Badly dislocated shoulder two years ago and still experiencing shocking amounts of pain.
Hi all.
Often been a lurker but never a poster. I’ve always been terrified when looking at anything shoulder related since I had my accident. Nasty fall on a flight of stairs and suffered an anterior dislocation of the shoulder and fractured my elbow and wrist. Pretty horrific (see pic attached, lol)
The problem is that I was in the emergency room for nearly 11 hours. I fell off of triage, and it took forever to get seen. A colleague of mine drove me to the hospital as they didn’t want to want for an ambulance, so I had no pain relief and my shoulder hanging out of the socket for that amount of time.
When I finally did get seen, they tried to relocate my shoulder 4 times. Each time I was ‘relocated’ and sent to X-Ray, and each time it hadn’t been relocated properly. I had 5 ortho’s trying to push it back in, and they said if they couldn’t do it on the final attempt, I would need surgery.
Anyway, following up to this, I had multiple appointments with my consultant who told me that I had ‘snapped the ligament’, but I was never sent to any MRI’s, and only had a CT scan on my elbow to make sure the fracture was healing properly.
I attended physio, but the guy was pretty rough and it ended up hurting me more than necessary, so I followed my own routine at home that he gave me.
Anyway, 2 years on, and I’m still experiencing crazy amounts of pain. I can’t even carry a water bottle from one end of my street to the other without having to experience a night of ‘toothache’ pain in the evening. I can be sitting on the sofa or lying flat on my back in bed and it feels like my shoulder is coming out. I believe I have experienced subluxation twice, and forcibly relocated it myself out of fear and panic.
I don’t know what to do. I have been back to my doctor (2 years on) and they want to send me for an MRI. I feel like it wasn’t handled properly by the hospital which is why I’m still suffering now.
What are the steps going forward if I did have an MRI? Has anyone been in this position before?
Honestly just the thought of my shoulder is enough to make me feel sick. I suffer with the nightmares, the constant anxiety, pain, fear of stairs, and I’ve stopped doing all of my hobbies that I used to enjoy — tennis, badminton, swimming, cycling etc out of fear of dislocating my shoulder again.
Any and all input and thoughts are much appreciated!! Thanks folks for reading this! 🫶🏻
(For reference, this happened in UK but have since emigrated to somewhere that healthcare is far more accessible and affordable!)