved my arm around a bit and it seemed to feel a little better. A bit later I stood up and...HOLY BALLS!!...it feels like I've got a broken rib! I was in serious pain. So I decided to take a tylenol and go to bed. Slept okay I guess.

This morning I wake up and I move to get out of the bed and OH S#!! I'm in agony!!! I can't even get out of bed at first! I finally manage to roll in such a way that I can push myself up with my left arm, and I've got these STABBING pains in going around the same area described above. The pain is more prominent just forward of my armpit in my pectoral area, and then again around behind my back in about the middle of my shoulder blade. And when I say pain, I'm talking about knee buckling, yell out loud, kinda' pain. But it's not all the time, it seems to fire when I move a certain way like if I try to sit up really straight (pushing my neck back). I am an absolute wreck right now. I can't stand from a sitting position, I can't cough or even breath deeply.

It feels exactly like what a broken rib feels like (and I've had more than a few of those), but it's much higher. Lifting my right arm up is doable (sort of), but if I move my neck a certain way while doing this I cry out like a little girl. There's no way I could have a broken rib (despite what it feels like).

Any notion of what might be the problem???

Pinched nerve in my neck / back maybe?

I am literally about 85-90% incapacitated right now. I'm not even sure I could get in the car to drive to the doc.

Suggestions on what I might consider doing to help ease the pain and get some mobility?

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Get to the doctor.
Better safe than dead.

I literally threw my back out once when I sneezed.

Probably a pinched nerve but you better find out.
Hot or cold shower maybe to ease the pain.
Pulled muscles like cold.
Pinched nerves like heat.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Sounds like a pinched nerve.

Go see a doctor.

Really.

Get the wife to cart your carcass to a doc.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Take some Tylenol and do some ice on the area.

Sounds like you did what I did. One day I stood up and just about killed my back. It hurt for weeks.

Go to the doctor and have him check it out and prescribe you some happy pills.

Go see a REAL LIFE doctor mate... get some serious exams done.

From the ATS veterinarian.

Lags

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I also suggest you go and see a real doctor.

a reply to: DBCowboy

Dammit!!

Laughing hurts...BAD!!

All,

Thanks. Yes, I should go see a doctor (I know), but at the moment I'm trying to stand and learn to walk (again). Bending over to get in the car is not an option right at the moment.

This S# HURTS!! I ain't kiddin' either! Move a certain way and it feels like someone stabs a dagger into my armpit/pec area.

**back to crying like a little girl**

Get your ass to the doctor, now, Budd!!!

When I had my heart attack, the only pain I had was on my right side. When I laid on my back, it felt like one of your horses was sitting on my chest.

TAKE TWO ASPIRIN, NOW !!!, Not tylenol or other pain reliever, don't take a chance with that kind of pain !!!!

Hopefully its nothing, but don't take chances like that.

ETA, If you can't get in a car, call an ambulance, or lay in the back of a pick-up to the E.R.

a reply to: Bluntone22

I know! I feel like I should have some epic adventure story like roping down a raging bull or interrupting my wife during a riveting episode of Law & Order, but NOooooo.

Instead, all I've got is...washing the dang dog.

a reply to: NightFlight

This is definitely not a heart issue, that much I know. This is like spasms upon moving a certain way. It also hurts from physical pressure on my upper right ribs on the forward edge of my right armpit. It's not a dull pain, or a tightness, it's a really sharp sudden pain when (like from 0 to about 9, instantly). Then as soon as I stop moving that way, the pain goes away.

Plus, BP checks good (a little high, but that's understandable), pulse at 69 and a normal sinus rhythm. (I used to be an EMT many moons ago). Pulse-Ox shows good also (98). I wouldn't have posted all this stuff if it presented like a heart issue (I'd be at the ER). I actually do have some heart issues so I'm very familiar with the signs and symptoms. It exhibits just like a broken rib, but with the spasms I'm thinking some kind of a badly pinched nerve.

Thank you though for the concern.

ETA - The mental picture of riding in the back of my pickup for the 60 miles it would take to get there was pretty funny (and painful while chuckling)! I probably really would need to be admitted then, what with all the broken bones and all. LOL! **ouch!**

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Sorry to hear that FCD.
That is going to axe all your hard work for a while.
Could be pinched nerve:
www.medicalnewstoday.com...
Could be a dislocated shoulder.
I have had both.
Lastly, I had issues like that in my neck/shoulder and
it turned out to be Lyme disease.
That will ruin your white privilege
No stranger to Pain Ranch work here.
See a Doctor if no improvement in a day or two.

a reply to: Wildmanimal

Thanks. Definitely took the wind out of my sails for feeding the cows this morning! That wasn't even an option.

Pretty sure it's not a separated shoulder; I can lift it above my head, but if I move my head when I do that...look out! Hence my thinking it's a neck / upper back nerve issue. Yeah, I've had a separated shoulder a couple times also, so I know what that feels like. This isn't in my shoulder, but my rib cage right below it.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Okay.

I will concur to your experience, but please do take the aspirin, just in case...

NF

a reply to: NightFlight

That's never a bad suggestion / idea.

Thanks!

Like other said, go to see a doctor.

You wrote the pain runs through your right armpit.

If you look at your armpit, following the folded skin to the left a bit from the center and then towards your hand... if the pain runs through there, it´s probably like nerve clamped or pinched.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

If you find it is not a heart issue, I'd run to a chiropractor!!!!!!

Sounds like a trapped nerve to me. Put a matress on the ground and sleep on it, see if that helps. Best go see a chiro to make sure but in my opinion thats what it i s.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Could be from lifting something wrong or sleeping in an odd position. If you cough frequently perhaps your doc needs to check you out for pleurisy or a few other more rare conditions. Id get a chiro adjustment to start and if the pain does not ease up from the adjustment alone then visit the doctor. Tell your doctor about any associated signs and symptoms such as coughing, acid reflux, post nasal drip, etc.

- not a doctor and did not stay in holiday inn express last night. I just write medical softwares.

Sounds like a pinched nerve somewhere, but I'd get it checked out especially as much as it's impacting your mobility. But I now when that bone spur in my neck catches the nerve wrong, it's screaming pain and all I can safely do is sit upright in a chair. If it is a pinched nerve, the sooner you get help for the inflammation, the less time it will take for the pain to go away. It can take months for the aching in mine to subside if I let nature take its course. My neuro could do trigger point injections and drop local anesthetic in on the nerve points and it would be better within the week.