Persistent Shoulder/Back/Chest Ouch

[Travtex]

Bleargh. After a night of work, I still feel like I'm going to spontaneously die even loaded up on Flexiril and Vicodin.

Somewhere between a suspect golf swing twinge and getting rear-ended on the same day, I seem to have injured my shoulder. Started out as a mild twinge of pain roughly underneath my right shoulder blade (lefty).

Few days later, it morphed into this horrifying beast of agony. Best way to describe it would be to speculate that a railroad spike rammed through my back and out my right nip would feel roughly the same. As far as pressure went, it hurt more to press on my chest though the injury started in my back/shoulder.

Finally ended up in urgent care clinic. Doctor of dubious concern and/or attentiveness took an X-ray and pronounced 'chest wall strain' (But what about the whole shoulder/back thing?). Don't blame him for not investigating further, but a soft tissue injury wouldn't show much/anything on a CXR and I'm thinking a muscle tweak would at least feel SOMEWHAT better by now, rather than occasionally worse.

Threw some muscle relaxers and painkillers at it.

This was a week ago. There's little to no progress. Pain seems to migrate around a bit, though if I cough or sneeze it's just a muddle of 'Oh Gawd, my Chest is Going to Explode'. Still radiates from under/beneath the shoulder blade around my side (and straight through my body) to the nipular region.

It being Sunday, my only real option is to go BACK to the clinic, but that seems to be a waste of my and their time. They tend to take a 'Throw some meds at it and try not to die until you can see a regular doctor' approach.

Anyone have this kind of ouchie?

Have med people coworkers randomly speculating everything from a bulging/ruptured disc to a infraspinatus RC tear. I've strained intercostal muscles and broken ribs, before, but this one is swiftly taking the lead in the 'Holy Crap That Hurt' race.

Kinda progressed from bummed that I had to take some time off golf to not really caring about anything beyond finding a semi-comfortable position to curl up in and pass out 'til it's healed.

[Supermanwoot]

The tearing pain between your shoulder blades is indicative of an aortic dissection which is not as serious as it sounds but can obviously become an emergency if provoked.

Thats the only thing that really sticks out to me, you should probably go into the ER if possible and let them know what you're experiencing and that muscle relaxers and painkillers did little to help. Flexeril would work wonders if it is a skeletal muscle sprain/pull and vicodin should cover up the pain regardless as it works mainly centrally.

Also the feeling of "my chest is going to explode" again tells me aortic dissection.

This is very serious if I'm correct, get it checked out at a hospital because we really have a lot more resources than a doctor's office and can run CT scans and ultrasonography instead of a CXR that wouldnt show muscle and vascular injuries very well at all.

[Supermanwoot]

oh and I'm not sure what the other physician saw in the CXR that made him say what he did, but with aortic dissection you do see anomalies in the chest X-ray, but this should only peak suspicion and is not good enough to make a diagnosis. A CT scan is needed for that.

[Dub]

Geez.....that absolutely sucks.

Hopefully this is a specific injury that you can treat and deal with and then get past it without any cumulative trama from golf flaring it up.

I'll bet you stretch like a mofo before ever swinging a club again. Give this on some serious time....don't rush a return to golf until you are sure.

Good luck.