My MRI was bright and early Tuesday morning. When it was over and I was preparing to leave, the technician told me that I would hear from my doctor in a few days. Surprisingly, he called that afternoon. He said the MRI shows that I have tendonitis in the rotator cuff, and a torn labrum. What's a labrum? It is like a cup of cartilage that anchors the top of your humerus into the shoulder joint. Picture this: a beach ball and a dinner plate. The 'ball' is the round head of the humerus and the 'plate' is socket. Ligaments are at work to hold the joint together, but the labrum functions to 'deepen' the socket.
Injury to the labrum can happen several different ways. Whenever you fully dislocate your shoulder or stress the joint so much that it becomes unstable (subluxation), you will tear the labrum (among a host of other things). If you fall and put you arm out to brace yourself, you could tear it as well. There is significantly less blood flow to cartilage, tendons and ligaments, so whenever you do have an injury, the healing process takes a lot longer than if it were just a muscle tear. A tear in the labrum will eventually heal, but it might reattach in the wrong place in the socket, or a torn bit can fold into the socket, causing a 'catch' whenever the joint moves.
Several ligaments of the shoulder attach to the labrum, as well as the bicep tendon. The bicep tendon attaches to the labrum at the superior point of the socket, and then the labrum extends around in an anterior and posterior direction (front and back). If you tear the labrum at that attachment point (the superior region of the socket, closest to your head), it is called a SLAP lesion. (Superior Labrum Anterior and Posterior). I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, but I think that this may be what it is. There are several different degrees and locations of tears, but in thinking about my pain and the one injury that I can recollect in the past year, this makes the most sense. I was already hurting quite a bit in the shoulder when it happened. I had Colin up on the changing table, and as I stood him up to pull up his pants, he launched himself off of the table, to my right. I stuck my arm out at a 90 degree angle to catch him. Oh. My. Gosh. Did that ever hurt. I heard a 'pop!' I was thinking at the time that it was still my shoulder, and that I must have pulled more muscles when it happened. Now I wonder about that. Catching a falling object that weighs 35 lbs or so with an outstretched arm will put quite a strain on the bicep. My pain before this incident was limited to my shoulder and pectoral area. Now it involves my bicep and my shoulder blade too. I don't recall exactly when it happened, but it has been a few months.
So what does this mean? Most likely some shoulder surgery. I have an appointment this afternoon to do a nerve study. There might be an issue with my brachial plexus since that is a nexus point of pain and that I have numbness going down the underside of my arm. I also recently discovered that operating a can opener or nail clippers with my right hand is getting very difficult - I just don't have the hand strength to do it. The results from this test will go to the orthopedic surgeon to go over, and then we'll go on from there.
Now, if I could just get a handle on the pain while I wait, that would be great.
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