Tag Archive for: bursitis

Will a Cortisone Shot Help Your Nagging Shoulder Pain?

Shoulder Injuries after Vaccination? What to look for

Shoulder injuries related to vaccine administration (otherwise known as “SIRVA”) is a rare, but possible occurrence when you get any vaccine.

SIRVA happens when a vaccine is injected into the capsule of your shoulder joint instead of your deltoid muscle. It can also occur if the needle being used is not the correct length for you, or if it’s administered too high or too deeply into your muscle. SIRVA is essentially a shoulder injury that occurs due to an improperly administered vaccine – not from the vaccine itself.

Now, it should be noted that this condition is very rare. However, due to the sheer volume of vaccines being administered right now – we have seen a slight uptick in unresolved shoulder problems here in our office. Anywhere from weeks to months after vaccination. For most, the shoulder pain is very mild and it goes away on its own. But for a select few, their shoulder pain has persisted and manifested into a more severe problem. This could be a sign you have SIRVA.

Since the signs and symptoms don’t show up right away, I thought it would be helpful to go over with you what is considered “normal” versus not normal shoulder pain after you get a vaccine.

You’ve likely heard of the “Moderna arm” by now. This is a mild skin irritation specifically related to the Moderna vaccine for COVID-19 that typically involves a mild rash and skin sensitivity after your second shot. It usually lasts about 3-5 days and can be easily treated with topical anti-inflammatories. Moderna arm is not considered to be anything serious, and although it’s not normal to experience this after most traditional vaccines, it is considered a common reaction to the Moderna vaccine. If you’ve recently had your second Moderna shot and are experiencing what you think could be Moderna arm, speak with your doctor or dermatologist if symptoms continue to persist past 5 days, just to make sure there isn’t something else going on.

Localized shoulder pain at the site of your vaccine injection is also normal.

We see this with any type of injection or vaccine into your arm, not just with Covid vaccines. The pain you feel is from the mild trauma caused by the needle being inserted into the soft tissue (muscle) of your arm. It often feels like a bruise, and you may experience a little bit of swelling. It will typically go away after 2-3 days. Even though your arm can be quite sore, the important distinction here is that you’ll still have full, normal function of your arm. In other words, despite the soreness, you can still move your arm freely up and down if you had to without restriction. Your arm soreness will go away with time, but gently massaging the area of pain, and even some easy movement or exercise can help the soreness go away a little faster. 

The symptoms of SIRVA are different, and typically more severe than what I’ve just described above.

If not addressed, some of these symptoms could lead to long lasting shoulder problems. As I alluded to above, one of the main distinctions between “normal” shoulder pain after vaccination and SIRVA is how well your arm functions.

If the needle was accidentally inserted into your joint capsule, for example, you will notice limited mobility and possibly limited strength. When left unaddressed, symptoms like this can manifest into more serious shoulder problems down the line, such as adhesive capsulitis or frozen shoulder.

If the needle was inserted too high or too deeply, you can end up with shoulder bursitis, which means the needle was inserted beyond your muscular layer and directly into the bursa (a cushiony fluid-filled sack), causing it to become inflamed. Your mobility may or may not be impacted when this happens, but what you’ll notice is that your shoulder pain will take a lot longer than 2-3 days to subside. Bursitis is actually a really simple injury to treat, but where I see most things go wrong is that you can end up with compensatory problems in places like your neck, shoulder blade or elbow the longer it is allowed to persist.

The last thing you might see from an improperly injected needle is rotator cuff tendonitis. What you’ll notice with this is that you’ll likely have full mobility in your shoulder, but it will be very painful and weak to exert force in your arm.  Much like bursitis, this is not a complicated injury to rehabilitate, but if not rehabilitated properly, it leads to other problems that do become more difficult to treat down the line.

So to summarize, your shoulder WILL hurt after getting a vaccine.

And with the Moderna vaccine in particular, you may notice some skin sensitivity, mild swelling, and even a rash.

But these symptoms should go away after a few days.

If you have shoulder pain that persists, and especially if you’re noticing limited mobility, it’s something worth getting checked out.  The last thing you want is for these symptoms to go on longer than needed, or turn into compensatory, long lasting problems. The good news is that even with SIRVA, these problems and symptoms can be successfully treated naturally, and without medications or procedures. We’ve been successfully helping people right here in our office. If you’re worried about a potential shoulder problem after the vaccine and not sure where to turn – reach out. You can schedule a FREE Discovery Session with one of our specialists right here!

 

Got a Pain in Your Butt? Here’s what to do first.

Nobody likes a “pain in the butt.” But what do you do when you’re dealing with literal pain in your butt versus the figurative kind?

It starts with figuring out where it’s coming from. Understanding the origin of your pain is necessary if you really want to solve it! One of our Pilates regulars (“Stacy”) has a story that illustrates this concept perfectly.

Stacy had been doing all the right things. She keeps active, does Pilates with us, and walks regularly. But still, she ended up with that dreaded pain in her butt that so many of us deal with on a regular basis. She tried to work through it herself by foam rolling and stretching – but none of that worked to completely eliminate her pain. Plus, her symptoms were starting to limit her Pilates and walking. This made her nervous because staying active and mobile is one of the most important things to Stacy, and the idea of being stuck at home and in pain this winter season made her want to take action now. She did the right thing by going to see our PT team.

Their first course of action was to accurately determine the root cause of Stacy’s butt pain. It could be a few different things.

Most often, symptoms like Stacy’s will get “labeled” generically as any one of the following:

1. Bursitis

They’ll call it this if you’re feeling the pain more in the side of your hip versus center of your butt.

2. Piriformis syndrome

This refers to a pain in the center of your butt. You might feel some tightness as well.

3. Back problem/Sciatica

They’ll call it this if your pain is more diffuse and achy, and perhaps even running into your thigh. This last diagnosis will be more common if you’ve got back pain along with the hip or butt pain.

As I mentioned, any one of these things could be the source of Stacy’s symptoms, and getting it right is critical. The correct diagnosis is the determining factor of whether Stacy’s problem gets resolved for good, or becomes something she deals with for the rest of her life. The problem with diagnosing your butt pain (or any problem for that matter) based on the location of your symptoms alone is that it’s not a reliable diagnosis.

The location of your pain alone does not tell you where your problem is really coming from.

For example, I’ve seen people with pain in their hip and butt that is actually coming from their back – even when they’ve never had a back problem. If your butt pain is coming from your back, and you think it’s “piriformis syndrome,” you’re going to be really disappointed in a few weeks when your pain is still there (or perhaps even worse) because you’ve been going about treating it the wrong way. In order to accurately determine what was really going on with Stacy’s butt pain, we needed to do some specialized movement screens and tests.

Research has shown that your pain’s response to movement, and how it behaves, is a much more reliable way to figure out the source of your problem versus relying on the symptom location alone.

In Stacy’s case, some quick movement tests revealed that her butt pain was indeed coming from her back – even though she did not have any back pain. How did we know? Pretty simple actually. When we asked Stacy to move and bend her back in specific directions, it triggered her butt pain! Her piriformis muscle was also tight – and may still need to be stretched – but it’s very possible that the tightness she is experiencing is also being caused by whatever is going on in her back. It’s possible for nerves to refer both pain and a feeling of “tightness.” We’ll know for sure in a few weeks, because we prescribed Stacy a corrective exercise designed to target the problem in her back and take pressure off the nerve that was triggering her butt pain. In fact, if she had not come to see us and kept stretching what she thought was a tight piriformis, she likely would have aggravated her nerve and made her condition worse. Nerves don’t like to be stretched. This is a great example of why it’s critical to know the true source of your problem before you start treating it.

Hopefully Stacy’s story helped you understand that the first step in getting rid of a pain in your butt, is to accurately determine where it’s coming from! If you’re experiencing unexplained pain in your butt that isn’t going away with stretching or general exercise, perhaps you’re going after the wrong problem. Try paying closer attention to how your symptoms behave. Do you notice they get worse after you’ve been sitting for a while, raking leaves, or driving? Do they move around on you – and go from your butt, to your hip, to the back of your thigh?

Signs like this could mean you’re dealing with a back problem, not a butt problem. Click here for access to our FREE back pain guide! This guide contains our best tips and advice on how to start easing back pain and stiffness right away — and get on the road to pain-free movement just like Stacy did.