Shooting Pains in Shoulder Blades

Most likely a muscle thing.

I have had a bad cough from sinus infection that is lingering and I have a freaking broken rib from coughing. It hurts BADLY. There is nothing they can do for it.

I am supposed to be substitute PE coach tomorrow and I can hardly move!! What a lovely day it will be!

As we age our bodies get really weird!!! I am not overweight or out of shape, it was just bad coughing spells. Also, during my illness, it I had pain in between my shoulder blades as well.

I hope you heal quickly!

I 2nd Epsom salt baths... It works wonders!!

I've had it. Just reaching into the washer for clothes. Can't move and seems to hurt to take a deep breathe. I try to do a cross arm stretch to try to ease the muscle. There are muscles right in the blade area and they can get really tight.

I've even gotten a slight pain from looking behind to reverse in the car.

I have pulled those muscles in between the shoulder blades several times and as I recall, they take awhile to heal... I had to have several massages before the pain resolved itself... so if in fact it's a pulled muscle, then try massage, a hot epsom salt bath and ibuprofen.. along with either tiger balm or sombra cream << that stuff is really good.. but hard to find, they do have it amazon though...
good luck

It's most likely muscle strain - shoulders can be tricky sometimes.
Not to alarm you but when my Mom had her heart attack - she felt it as shoulder pain.
But if it's easing off already it's most likely a muscle thing.
Try a heating pad to see if the heat can get the muscle to relax a bit.

That can happen with all kinds of "odd" movements, that is, moving in an unfamiliar way. Some people get it just from bending over the sink to spit out their toothpaste. So if you were bending over and scrubbing a toilet or leaning into the tub to do the tile, that's often enough to strain something. Aside from what you were doing when it occurred, what had you been doing in the days before it? For example, shoveling snow and raking it off roofs (which we've been doing plenty of) can use muscles in an odd way.

If you've been coughing, absolutely that can stress out the muscles in that area, and then some ordinary favoring of what is sore can cause you to strain something else. It doesn't take much to inflame the disks in the back and have them irritate all the nerves that emanate from there, referring pain to other areas (shoulder blades, lower back and down the leg, etc.)

The best thing when it first happens is ice, not heat. The back and shoulders are tough to get to because you use them just to position yourself against an ice pack, but it's the best thing. Don't use heat - as soothing as it may seem - because it increase inflammation.