It is possible it may be bursitis I have had a few injections for such pains before. I think the injection is a simple saline solution injected into the inflamed area. It has done wonders for me in the past and is worth asking your doctor about

If none of the medications or massagers worked i'd say to go visit the chiropractor. They would be able to get a look at you and find out what it is. Hope you feel alright, love to see ya keep drawin.

Do NOT see a chiropractor. That is pseudomedicine and can leave you paralyzed or even dead.

My chiropractor was the only thing that helped after my mum's car wreck. Some are suspect. Research is key. The first person my mum saw charged her for a million different tests and didn't help at all. Two $30 appointments with my chiropractor helped immensely. Some are like osteopaths and others are frauds.

big way to tell a chiropractor is a quack is if they try to do deep tissue or deep joint manipulation of anykind with out an X ray

Id say visit a doc and or chiropractor, of the pain feels muscle related chiropractor, if its like a sharp slicingish feeling pain id say doc cause you could have spurs

It also sounds like one of your ribs might be out of place. I would suggest seeing a chiropractor before injecting anything. It could be your muscles are just tight in that area. My left shoulder and shoulder blade get like that now and again because I lean on that side then I'm working on things. Stretching also helps if you can do it with minimal pain. I hope you feel better soon!

Ive had a pinched nerve before in my shoulder .it can be that. i had to sleep in whatever postion didnt bother it and take prescription levels of ibuprofen. it took many months to go away both times I had it. but without a doctor checking you out its hard to say over the internet.

Might be a pinched nerve. You might be able to see if there's any exercises that might help a bit but it'd probably be better to see you can check with a professional, dunno what sort of situation you're in but it might be better to see a general doctor before you see a specialist like a chiropractor or physiotherapist.

---Visit an actual doctor, not a chiropractor.---

The underlying claims of chiropractic are 19th century pseudoscience, and while you might get a chiropractor who acts as basically a physical therapist, doing things that a trained physical therapist could do, which can help alleviate some symptoms, you might get a quack who wants to do spinal manipulations which can risk serious injury and increase stroke risk. Go to an actual MD with actual medical training rather than a chiropractor to do any diagnosis, and follow their advice for treatment.

Pinched nerve.

Injections are a waste of money believe me I've had enough of them. I normally get a muscle relaxer and inflammatories from the doctor and use a heating pad but don't forget to do shoulder stretches.

Drink less soda if you are it helps too and drink more Water, might have to do the whole hot and cold compress thing too not just heat. I know Tiger balm is strong stuff, dunno if you have tried that kind or not.

I've had a similar thing while I was in college, if its on your dominant hand side and comes on after writing on a table for an extended period of time. I find that taking a break and finding that sweet spot while stretching to target that area (Kind of turn away from that shoulder blade and stretch your arm across and down). Massages kind of work too, but you have to be lying down and have someone find it for you.

As others have mentioned, chiropractic is not evidence-based medicine. Talk to your doctor and inquire about seeing a physical therapist. If it's not severe enough for that yet, find a good set of core and upper body stretches and strengthening exercises and try working with that on your own (take it easy and listen to your body, of course).

Also cover all the basics: eat right, sleep right, get regular physical activity, try to maintain a healthy weight and body composition, etc. It may not cure you, but it'll make getting there a whole lot easier.

One thing i'd look into is some yoga, many poses can help aleviate such back pains, you may have to grit through it though if its spurs a episode. Getting a chiropratic opinion would help too.

did you do anything that might have adjitated it?

I'll bring the boys around and we'll teach it a thing or two about keeping clean and flying straight.

If it's a muscle or nerve getting pinched back there, I'd suggest hanging from a pull-up bar for a few minutes and see if that helps. Like actually hanging loosely with your arms straight so your body weight is going right through and helps align things. From what I hear this is actually something that can be recommended in physio.

Might also be a good idea seeing your doctor or consulting a physiotherapist. *not* a chiropractor as some earlier comments recommended - chiro is more or less under the same quackery that homeopathy is. "Alternative medicine" isn't medicine; medicine is medicine. So... yeah. Physiotherapist. I actually had neck issues some years back and I saw a physiotherapist who showed me some stretches to do to help neck pain and stiffness, and it worked great.

My vote would be for visiting a physio. My guess would be pressure on a nerve, a good physio should be able to isolate it and probably give you some exercises to help with it, or at the very least, tell you what to avoid to stop getting the pain. The other option would be see a doctor. My doc tends to refer me to a physio and sometimes my physio tells my to see the doc (physio can't order things like x-rays, they need to come from the doc). I'd say avoid chiros. I am biased, I know people who had had bad experiences with them which has made me very skeptical of their skills.

As a fellow bursitis sufferer, I second the idea of a cortisone shot from your doctor.

Pretty much all of this. A physical therapist, or a remedial massage therapist, not a 'masseuse'.
Otherwise stretching in the meanwhile, and heat packs.

I had something similar, and time i would bend forward or move my left arm, mu spine would painfully pinch. since i've been goign to a chiropractor, i haven't had that issue as often. maybe like 3 times in the last yeas as opposed to 5-10+ a month. So Id say a chiropractor would probably be a good thing

While I'm no expert, I do know of a doctor in the fandom who might have some answers:

https://twitter.com/Doc_Wolverine
https://curiouscat.me/Doc_Maulverine

I had a pain like this when I worked at a vitamin factory. Sad to say, it was repetitive motion syndrome, a problem that occurs when you do similar or the same motions with a body part; I had torn the muscles in my shoulder and back. Also sadly, I had no time to stop and carefully tend to it. I ended up working through the pain until my arm went numb for a long time before it slowly healed.

If you tend to sleep on your side, this can alos have been a cause for it. I would go to a doctor if possible, and if not All I did was try to keep my shoulder as loose and flexible as I could, and upped my protein intake a little. Not sure if that specifically helped, but for me, without going to the doctor for it, the pain slowly faded back to nothing. If you can though, I'd recommend at least getting it x-rayed to see what's going on.

I'd see a medical doctor. There are several things it could be, and it's not really possible to diagnose without a physical exam. Ibuprofen and heat packs might help in the mean time if you haven't tried those.

I'd go see a Doctor. I'd rather not do anything on my own, especially when it comes to intensive pain.

My advice is to seek out medical advice from a qualified health care provider who will take the time to look at your shoulder.

see a doctor if you can. likely its a pinched nerve(the numbness is the hint), but could be the sign of something more. They will likely prescribe rest to see if that helps, if that's a problem for work make sure they know that.

I'd get it looked at if you can, though I regularly have pain in both my shoulders and I find a lumbar pillow helps me immensly

working out more helped me when i was getting drawing pains, also better posture is good, take a lotta breaks and do other actions I think, Hope that helps! Good luck recovering

A lot of people have already said this but to reiterate: see a doctor and/or a physiotherapist, DO NOT GO TO A CHIROPRACTOR.

As a seasoned artist I'm sure you know the importance of correct posture, stretches and exercise to avoid repetitive motion injury but if you don't the guys above have posted some good advice. If you have developed some nerve damage it may be too late to try and exercise it better, but don't quote me on that that's for your doctor to decide.

If you must go down the alternative medicine route; see a remedial massage therapist such as a reflexologist. To be clear, massage therapists are mainly quacks with rudimentary knowledge on physiotherapy just like Chiropractors. Unlike Chiropractors however, they are far less likely to maim or cripple you (just don't go drinking any snake-oil remedies they may recommend ). That way you will get any placebo benefit massage has to offer without risking your spine.

Take massage therapy in conjunction with real physiotherapy or failing that just physiotherapy alone. Follow your doctor's treatment regime and remember it never hurts to get a second opinion (if you can afford it). I would avoid doing any strenuous heavy lifting as well.

From another who's suffered my fair share of on-going chronic shoulder/back pain (And only very recently has seen that lift after many years);
-If its something you frequently experiencing/recursive, that is likely a symptom of posture and arm-use habits.
(Used to constantly have a similar on my left side until I shifted the keyboard from the desk to now using that from my lap. Took a short while to finally alleviate the years-long aggravated ache, but once that has subsided it's AMAZING how that small different has seen a COMPLETE turn around on something I had been putting up with <with no known way to deal with it> for faaar too long.)

-In that, potentially adjusting your things like desk/chair heights and types til you find one that suits you will help too!

-Never- go to a Chiropractor #_#; See a Physio for seeing if you have nerve or muscle damaged and getting that treated through exercise/massage/etc.
I'm not sure if the US has different health-board standardisation regarding Chiroprators (USPHS is that?) but those typically are not recognised by such organisations. (I am honestly so floored every I hear peeps discus Chiro likes it's a proper medical solution. It's akin to Homeopathy in that it does very little towards actual healing, but goes through the similar motions :/ )

-I'd recommend doing a bunch of low-impact strengthening exercises (*Note me if you would like to elaborate on the few I've been given by Physio's in the past, otherwise a quick google search might be also useful.) this will aid in strengthening the problem area.
-As well as stretching + general health improving. (How Physically fit would you asses yourself as?) even light excise, nothing too time and effort consuming can vastly help in reducing bodily aches n pains, blood circulation, concentration & a bunch of other benefits
-Which can bleed over into good diet-habits also. Reducing an excess of things like; Caffeine, sugar, salts (if these are things that you might indeed consume an excess of only)
-Consuming a 'proper' of water is A- HARD OMFGH @_@ (the normal amount is SOO MUCH holy heck! like.. 3-4 litres a day! [That's roughly a gallon or just under for US peeps] wtfff
*This was super hard for me to adjust to when a Doctor basically whopped me on the nose with a newspaper and told me if I don't my kidney stones will get even worse than they already are \|S ) and B- Fixes up Soooo many small and bigger things when you can get that normalised though!
-So doing whatever you can to trick/normalise yourself into that will have quick payoffs.

---

Unfortunately, there isn't really a 'quick bandaid fix' when it comes to sussing out shoulder n back pain, the thing that will help you the most is finding out whatever it is you are doing that is causing the strain and reducing/changing how you do that.

Hope even a smidgeon of that helps Gun! ^_^

I had god awful chronic backpain for an entire year when i was recommended to a guy who did Intra-muscular-stimulation (it's like acupuncture but DEEP) and that shit is voodoo... i've been pain free since. If it feels like it's tight, or cramp-ish it might be an idea to look into. it's a very old form of medicine but (at least for me and a number of football teams in the area) it's magic stuff. Also Generally a one time thing too.


An avenue to explore. hope it helps!

i have the exact same pain and numbness, made worse when working on the Cintiq. actually it led me to stop using the Cintiq altogether and switch back to Intuos! though i spent an entire year stubbornly refusing to admit that was what I needed to do. I haven't seen a doc for it, but I do know that having my arm farther down while working helped me a ton, even though I still get it from time to time. My only solution is to get off the computer when it starts, and go do something else (preferably some degree of exercise). not much help but it's all i got!

tigerpalm pain cream