Poco -

The shoulder where I tore the rotator-cuff still gives me problems too - for one thing I get moments of extreme weakness in that one shoulder - like I will just be trying to pick up a glass of water or something light, but that requires shoulder movement to raise it to your lips, and when my shoulder rotates it sometimes screams in pain and gets 'shaky' and weak feeling, like I don't have the strength to pick up the 1 pound object....

Most of the time it is OK though - this injury was coupla years ago. For at least 5-6 months after it, I had problems though. Not pain, really - but discomfort, not being able to sleep on that side of my body (pressure on shoulder), having that one arm feel very weak like it had NO muscle on sporadic occasion - it was weird. The weakness/pain in my shoulder is only VERY sporadic now, but does happen once a month or so.... Still has never felt 'right' - That isn't even what I am doing the consultations for though - I am doing the consults for lumbar spinal problems - and that is a whole different (and long) story - but I was born with a bad spine that is getting worse. That's what I take the pain meds for (although I woulda DEFINITELY needed stronger than Ultracet when I injured the shoulder - and was given something stronger -

I would have been in pain trying to do anything that required use of my arm (which is , well, anything) for weeks without opioids.... With the opioids I was actually using my arm, which was weird- because they are supposed to just kill pain (which they did) - But when I was not taking them, I didn't feel as I had the 'strength' in my arm to lift things, etc - on opiods, not only did it not hurt, but I had strength as well...

Now I know opioids don't provide muscle strength. So I guess it was psycho-somatic in a weird way. Like my body knew how painful it would be to lift something, once my shoulder hit 'that point' so I felt too weak to try it - kind of a mind game??) - Who knows but I do know the opioids are the only reason I was able to go back to work after only 4 days and basically carry on my normal routine while in the healing process. And probably good for my arm because the lack of pain allowed me to 'excercise it' while it healed, which my mind would not have allowed myself to do otherwise.