My shoulder doesn't hurt much now. It was hurting like a bitch earlier, but I put a hot waterbottle against it and it settled down. My arm still feels cold and generally not right though.
I did not understand the "Iraqi" bit, but what did you do to your shoulder?
Iraqis hurt a lot, what with always being blown up and torture-murdered and shot and things. About 4 days ago, a muscle connected to my shoulder blade started spasming really badly and kept on going until it felt like it had damaged itself quite a bit. It's been healing since then, and I've regained a full range of movement, but there's a weird cold, aching feeling right down the core of my arm, and the muscle connected to my shoulder blade still hurts enough to be quite distracting.
That sounds a lot like my "pinched nerve thing" affecting my left shoulder sometimes. Unless you had severely torn a muscle, like from doing some extreme sport thing, a muscle strain would probably have healed by four days time, at your age. The cold feeling worries me, too. I always have a residual dull, cold ache, in my entire arm after a bout with the nerve. It is impossible to localise the after-ache, but it is in the core of my arm as you say.
Mine is caused from a ruptured disc (I actually have four disfigured discs in my spine from old injuries) Maybe you should have it looked at more carefully by a doctor.
My doc told me that roughly half the population has some form of cartilage related difficulty in at least one inter-vertebral disc. It could range from a minor cleft that restricts movement and causes occasional swelling (the cause of some muscle spasms) and liquid retention in the area to a major rupture which could form masses of additional cartilaginous material between the vertebra, resulting in paralysis, at the worst..
Has it eve happened before?
I've gotten a pain in that exact spot on many occasions before, but it's never been this bad. It feels like it's beneath the shoulder blade, where the blade is closest to the spine.
It sounds more familiar with your every description.
The last time I had a flare-up, I was actually giving in to the pain and I caught sight of myself on video at work. I was standing, with a noticeable lean to accommodate the tightness.
I have muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatory and pain medication that I can take, if I need it, but honestly, I manage it fine with particular attention to stretching in that area when it starts. I do lots of stretching exercises, anyway.
I had many other things on my mind last time and I let it get pretty bad, before I took over. Usually, one of the dorsal vertebrae adjusts and the build-up of pain and tightness begins to reverse. It takes about a week to ten days for one of my spells to be done and gone.
Still, it wouldn't hurt to have your doctor look at it the next time it happens. I have also known ultrasonic wand treatments to improve things, when it got to be really bad, once.