bow shooting Shoulder Injury*

Hey guys,
You might remember nearly 2 years ago my shoulder blew out after normal activity of shooting bow. Well, after too many doc appointments, MRI's, X-rays, Physical Therapist, Chiropractor, ect. they still can't find ANYTHING wrong
I can't hardly shoot 2 clips of 9mm without being swollen for 2 days afterwards, let alone shoot bow again. Used to lift more than my own weight with one arm, now a milk jug is about my weight limit.

Thinking about going to an infectious disease doc because right before it happened I went on a trip out west, then was sick as a dog on and off for months after. It is obviously not a muscle issue.
Anyone have anything like this?


Would appreciate prayers...it's gettin old not shootin

Lydia, how'd the injury take place initially ?

Spent the day building fence, and shooting bow like normal. After shooting, it felt like a sore muscle that gradually got worse until 2am my body went into shock and went to the er.
After that, it would be good for a while, then I picked up a bucket of traps and had to spend a week in a sling. Now it is on and off

Have you been tested for Lyme disease ? It affects people in may different ways and joint pain is one of them

I been tested for Lyme, and Hepatitis B and C.

(What about like Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever or Chikungunya?)

I am not a doctor. I have injured by left shoulder twice. Once when I was 19 years old. Something with the rotator cuff. Saw doctor, physical therapist, did not good. After several months of pain, I added a butterfly chest press machine to stretches and warmups. Started with very little weight and slowly went up. Worked through pain and got almost the full range of motion back, and full strength.

Injured same shoulder again by over extending it dropping off parallel bars on an obstacle course. My whole body weight snapped on it and it went numb. Eventually got better through rest and stretching, and lots of motrin.

Swimming with a light breast stroke can also help work muscles that have been injured.

Medically, steroid injections can help similar injuries get better pretty fast.

Hi Lydia, I remember seeing you a few years back at the advanced trappers workshop. Anyway, I used to shoot a lot, shot a stick bow and LOVED it, one of my passions. I haven't been able to shoot it for about 5 years. I too have RC issues but a lot of my problems stemmed from my neck. Maybe have them do a MRI on your cervical spine. Blown or damaged disc can cause a lot of shoulder and arm issues and some with referred pain and such. Good luck to ya.

My advice would be to go to a Doc who knows about tick-borne illnesses and is willing to give you an entire battery of tests, going beyond Lymes. My best to you!

Moosetrot

Yep..Really sorry to hear this..I've been pulling my bow back gradually..I shoot maybe 8-10 shots a day..What poundage was your bow set at when the injury happen?..

48# but I was just about to crank it up

Yep..Your right or left shoulder

Generally , when I've had a sports related injury , I've noticed it right away. As in immediately. Archery wise, the only time I've suffered an injury ( well , I had done it previously ) was when I had some strained ligaments in my draw hand choose to go haywire at about 3/4 draw and it was immediately noticed. I swore and that arrow went who knows where. .

So I believe others might be correct in looking at some other issues.

Lydia, a two part reply.

When I was a kid, I blew my shoulder out in it tore the membranes, as I was throwing dirt clods at a tank. No one told me I had to warm up. That thing I could hear crackle for years, and it would get hot to the touch.
When I was 7 my knee felt like cut glass in it, and it froze up. God healed it.

Now for the second part. Like most people from vaccines, GMO's and round up herbicide, I get deathly ill as my body wore down. Some of the symptoms I have are not just bowel, but my joints tear or inflame. I am sitting here recovering from something in my pelvis which appears to be from a brand of Hormel bacon as the store stopped a generic brand I was using.
I can within a few hours tell you if grain has been sprayed with round up. I once at couscous from Israel which was under cooked. An hour later I started aching all over. I got a fever. My head hurt. By 3 AM I was up as my intestines shut down, and I was puking. What got me going again was baking soda and apple cider vinegar.

I suggest you visit a site called Earthclinic and do some research. For me, I have to be very careful with corn sweeteners, preservatives and processed foods. What I use is apple cider vinegar at night which balances my PH. I daily use clay mixed in water to absorb toxins in my intestines and this literally saved my life as I was about dead a few years ago. It is an old Indian remedy using bentonite. Lastly, and you have to do the research on this to decide if you want to try it, but part of health issue was candida inflaming things. I researched and took real turpentine on 3 sugar cubes according to the protocols which you can find online, and this took care of a number of my joint pain issues. The clay with the turp is important to absorb the discarded toxins.

I intend here in the next few weeks to do a spring cleaning using turpentine again as I still have candida crop up, and is part of what is the pelvis spine pain that the bacon set off, along with my being stupid in drinking too much pop again.

Just do the research and decide if it would work for you. I am not a doctor and not prescribing anything, This was just my experience when doctors could not fix me. My shoulder took years to repair itself.
One more thing, as you are a little gal and white like the snow as I am, sometimes in the north country into Canada, people do not get enough Vitamin D. I have to take two of those tabs a day at breakfast as the sun does not shine here, and it honestly helps with my inflammation in bowels and joints. I do not use the synthetic though.

I hope some of that helps, but as I have gotten older, one additional piece of advice in you are not built for heavy duty things and you will wear out faster, so leave the heavy stuff to the burly types and maybe look at the shoulder as an adventure in maybe a crossbow for hunting would fill in, until you heal up.
That is the cheap seat advice. There are nutritionists who will put you onto things they manufacture to restore joints.

God bless and will be praying for you.

the world needs more women that hunt in it. I hope you get it figured out. I hope you can still use rifles and shotguns?

If you can not use a bow like you could before Have you thought about to try a crossbow with hand crack for pull the string back? and just lift it with the good arm.Just idea .Sorry to hear what is going on with you .Hope they find what is wrong with you.I seen what lyme dose to one of my coydogs in the past and also what it did to a person.

Appreciate the replies!!!

to answer a few of your questions,

It is my right shoulder, but I have been fortunate enough to be able to have someone load a crossbow for me and go out and get a huge buck last year and this year. Thankful for the abilities I do have


no shotguns, but rifles I can't shoot my .22-250 more than 4 times otherwise I regret it later haha 223 in AR is sometimes okay also

Have a hand crank put on your crossbow it will make it easy on you in the . That is what I done with the first one I got and then had got another one when the first was stolen and then return later that was damage,Both have hand cranks.
Try to keep your 22-250 with one shot . Take it slow and get it take care of.

I e got a torn labrum in my right shoulder and a Labral tear and partial torn rotator cuff in y left shoulder. I was shooting 70lb draw weight but recently had the modules changed to a 60lb and my shoulders are loving it. Pulling the 70lb back hurt as I did it and for a few days afterwards. I’ve never hurt from recoil when shooting guns inside my shoulder like I envision your describing. I’d agree with a previous poster that suggested a neck or spinal injury may be manifesting as shoulder pain. I have a friend that broke his back as he complained more about severe leg pain more than anything else(until the surgery but that’s a different story).

Has any Dr mentioned micro tears that are too small to show up or the resulting scar tissue that will be left. If further investigation reveals NO disease related problem, I would try to find the best sports medicine Dr, MD or Chiropractor you can find and try for another muscle damage evaluation. Or maybe a Dr/trainer with a professional football-baseball, etc team. The higher you go up the food chain the better advice you'll receive. I had serious upper back and neck trouble 30 years ago. No one I went to knew what was wrong, let alone what to do. Then I found a local chiropractor that turned out to be world class. He told me in 5 minutes what was causing the problem and the path forward to correct. Couple years later he was working with our Olympic team athletes. Years later the Olympic team Dr took a position with the PGA and asked Tom to move over with him. He still does work for the PGA as well as his own practice. Shoulder injuries from shooting a bow are common. If you get on the mend there are weight training movements one can do that will help. The best of luck.

Yep..So with the MRI's and X-rays..any soft tissue/ligaments/tendons/muscle..and bone structure have been ruled out?..If so that is truly amazing that you still/have that much pain and swelling and inflamation (SP)..I had kinda figured the right shoulder being that is your draw shoulder..After 24 months and no recovery to speak of..maybe it is what these other posters have said..That sucks in this day and time modern western medical
can't get it figured out..I truly do feel for you..I have had shoulder surgery and it hurt beyond hurt...

Just reread your original post. If you have swelling and pain after shooting there’s something wrong local to the area that’s causing it. You need a top end orthopedic surgeon to look at you and either the existing MRI or a new one.

Dumb thing is that doc's went from saying
"Just tendentious." to
"definitely micro tear"
"No, you have 3 pectoral tears"
"Grade 3 full separation"
"Nope it is the bicipital ridge/groove is rubbing on the tendon"
to "nah your perfect, everything is normal"

Yes, that is a good point.
I did go to the top ortho sport doc who preforms the surgeries of Iowa State's baseball/football players. He ordered MRI with contrast and says everything is normal so he can't do anything else

I guess I'm just a mystery in this world

I’m glad I live within easy driving distance to both Duke and UNC hospitals. I’ve been to both of them when local drs didn’t have answers and I’ve always walked away pleased. Lydia I hope and pray that you can find someone that can help you living in pain makes for a very poor quality life.

Agree with John C. Best hospitals have the best doctors. Some can argue but it’s a fact of life!

ps. Lydia you need to help me cut,split and stack wood.

The Joy's of dealing with experts.. Lol. Prayer has healed a lot of things for me. But not everything yet.

I think I've done my fare share in all the years I've lived

Well dang that bites, idk what is wrong but hope you find out and recover!!

Do you sleep on your side or your back? Don't sleep on that side anymore.

The muscle between my shoulder blade and backbone gets to be knot and when its bad my shoulder kills. I find if I lay on the floor or lean up against a wall with a hard rubber ball of some kind and roll around on it to work that muscle out it greatly helps. When you find the sweet spot it hurts so good that you want to cry. Just lay with it there like a pressure point. Do that everyday for 20/30 minutes for a week or two and see what you think.

My guess is you pulled a muscle and tweaked your back doing fence and shooting your bow that day. Once you do that the two are constantly fighting each other.

Also sometimes I lean up against something and really swing my arm around and around stretching out my shoulder. Both directions. You know like arm circles when you are stretching for sports except more serious and heart felt and really work that joint out. Best way to describe it is that my arm probably looks like an airplane propeller and I do it both directions like I said.

Anyway thats what I do. Everyone was convinced that I had a torn rotor cuff or whatever but to me if it was torn I couldn't do my arm circles and it would get better. Good luck. I'm curious if it helps.

Good luck and keep us updated.

Have you tried a cortizone shot or two in the shoulder? They can help a bunch. Sometimes its necessary to get one, then in a few weeks get another.

At your age I hope you can get the problem corrected as there is no reason to suffer the rest of your life.

There is a Dr. in Dallas, Texas by the name of Tandy Freeman that I would go to. You can check him out on the internet. People go to him from all over the USA as well as foreign countries.

He is a surgeon but he is not a "cut happy" one.

Best to you.

In my neck alone not the rest I have one herniated disk the rest have been worn down to less than half the vertebrae are worse and bone spurs, pain in the neck, the numbness down the arms, and general swelling from arthritis I’ve never had the pinpoint swelling like described, my shoulders are bad but thats minor. My main doctor is at McFarland, and I’ve seen dr. Warme for my shoulders.

OhioBoy is describing trigger points between the shoulder blade and spine. The body has hundreds of them. The Chinese had that part figured out 3000 years ago. That's why acupuncture works so well when administered by a competent person. The trigger points fire to contract other surrounding muscles to help protect the injured area. They alone can cause big problems because over time they will develop scar tissue. His practice with the ball against the wall on the trigger point muscle spot is correct. It causes the trigger point to become somewhat latent and that in turn helps relax the other muscles. Attempting to go back to normal until activated again by movement that trips the trigger point again. It's a nasty little circle that can take a long time to conquer.
You need to find a REALLY competent sports medicine person. I was fortunate to have found the one I did. Every Dr in the area that didn't know what to do with a patient sent them to him.
Hunting girl, I sent you a PM.

That's who I went to!!! He calls me "trapper girl" and we talk hunting. Did ya know he got an elk last year and almost got stranded because his horse got away from him? Funny the things you learn in a doctor's office.

I've had two of them. It only kind of helped.
Thing about those, is that you can only have 3 shots in one joint/area before it starts to harm the muscle. So, I'm probably out of that option

Have the docs checked out your neck/ spine? When I was 15 or 16 I broke my neck but to thick headed to go to the docs ( plus didnt want my grandpa to fine out I hurt myself ). When I was about 23 went in for an MRI and the doc asked when I broke it. I have one bulges disk,a fractured disk,and compressed disk. I have had left shoulder pain and numbness for quite awhile. I can still shoot my bow and rifles but not in long duration like I used too. I have to wear a somewhat heavy pack while at work and a couple years ago I was miserable. Numbness and pain every day and all day. Again I am too thick headed so I started lifting ( slowly) then working up in weight. Still have some pain but keeping up with physical training has help me. Hope you get if figured out and get relief. Good luck.

My son's gf just started as an rn at duke

No I didn’t know that, always liked him, otherwise I go to doctor Sean, he always gets a kick out the stuff I do, he can’t believe some of the things until I show up and need help because something went wrong.

Also I’ve had about 10 cortisone shots in different areas hasn’t seemed to bother me much, my muscle, ligament, tendon, vertebrae, and disk probelms started before.

Fiifly years ago I stuck a broadhead into the nuckle of my middle finger. To this day it swells, turns blue, and gets stiff. Using a hammer or skinning a deer set it off.

Had a doctor tell me it was a sterile infection. What the heck is that?

Your shoulder prooblem seems similar to me. Takes about three days for mine to settle down.

Wish I knew somethiing too tell you that works.