lidocaine/saline injections for rotator cuff

I'm fairly new to this site, but have ridden off and on for a couple of years. My husband is a pretty avid rider - mtb and road. Last fall I started to ride seriously, got a new bike that fit well, etc. I'd been riding a couple of months when I pulled something in my shoulder - turns out it was my rotator cuff - doing a transverse plank. Went to the dr who gave me motrin and told me not to do any activities that made it hurt :rolleyes: My chiro was a lot more help, did active release, pressure points, kinesiotape, etc. In Feb it started to feel better, so I started back to my normal workout sans bike. In Mar hubby and I went for a ride and we were only a few minutes into it when my shoulder started to bother me again.

This time I went to a osteopath in lieu of an md the end of March (we're military and sometimes appts for sports injuries take a couple of weeks to get). He referred me to a sports med dr and ordered an MRI - the wait at the military hospital for an MRI is 4 weeks:rolleyes: So, I'm counting the days to having that done. In the meantime, I was able to get into sports med. Last week the dr did a lidocaine injection into the trigger points of my rotator cuff. He said the theory is that when you strain a muscle, it resets its tone - usually tighter as a protection mechanism - and injecting either lidocaine or saline directly into the muscle forces the muscle to stretch and reset the tone to what it was pre-injury. If it works I should get relief after maybe one set of injections, but it may take several.

I know this got a little longer than I wanted it, but I was wondering if anyone had tried this before; and, if so, how many times did you have the injection? The lidocaine was supposed to numb the muscles, but the injection site was so tender that I didn't really notice any numbing! I go back tomorrow for another set of injections and am wondering if it is worth it.

I know there are a lot of threads on here about shoulder problems - glad to know it is not just me:)

Kristen