Catch 22

[Barb1]

Found out today that my shoulder pain is due to impingement syndrome with calcification. Surgeon wishes to initially treat with ultra sound barbetage injections BUT I have to come off warfarin for about a week and as I have a blood clot I cannot and even when clot dissipates he still won't do it as I am in AF and if I come off warfarin I may get another clot! So many, many more months of incessant pain perhaps leading to frozen shoulder before, hopefully next ablation (Feb?) puts me back in SR. Finding it hard to keep a positive outlook.

[dedeottie]

Hi. Poor you. Shoulder pain is horrible as it affects everything. I have a. Bad neck and shoulder probably due to riding many strong horses over the years. It has been getting worse but I'm putting off having investigations until the pain gets really bad. This is mostly because I can't see how it can be treated. Don't they use anti inflammatory drugs and don't they affect warfarin? I can't bear to take yet another pill! Could you try and get your ablation brought forward? Good luck with all this I will be thinking about you.x

[Barb1 in reply to dedeottie]

Thank you so much for your support. EP said wait 4-6 mths after aborted ablation (Sep 8th) so that clot has a chance to be re absorbed before he would attempt again. Then I have to be in SR for a while before stopping the warfarin for any procedures. Anti inflammatories won't work because the effects will be dissipated by the time the drug gets to my shoulder (says the surgeon) and pain killers only take the edge off at best. I use co-codamol when it is really bad but have to be careful as it affects the INR. As an aside, I also have neck pain but I saw the specialist shoulder man today!

[jan-ran]

You may find the ointment capsaicin useful in the short term, see my post to Dedeottie on this thread. Shoulder pain is wretched, and you are in a cleft stick. Do keep trying to be positive. What strength co codamol do you take? I take 30/500, one at a time unless I get a crippling migraine. I often take an extra paracetamol 500 with it for affective pain relief. These are not taken on a regular basis, just as and when. I don't think it interferes with warfarin, which I was on for two years.

JanR

[Barb1]

Thank you Jan, for your friendly comments. Yes, I have heard of capsaicin. I will ask my pharmacist. My cocodamol is the same strength as yours but I hadn't thought to top it up with paracetamol. I do know that it affects my INR though.