Generalized clonic seizure and shoulder instability

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hello Jordan and Austin, sorry to bother you

I’m a 29 yo male. A couple of days ago I was laying in bed after a long day of work and passed out. My mother noticed that something was wrong due to the noises she heard coming from my room (my limbs moving around violently from the seizure). I don’t remember any of it, all I remember is waking up laying on the floor with several medical professionals around me in my room telling me that I had had a seizure. (“Generalized clonic seizure”).

They took me to the hospital in an ambulance, they did a bunch of tests (to my brain, blood and many other things) and they said that everything looks normal, and that since it’s the first time this happens, they didn’t put me on medication and said that it was probably not something serious but they want to do more tests.

A problem I have now is that BOTH shoulders hurt (I’ve never had shoulder pain before). They both hurt in the same way, when I do the “lateral raise” motion, towards the top, but the right shoulder hurts more. Also, the right shoulder has this unstable feeling to it now, like it’s about to pop out any moment, and in fact I believe it kind of popped out a couple of times today, and then it got back in place a second later. It hurts a lot when that happens. I can do pushups but it hurts, and OHP with dumbells hurts a little too, but not too bad. Deadlifts and barbell rows don’t hurt at all, but benching really hurts.

I guess my question is, what would you do if you if this had happened to you? would you get an MRI of your shoulder as soon as possible? I’m in doubt of this because I’ve listened to your lectures about nocebo and things getting better on their own, but on the other hand I wonder if I’m not being irresponsible by not getting this “taken care of”, since I hate the possibility of being told that I need some surgery.

I would like to know if you’d wait a few days/weeks and see if the worse shoulder improves, or if you would seek more medical examination right now. When I was at the hospital I told them that my shoulder hurt, they touched it and moved it around a bit and they said that it seemed fine, but they didn’t do any imaging to it. Also, would you let it rest completely for a few days, or would you do something as rehab?

I really appreciate you reading the long message. Any help is greatly appreciated, since I really respect your perspective and I’m a bit scared for my health at the moment, and don’t really know what to do in this situation.

2

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about this issue. Unfortunately we are not able to recommend someone defer pursuing medical evaluation via this forum.

With that said, if the physicians you saw examined your shoulders and did not have much concern for significant joint instability or dislocation, that provides some reassurance that this may indeed improve with time and rehab (see our article “Pain in Training” for more discussion on this process). If you continue to experience persistent or worsening symptoms, you could pursue consultation with a clinician in your area or with our rehab team.

3

Hi Austin, thank you very much for your response. Surprisingly, shoulder pain has almost disappeared after another couple of days of rest and ibuprofen, but the feeling of instability in my right shoulder remains, along with a bunch of clicking and popping noises. In a few days I’ll go back to training, and if the problems persist, I’ll talk to your rehab team. Thank you