HI! Have a question... shoulder pain/upper arm pain?

Hi. 

I havent been around a while.   So busy and i had to put my cat down a month ago because he had lymphoma and was really sick so that was really hard.  :( 

So now i am having shoulder/upper left arm pain.  Is this band related? It comes and goes.. wonder if it s pressure pain or something like that  I know it can be due to gas but I am over 2 years out now. 

Thanks for answering!

Edited to add:  yes still having band issues, and sick of eating soft food to get it down, and I do have good days of eating solid foods without throwing it back up.

Please have a fluoroscopy Xray, if possible. If you leave it and your band is irritating your diaphragm, it tends to become a permanent thing. I had my surgery in 2002, had the shoulder pain for the years I had my band... still get it occasionally in spite of having had my band removed 6 years ago.

It's odd... I see a LOT of people about 2 years out having this same issue. Hopefully it will be something doctors can warn people about in the future.

Do you notice if the pain worsens if you have certain foods? Or do you get constipated or gassy? Those things can "push" the band up into the diaphragm and the Vagus nerves and cause the referred left shoulder pain, too.

Feel better. Definitely get checked, if you can. Your band might be in an incorrect position.

What exactly does this pain feel like?  I am having left shoulder pain which has been attributed to arthritis, and it definitely hurts with specific movements, not with food intake. 

How is the left shoulder pain related to the band different-just in case I should be checking it out. 

If your shoulder hurts with specific movements, it's most likely not band related. I'm not 100%, though, since mine hurt all the time... with movement and without. 

A couple of doctors first thought my shoulder pain was arthritis because so little was known about the effects of the lapband at the time, but it turned out not to be arthritis. Did you have the pain before banding?

The referred left shoulder pain was a burning, stabbing type of pain in my situation. It radiated up into my neck and jawline at times, as well.

Irritation of the diaphragm (by the band or by the gas used during lap surgery) can be "referred" to the left shoulder. When I had that kind of pain (as a new post-op) it was in the area of my shoulder blade, not my shoulder joint or arm.

Cheryl,

I'm so sorry to hear about your kitty. If he was really sick, sending him off to heaven was the right thing to do, but I know you must miss him terribly.

Is this pain near your shoulder blade (which is where I've had band-related pain), or in your shoulder joint? Does it start in your shoulder and radiate down to your upper arm? Or what?
I feel like an expert on shoulder pain because I've had so much of it over the years, before and after my band surgery, and none of it related to my band. Here's the list:

1. bursitis in the shoulder joint (inflammation of the bursa in the joint) - deep, sharp pain in the joint - comes and goes; lasts a month or so, then goes away; sometimes helped by NSAIDs; my mom used to get cortisone shots for her shoulder bursitis but although they were effective, they were very painful.

2. frozen shoulder (adhesions in the tendons and muscles) - so painful that I couldn't raise my arm up more than 6-8"; I tried 2 rounds of physical therapy and finally had non-invasive surgery (the orthopedic doc manipulated my shoulder and arm to break the adhesions while I was anesthetized) and after another course of PT, the pain eased up and I could move my shoulder and arm again.

3. pain in the shoulder radiating into my neck and down to my upper arm - a muscular thing according to my chiropractor and internist; it's helped by massage therapy and ice packs, and I'm working on strength exercises and stretching for that whole area.

How long has it been going on? Does it seem related to or worsened by or improved by certain activities or motions? You said it comes and goes. When it comes, how long does it stay, and when it goes, how long does it stay away? If it's been going on for more than a week, I'd check in with a doctor - me, I'd see my chiropractor first, because it can be hard to get an appt. with an orthopedic doc (in my part of the world, anyway).

Hope you feel better soon.

Jean