Have you had a frozen shoulder before? Terilee's had it two or three times, and it sounds like this could be that. I'll try to remember to ask her to look at your description; she (obviously) remembers the symptoms better than I do.
She'll also remember the treatment. In my vague recollection, it was anti-inflammatories, heat, and stretches to loosen it up, but I'll check and make sure.
Tell me anything you can. Between sleep cycle junk and the fibro, I'm fishing for hints to try to add to my chances of getting things set as a'right as may be.
If you have limited mobility in addition to large amounts of pain, it could be frozen shoulder, which is basically the muscles are so much in spasm that you can't move them. The sling helping also fits. Nothing in your description contradicts this diagnosis, but there are probably other things it could be, too.
First: Make the shower as hot as you can stand it, and run it on the shoulder and shoulder blade, for ten minutes or more. You may not notice any improvement until afterwards, so do it longer than you think you need to. :-)
Before you cool down from the shower, there are two exercises.
1. Rest your good hand on the back of a chair. Let the bad arm hang, and move it in *slow*, small circles, first clockwise, then counterclockwise. Then switch off and do the good arm, for balance.
2. Interlace fingers in front of you, but relax arms and don't try to straighten elbows. Slowly raise up arms in front of you, as far as you can comfortably go. The goal is to raise them above your head, but obviously you won't get there for a while.
When the shoulder is at its worst, repeat this process up to three times a day.
If you can, see a rheumatologist or acupuncturist, and get a trigger-point injection or acupuncture. Terilee's didn't go away entirely until she got trigger-point injections, but the heat and exercises give quite a bit of relief.
Frozen shoulder?
She'll also remember the treatment. In my vague recollection, it was anti-inflammatories, heat, and stretches to loosen it up, but I'll check and make sure.
frozen shoulder
Re: frozen shoulder
First: Make the shower as hot as you can stand it, and run it on the shoulder and shoulder blade, for ten minutes or more. You may not notice any improvement until afterwards, so do it longer than you think you need to. :-)
Before you cool down from the shower, there are two exercises.
1. Rest your good hand on the back of a chair. Let the bad arm hang, and move it in *slow*, small circles, first clockwise, then counterclockwise. Then switch off and do the good arm, for balance.
2. Interlace fingers in front of you, but relax arms and don't try to straighten elbows. Slowly raise up arms in front of you, as far as you can comfortably go. The goal is to raise them above your head, but obviously you won't get there for a while.
When the shoulder is at its worst, repeat this process up to three times a day.
If you can, see a rheumatologist or acupuncturist, and get a trigger-point injection or acupuncture. Terilee's didn't go away entirely until she got trigger-point injections, but the heat and exercises give quite a bit of relief.