tebop,

Does the pain feel like it is inside the shoulder (between the ball and the socket), or do you have a deep (near the bone) pain on the front of the joint at about the mid point?

The deep "inside the socket" pain is typically torn cartilage (though not always, can also be an indication of other things, even including a fracture in the joint). This pain will get better if the cartilage moves back into place, but can cause continuing problems if it gets caught often and moves out of place and/or tears more.

The pain near the bone on the front center of the joint indicates a strained or partially torn ligament. This one is very easy to test, press hard with the thumb (using your good arm) and rub/move in a small circle near the front center of the joint where the ball and socket meet. If the pain about drops you to your knees, you have ligament damage, which indicates you probably had a minor dislocation given your description of the event (this ligament will always hurt with a dislocation).

These are only some general guidelines to help you begin to understand what might be wrong. I'm not a doctor, I've just had several shoulder injuries over the years (including ongoing "routine" dislocations), and this is what I've learned from the injuries.

With either of the two situations above, anti-inflamatory medicine (advil, alieve, asprin, etc.) will help. Unfortunately, torn cartilage doesn't tend to heal (though it did in my left knee once - looong story), and often requires orthoscopic surgury to fix. Dislocations simply take some time to heal, but after the first time, it's esier to repeat the injury.

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