Painful left shoulder... Am I dying?

[BEAUTlFUL]

For ages now (a year or more), my left shoulder, hand and arm have felt odd. The shoulder feels a bit heavy, like someone is pressing down on it, and my arm sometimes feels a bit heavy, and my fingers go numbish/tingley.

Went to GP who couldn't understand what I meant, as I can feel everything in my fingers and have no loss of strength in the arm at all.

Have been prodding shoulder a lot and now it feel sore when I raise it up. Sore on the outside, at the very top of the arm.

Is it a frozen shoulder? I don't want it to be, as I googled that and it can be a sign of several terrifying diseases.

I spend a lot of time on the computer with my left arm bent, resting on table. I don't know if this is relevent. The arm also feels worse when I'm driving.

Am I dying? Should I avoid getting long books out of the library?

Sorry if that sounds flippant... I am quite worried now as it's been going on for ages.

If you were dying I suspect that over the past year your symptoms might have got a bit worse and you would have noticed some new ones like excrutiating pain, central chest pain, lack of breathing etc etc.

Try a physiotherapist. You don't need a referral, just phone up and book a slot.

It does sound like a frozen shoulder, which I had years ago. I had physio for it but it didn't work, finally the same physio got out the acupuncture needles and tried that - it worked brilliantly. (and was on the NHS!)

There was nothing terrifying about mine - just had the symptoms you've listed and it got sorted! No sign of it ever since.

I'm not saying it is that - could be something else - but if it is it could be easily fixed. See a different GP?

try changing your posture when at the computer and see if it improves. sounds like nerve compression, hence the tingling/numbness in fingers.

Thank you, all of you. Missingtheaction, I laughed out loud at "lack of breathing"!

LadyoftheBathtub, I'm glad you got yours sorted. How long did you have it for? What were your symptoms? Did your GP recognise it straight away?

The reason I'm shitting myself is that it can be a symptom of lung you-know-what, and I've smoked relentlessly for 20 years, so I feel it's just bound to be that, which is incurable, and I don't want to know. I am going to give up! But it explains my terror. Will make an appointment with a different GP.

Thanks Blinks, I will see if i can get a different chair for the computer table. i'm in a bad position here, definitely.

disclosure- smoking is still bad though. have you tried to stop?

Ehrm, it was ages ago and I can't remember all the details but I did have it for a few months, then a few more months trying physio, then acupuncture for a few weeks and it was gone. It started to affect my driving and at its worst I couldn't pick up heavy things with that arm, so it can get worse. Go on go to the GP again - to sort it and to ask for help with quitting. I gave up smoking 11 years ago now, it can be done.

I had a frozen should for ages once. But it meant I couldn't raise my arm above a certain height and could reach behind my back. Took months of physio etc although in the end you just have to wait for it to go away largely. If that's what it is.

I mean shouldER

Acupuncture doesnt seem to work on me. Although I resumed Alexander Technique afterwards which helped a lot.