★★★★☆
Bursitis? Muscle/joint pain, swelling massage helps
I have severe pain in my right arm. It began in the middle of the arm, feeling as if it was where the muscle or ligament attaches to the arm. It felt as if suddenly that was torn. The pain also appeared in the shoulder joint. It appeared suddenly, without any apparent reason. Pressure on the spot seemed to help. Also using therapies such as gentle touch.
However it began to spread. It felt as if different muscle areas would bunch up and become hard and painful. The pain would occur if moving the arm in one specific way or another, frequently associated with twisting the arm. For example, I could not reach behind my back to pull up my pants.
I discovered if I deeply massage the hardened area, it relieves the pain. It feels as if there might be fluid in the cells or the area which somehow gets massaged out, and then the muscle cells relax and pain goes away...at least for a while. Flexibility is then restored, at least for a while. It does not feel exactly like a cramp, though I suppose that is possible. However, it seems to me that the relaxed muscle or ligament or whatever areas then begin to atrophy, although I don't know if that is due to probable less use.
Range of motion is limited: I cannot raise that arm straight up in the air. I have been to the doctor, who sent me for xrays to see if the ligament is lifting from the bones. But I don't think it's just ligaments, because of the hardened areas that are larger sections of muscle tissue, and because deep massage to the painful portion removes the hardness and restores flexibility. If I slide the fingers of my left hand over the affected area of my upper right arm, I can feel the muscles lumped up and hard. Again, though: massage removes the hardness and restores flexibility. The pain is definitely associated with the hardened muscle or ligament or attachment.
However, the pain is sudden and excrutiating when moving in a suddenly "wrong" direction.
Also the problem is spreading, though still confined to the right arm. Plus I can feel the ligaments or whatever getting caught on the bone at the shoulder joint.
When this began to be an obvious problem, drinking 2 teaspoons of soda in juice of four lemons, allowed to foam, then added to 20 ounces of water, seemed to be helping. It actually tasted good. I drank it once a day. I stopped because the price of lemons skyrocketed and while it seemed to temporarily help and maybe be actually getting better, it seemed maybe I needed to take even more. Or that it wasn't really curing it, just slowing it down. Also I was about to have to go to the doctor, so I became discouraged and stopped the remedy.
The range of motion is greatly improved over what it was, mostly seeming as a result of deep massage. However, the problem is spreading to more of the arm. Also I've noticed that if I relax my arm at my side while sleeping on my back, there will be a painful accumulation of fluid in places like immediately next to the outside of the bone in the elbow joint. This pain can be removed by deeply and carefully massaging the affected area, which seems to remove the fluid along with the pain, and then movement is no longer painful, and so flexibility is restored to wherever the pain was.
It's difficult to research this because I have no idea what it really is, though bursitis sounded like a possibility. I am going to try the lemon/soda "cure" again, using even more lemons and soda, to see if that helps. If not, I am going to try some of the remedies for bursitis listed here.
If anyone has had a similar problem, or has ideas as to what might be causing this or what might help it, I'd be interested in hearing. Thanks
