Shoulder pain and numbness

[Sailorjoe6308]

Hey you'll first and foremost happy new year and hope everyone has a great year of ball this year. Thank you all in advance for your advice. I saw a thread about some shoulder pain and numbness but the answers nor the original post matched my symptoms. I play outfield almost exclusively. I play 2 games each game night that I play. Some seasons that's 2 nights a week, men's and coed, some it's just 1 night a week, men's. The last couple seasons I have started to notice more and more pain. This past season it became pain starting the game but then by the time game 2 starts I can't feel my arm from my shoulder to my wrist. I can lift my arm on my own and feel the ball in my hand but nothing else. My shoulder and arm go back into a state of pain and burning almost immediately after game 2 ends. I am worried I have done some serious nerve or rotator damage. Sadly, with the way things are in the world now it is months and months before I can get in to even see a doctor for the necessary tests, scans or what have you. I am mainly looking to see if anyone on here has had a similar "injury" and what they did for therapy or strengthening. I am really starting to get worried that I may need surgery. I don't have a super physically demanding career anymore as I am now a budding IT guy and former automotive technician. Please guys and gals any help would be sincerely appreciated. This is really the only thing that I get to do with my sister and father anymore because well life. It is also the only thing that really helps me deal with my PTSD from my time in the navy. Please help. Alii Prae Me. Thank you again and keep moving forward you'll.

 

[ShortYellowBus]

Sounds like you need some rest.

Take three weeks off. Gradually come back, and switch to a less arduous position.

When you come back:
Play first base. That’s the least physically demanding position. Don’t play catcher. Avoid overuse of your shoulders and elbows. See how that feels.

I sometimes get symptoms close to what you’re describing, but I’ll just end up pitching at the end of a long season like the one you’re describing. The underhand toss has zero impact on my arms and shoulders.

 

[Sailorjoe6308]

Sounds like you need some rest.

Take three weeks off. Gradually come back, and switch to a less arduous position.

When you come back:
Play first base. That’s the least physically demanding position. Don’t play catcher. Avoid overuse of your shoulders and elbows. See how that feels.

I sometimes get symptoms close to what you’re describing, but I’ll just end up pitching at the end of a long season like the one you’re describing. The underhand toss has zero impact on my arms and shoulders.

Thank you for the advice. I don't have the luxury of swapping positions on my teams. I am relatively short in stature at 5'5", am pretty quick and make a difficult target but also because my teams have seniors that play with us that need to be placed at first before anyone else can be. Our pitcher is a senior as well. Sadly the only thing I could really do to rest would be DH and that is gonna be tough even on my men's team because as of late we've been forced to play short-handed a lot thankfully we are on a break between seasons right now. Thank you again for the advice.

 

[rmp0012002]

You could have an impingement. I had one earlier in the year that I’ve worked out for the most part, had a skydiving incident. If you can I’d have it looked at as I’ve heard some people being in constant pain to where they couldn’t sleep. My situation is just during the throwing motion.

 

[dunno]

Google is your friend.
My guess is if you take a couple of Ibuprofen and the problem goes away lucky day.
If not, wait for a proper diagnosis before it falls off from playing softball.

 

[Sailorjoe6308]

Thank you everyone for your advice. I apologize for responding so late to y'all. I finally got in to see a doctor, well 3 doctors. All 3 said the same thing. Which was that I tore my rotator cuff and it didn't heal properly and pulled a nerve ending into it. Doctor #1 said surgery immediately no physical therapy to try and strengthen. Gave me odds of success at 35/65. Doctor #2 said 3 weeks PT then surgery and then 6 more weeks of PT. Gave me odds of 50/50. Doctor #3 said no surgery but lots of PT. 12 weeks of PT to strengthen my rotator cuff as it's already healed and surgery would mean they are tearing it, cutting it, where they think the nerve ending is in hopes of it being released. I'm on week 9 of PT and haven't had shoulder pain since the end of week 2. Changed my warm-up routine to include soft toss with a weighted ball and focusing on my shoulders and arms more during my stretching.

 

[dunno]

That soft toss routine sounds good. There's a guy that brings rubber bands to the ball park and uses them to warm up. Tried it and tightness and ache didn't occur, that usually followed long throws.