Shoulder was very sore after a couple days of unusually intense matches. I shut myself down for three weeks. It was not enough so I went in for an x-ray and they found a calcium deposit on my rotator cuff. They used a needle to suck it out, ultrasound guided. Then at the same time, cortizone shot.
I’m wondering if anyone else here would like to share information.
I’m curious if it’s something that stems from plain on “playing x amount of time”, or playing too much in one stretch, or something else, vs. the possibility of using certain rackets and or strings.
I have never had any issues with my elbow or shoulder in my life. Very fit.
I have other questions, but let’s start there and see if we can get some dialogue going.
Happy New Year
I had exactly this problem for which I had to undergo surgery 15-20 years ago.
This condition doesn't just happen overnight.
The explanation I got back then from the surgeon...
Overuse / overload of the shoulder muscles (in tennis, it typically concerns the supraspinatus) causes inflammation of the tendon. The inflammation causes it to enlarge a bit. In the rotator cuff, this tendon already has just a small space where it moves through. As a reaction to this inflammation, your body will attempt to heal it by releasing extra proteins. These proteins will cause calcium to "clump up" and these might / will settle on the bone, resulting in calcification. This will narrow the space of the tendon even further, causing it to rub against it and get irritated even more, causing more inflammation. Body responds with more proteins and thus more calcium clumping and more calcification on the bone resulting in even less space for the tendon, causing more inflammation etc etc etc... A nasty vicious circle....
I wasn't playing tennis any more by that time and thus it was brewing "beneath the surface" for quite some time, which resulted in surgery being the only real option moving forward.
It did however damage my tendon quite a lot and it's become a "weak spot" making my tendonitis a bit chronic. It flares up every once in a while to more problematic levels and since I got back into tennis, the pain never actually goes away 100%.
On a "cold" shoulder, I always have that little bit of soreness / stiffness / irritation. Regular exercise, a good disciplined warm-up before playing and a cool-down after playing are absolute musts for me. I feel nothing during play, when the shoulder is warm.
When playing epic 3-setters, my kick serve starts to become problematic due to fatigue in the shoulder also. I'll start having problems throwing my arm up to give it that kick, losing a lot of power.
It is what it is.
I can only do regular work outs hoping to strengthen it as much as possible so as to keep it under control, but there's pretty much irreparable damage there so chances are very slim that I'll ever get it to 100%.
I can only advice to be careful and always seek medical help asap when soreness persists for more then a few days.
Had I not stopped playing, the problem would have surfaced sooner and likely I would have been better of today as a result.
I already had problems with supraspinatus tendonitis by the end of my first tennis career. Pain went away when I stopped playing, but the inflammation was still there and then the calcification started "in the background". Then one day I woke up in my mid-20s and felt the same kind of pain I had at 17, only this time without serving for hours before that.
. I do at home PT 2x a day and go to the office 1x every other week. Its improved a lot but I still have residual pain in the same anterior biceps tendon spot that is driving me nuts. Seems like a fair amount of reports that it can get irritated by surgery and stay enlarged and uncomfortable. Shoulders just suck. Hang in there, keep doing the work and hopefully you'll get back on court!!
