Don't lie....
Many years ago now, I was on a school sports trip with a large group of lads.

Boys being boys, much hijinx ensued and to cut a long story short I ended up being picked up by someone twice my size, turned upside down and dropped on my shoulder.

Everyone has a laugh, I get up and dust myself off but wait.... something's clicking up there at he top of my arm....

To me, it felt like it was dislocated and thus I voiced my opinion. This was not a good plan, as someone grabbed my arm and pulled, thinking that it would put it back in place - in hindisight, I'd probably advise getting this done by:
a) someone who knows how to do it
and b) following an actual diagnosis of a dislocated shoulder.

Apparently I literally turned green. Cue a trip to A&E in an ambulance, where I described having tripped up. Doctors decide I hadn't described a fall capable of doing real damage and so after some very strong painkillers and a bit of arm manipulation, refused to x-ray due to the "radiation risks", so I end up with a box of ibuprofen and a slightly tarnished pride.

A week later my entire shoulder was yellow/purple so I went to the local GP with who told me that my two shoulders probably couldn't look any more different and I should get an x-ray asap. It turned out I'd snapped my colar bone in half and due to a week of not moving it, the two bones had started to set in an odd way.

I broke the same collar bone again a few years later at a foam party and got some pretty raised eyebrows from the radiologists when when they saw how the previous break had healed!

So I guess the moral of the story is, the doctors probably need to know what's actually happened to you to know what's wrong.
Apologies for length etc.
( Jsysco is mostly a lurker, mostly, Fri 12 Mar 2010, 10:14, 1 reply)

And just in case any readers have mis-set bones,
and are thinking of having them re-broken and re-set -
don't bother the NHS. They won't do any of them. Not even the obvious, visible bent bones. They'll be very polite and concerned at first, ask if you have any arthritis "yet" (always a comforting question to be asked), and if you insist they will imply it's your own fault for breaking the bones in the first place and not getting them set properly then.
Such is my experience of the caring side of NHS.
( Larry Vest One day at a time, sweet Jesus, FFS., Fri 12 Mar 2010, 10:47, closed)