Don’t worry too much yet.
Before lossing too much sleep over it, try to find a good doctor.
I had the similar symtom years ago. But I was lucky since I was studying in a university that has a medical school. So it’s a no-brainer to pop in to see the sport specialist who’s also the team doctor of our baseball team. He re-assured me that he’d seen a lot worse in his players, and mine was easily curable with a “religeous” intake of Motrin plus serious exercise afterward to build up the muscle to prevent it from flareing up again.
Long stroy short, He was right. In a matter of weeks, the pain was gone. I repeat the exercise whenever there’s any hint of shoulder trouble. Never a problem since.
I’ve seen the same doctor for other join issues since. The general theme has always been: 1st, rest & med to get rid of the pain (aka swelling/inflamation); 2nd, serious physical therapy to build back up the muscle strength (because the muscle weakens during the rest and can be easily re-injured again); 3rd, go into “maintain’s mode” of physical therapy in conjuction with whatever activity that brought it on before. The whole routine takes a while, but the absent from activity only last a few weeks. And you come out stronger & robust in that join.
Shoulder injuries…
can be a myriad of things as you may well have noticed. Been in Orthopedics for 12 years (physician assistant). You definitely should see someone to start some initial treatment whether it's an orthopedist or otherwise. The pain could be as listed above: torn rotator cuff, labral tear inside the joint, subscapularis tendon rupture, biceps tendonitis, impingement syndrome (where your humeral head (ball) is impinging the bursa sack up against your acromion bone) and so on. Frozen shoulder usually starts as impingement syndrome and worsens to decreasing your range of motion in the shoulder ie frozen shoulder. Some of these problems are diagnosable through physical exam. Others may require and MRI. Either way, get to see someone. If the cuff is torn, it may get better with PT (physical therapy) depending on the size of the tear and if it is just a partial undersurface tear vs full blown. As noted in another post above, surgery could be through the arthroscope (quicker recovery)or may have to be done fully open. Many times people will wait months to see there doc because they want to tough it out or see it get's better. If the cuff, is fully torn, waiting only makes it worse. The unrepaired cuff tends to retract back in towards the socket and scar down. This is a pain to fix and some can't be fixed. Sooooooooooooooooo.................hope this helps.
ps. cortisone injections won't heal a true rotator cuff tear. Made for relieving inflammation/pain control
Cooldoctor1
Tebpac and jbv – I agree with their posts.