What's wrong with my arm?

[CAPP0]

5 weeks ago, the day after some light gardening (the most I did was pull a few shrubs out of plant pots) I had a strong burning pain in my right arm, on the upper front, right between the bicep and tricep. Now I'll happily admit that not only am I well past the first flush of youth, but I'm also not particularly powerfully built.

At the time I thought I had trapped a nerve. The pain is best described as a burning pain. I can lift my arm all the way up straight out in front of me, but anything sideways and as soon as I get anywhere near horizontal, it's painful. Bad enough that I can't reach out to pick up the phone on my desk which is at about 2 o'clock from me angle-wise, and if I have to lift anything, I find myself (now almost automatically) supporting my right elbow with my left hand. If I keep my upper arm by my side and lift my forearm, there's no pain, only when the upper arm is extended.

I saw a physio about 2 weeks after I did it, he massaged the back of my shoulder (VERY hard) and used acupuncture and for about an hour the pain went but then came back with a vengeance.

I had to go to the GP for something else this week and mentioned it to him. He examined me and said that I have pulled the coracobrachial (sp?) muscle and I'll just have to wait for it to heal. but I googled that last night and apparently coracobrachial problems give pain in the BACK of the arm not the front.

Last Oct I had a tumble off an enduro bike and landed on my shoulder, which gave pain for a while and I ended up having an MRI on it but that all came back clear for shoulder damage, so whilst I know that shoulders can cause pain further down the limb, nothing else has happened since then so I'm thinking to rule that out?

Any thoughts? I think I will end up having to go back to the GP at some point but I'm not convinced he knows what it is after the recent appt.

Thanks.

Edited by CAPP0 on Wednesday 2nd September 13:45

[E65Ross]

Have a look into supraspinatus tendinopathy or shoulder impingement syndrome. Potentially that.

[Moulder]

Can you reach behind you and touch high up your back? If not then it may be the rotator cuff, but I would have thought it would take more than some light weeding to do it a mischief.

[CAPP0]

I do suspect tendons here despite what the GP said. Rotator cuff should be fine following the previous MRI, and I haven't done anything to damage it since.

Last night I remembered that I had a pack of NSAIDs (Naproxen I think? haven't got them with me) and have started taking them and it has made a significant difference today - I can actually outstretch my arm and pick the phone up. I'll take those for a while and see how it goes before I resort to further professional input.